Katie, you naughty girl! ;-)

If You Were a SailboatKatie Melua is quite the naughty girl! I doubt that many non-native English speakers catch the drift of some of her lyrics, but here’s a good example from the song ‘If You Were a Sailboat‘, from her album ‘Pictures‘:

If you were a piece of wood, I’d nail you to the floor

At first sight she seems to be referring to an affection to carpentry. However, when we look a little closer…

  • ‘If you were a piece of wood’. A piece of wood can be more than just a part of a tree. In American English slang, it refers to an erection
  • ‘I’d nail you (to the floor)’: With a hammer & nails you could affix the piece of wood to the floor. However. it’s also slang for engaging in sexual intercourse…

So if we look at the ‘translation’, it tells us that Katie would like to engage in sexual intercourse with the person she sings to, as long as he has an erection! Hmm, understandable why she uses metaphors here! 😉

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