you can't be in two places at once
Meaning: One person cannot do two things in different places at the same time.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “I'd love to come to both parties, but I can't be in two places at once.”
Category: Daily Life
Origin: A self-evident truth used as a saying since at least the 16th century.
Equivalents in other languages
- French: Ne pas pouvoir être au four et au moulin — literally: Not to be able to be at the oven and the mill
More idioms — Daily Life
- play to the gallery — To behave in a way meant to win popular approval.
- there's no accounting for taste — People's preferences cannot be explained.
- get one's hooks into — To get a firm hold or control over something or someone.
- don't judge a book by its cover — Don't form an opinion based only on appearance.
- forewarned is forearmed — Knowing about something in advance lets you prepare.
- behind closed doors — In private or in secret.
More English idioms
- a pie-crust promise — A promise that is easily broken.
- drag someone's name through the mud — To damage someone's reputation publicly.
- as old as the hills — Extremely old.
- a low blow — An unfair or cruel attack.
- it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye — Rough play may seem harmless but can end in injury.
- the judgment of Solomon — A wise decision that cleverly settles a difficult dispute.
From our tongue twisters
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- Red lorry, yellow lorry. — The 'l/r' alternation drill — deceptively short, yet almost impossible to say fast withou…
- How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? — A 'w/ch/ck' drill that accelerates comically — and nobody really knows the answer.