Englishif ifs and buts were candy and nuts
Meaning: A retort to someone dwelling on what might have been: wishing and hypothesizing change nothing.
Example: “Sure, we'd have won if the referee had seen the foul — but if ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas.”
Other ways to say this
French: Si ma tante en avait, ce serait mon oncle Literally: If my aunt had some, she'd be my uncle- English: if my aunt had balls, she'd be my uncle
Origin: The full form runs "if ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas." It belongs to an old family of English rhymes mocking "if": the much older "if ifs and ands were pots and pans, there'd be no work for tinkers' hands" makes the same point with a tinker's wares. The candy-and-nuts version is American and is often credited to the football player and broadcaster Don Meredith, who popularized it on Monday Night Football in the 1970s, though he is not known to have coined it.
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