I’m all ears

How do you say this idiom in other languages?

Kieran Ball
The Happy Linguist

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The expression, “I’m all ears” is used when you want to show somebody that you’re listening and ready for them to tell you something. Here’s how you say this idiom in French, Spanish, German, Italian and Portuguese:

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Photo by kyle smith on Unsplash

French

“Je suis tout ouïe”

In French, the word “ouïe” means “hearing” or it can also mean “gill”. So, “tout ouïe” means “all hearing”.

A less idiomatic way of saying this would be, “J’écoute attentivement”, which literally means “I’m listening attentively”.

Spanish

“Soy todo oídos”

In Spanish, this phrase is translated word for word to mean “I am all ears”.

There are actually two words for “ear” in Spanish. You have “oído”, which means the “inner ear”, and then there’s “oreja”, which is the outer ear.

You can say: me duele el oído

And this means “I have earache” as in you have an ache in your inner ear.

However, if you say: me duele la oreja

This phrase means that your ear is hurting on the outside.

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Kieran Ball
The Happy Linguist

Teacher and creator of 3 Minute Languages — a series of books and online courses that help you to learn a foreign language quickly and easily www.3minute.club