Pregnancy Euphemisms | Learn English Idioms

Hi there. I'm Sarah.

And I'm going to explain some euphemisms to you for the word 'pregnant'.

So maybe if your friend or somebody is pregnant, people will ask and you'll say, "Oh, she's pregnant".

But the word 'pregnant' might be a little bit too direct.

So we have some euphemisms that we can use to  say 'pregnant' without saying 'pregnant'.

So, let's look at the board.

So, right up front, "She's pregnant."

That is how you would say it. And everybody knows what it means.

"She's pregnant."

Down here are euphemisms.

So the most common one,

"She's expecting."

So she's expecting a baby in the future.

You can just say, "Oh, she's expecting," and everybody knows  what that means.

Very, very common.

Number two.

"She's preggers."

So preggers is like a shortened form of pregnant.

It's less serious. It's kind of funny.

"She's preggers."

"Eating for two."

"Eating for two," is she's got a lot of food on her plate.

She's eating for her and she's eating for the baby.

"She's eating for two."

These two are idioms.

So "Knocked up."

"Knocked up," is a little bit negative.

In the past, it was used for somebody who's unmarried.

So, "She's knocked up."

The baby wasn't expected. She's not married. It's a little bit of a surprise.

So that wasn't a good feeling with 'knocked up,' but now people say it all the time.

So, "She's knocked up." It's not negative anymore.

"She has a bun in the oven."

This one's kind of funny. So you need to imagine that the woman's body is an oven.

And inside there is a baby. The baby is the bread.

It's a little bun, just a little bun. And it's going to grow.

And babies grow, bread grows in the oven. So 'bun' is the baby 'in the oven', which is the 'stomach'.

So those are euphemisms for pregnancy. I hope they help you. I'll see you next time.