People are baffled upon discovering that there's more to the saying 'speak of the devil'

The English language has always been a complex enigma, even for native English speakers. From similar-sounding words to bizarre spellings with silent letters in between, one might find it hard to be an expert at it even if one speaks the language every day. One such aspect of the English language would be using popular, age-old sayings or proverbs in their short forms. For instance, when we say, "When life gives you lemons," it is naturally understood that the rest of that proverb would be, "Make lemonade." Grapie, a book sleuth who goes by @grapiedeltaco on TikTok, touched upon this aspect in a video and it sparked some interesting revelations. 

Grapie wanted to know what's the term for saying only the first half of a proverb because people know the rest of it. She gave an instance of the saying, "Birds of a feather," which doesn't have to be said fully for people to realize that the remaining part is "flock together." Responding to Grapie, etymology enthusiast @etymologynerd, who has a linguistics degree, revealed the term in the comments. Turns out, leaving such popular phrases halfway while speaking, because the complete meaning would be obvious is termed as "situational ellipsis." 

The comment section was filled with many situational ellipses that people often use in their daily conversations. "I didn’t know that 'when in Rome' had a second half until I was 14 and it absolutely blew my mind," said @hpepperstone. "I say 'squares and rectangles' with no context and usually people immediately get it," pointed out @lilealonso. "'It takes a village,' has always been my favorite," added @jessejfb. However, the complete version of one particular saying left many flabbergasted - "Speak of the devil."

A top comment by @gayestcuchulainfann read, "I feel like just 'Speak of the devil' is more common than the full phrase." @arii.lyon revealed the rest of this phrase, "Sometimes I forget the other half is 'And he appears,'" and people were flabbergasted upon discovering how eerie it was. "It's so forgotten. I’ve only heard people say the second part like five times," the person added. "Not me learning this right now after 10 years of learning English," said @itsmeverda. "I've been duped! Why is this my first time hearing about this!" chimed in @iiammdd. "I didn’t even know this phrase had another half," added @kimbo.06.

So, although we may think we know the English language well, there's always more to explore with it. Similarly, native English speakers often have their own versions of common foreign-language words' pronunciation but one Korean woman gave them a reality check. Yurie, who goes by @yurie.oh on TikTok, speaks English, Spanish and Japanese apart from her mother tongue quite fluently. Noticing how native English speakers refuse to acknowledge the right pronunciations even when it is laid out for them, she made a video with jaw-dropping revelations of actual pronunciations. Karaoke is pronounced, "ka ra o ke," and not "kyaraokee," guacamole is not "gwakamolee" but pronounced as, "gua ca mo le," and so on. Looks like there's more to learn in every language we think we know.

You can follow Grapie (@grapiedeltaco) on TikTok for more bookish content.