ProverbChallenge
American origin1915
American origin1915When life gives you lemons, make lemonade
Meaning: Make the best of a bad situation.
Origin: In 1915 the writer Elbert Hubbard praised the actor Marshall Pinckney Wilder, born with dwarfism, as a man who "picked up the lemons that Fate had sent him and started a lemonade stand." Dale Carnegie's How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (1948) made the advice famous: "If you have a lemon, make a lemonade."
Equivalents in French, Spanish, Japanese, and German
French: Il faut faire de nécessité vertu (literally: One must make virtue of necessity)
Spanish: Al mal tiempo, buena cara (literally: To bad weather, good face)
Japanese: 災い転じて福となす (Wazawai tenjite fuku to nasu) (literally: Turn disaster into fortune)
German: Aus der Not eine Tugend machen (literally: To make a virtue out of necessity)
Explore another collection: Tongue Twisters
Tricky phrases to practice out loud, from languages around the world.
- 隣の客はよく柿食う客だ (Tonari no kyaku wa yoku kaki kuu kyaku da) A tricky spiral on ka/ki/ku that accelerates as you try to keep the syllables distinct.
- Como poco coco como, poco coco compro. A bouncy 'co' drill — the word order and meaning flip with each repetition.
- Pepe Pecas pica papas con un pico. ¿Con qué pico pica papas Pepe Pecas? A bouncy 'p' cluster that accelerates with the question at the end.
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