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Poll: Which do you think is right?


Which is correct?
Eat cake and have it
11.9% (7)
11.9% (7)
Have cake and eat it
88.1% (52)
88.1% (52)
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Gone Gonzo
Posts: 1821
Joined: 4 Oct 2007

There is a oldish saying:

"To eat your cake and have it" - where in you are getting the best of both worlds, your are eating your delicious cake and have it again to eat later, which is impossible.

However more and more I hear:

"To have your cake and eat it" - which is just common sense, I mean, if I have cake I'm going to eat it

So which do you all think is right as a saying?

Press Junketeer
Posts: 499
Joined: 28 Aug 2008

Have cake and eat it, because I really like cake.

Pulitzer Laureate
Posts: 767
Joined: 4 Sep 2008

I believe in the second statement. Far as I know, it is not possible to eat your cake and have it, barring that you own the cake by eating it, and nobody else from that moment can have it but you.

Gone Gonzo
Posts: 1821
Joined: 4 Oct 2007

Chickenlittle:
I believe in the second statement. Far as I know, it is not possible to eat your cake and have it, barring that you own the cake by eating it, and nobody else from that moment can have it but you.

But that's the point of the statement, as I believe, it's supposed to be a "you can't have the best of both worlds" statement

Pulitzer Laureate
Posts: 733
Joined: 23 Jan 2008

If I had to choose from this list, #2 is the only one that makes sense to me.

But, my motto is, I'll have my cake and eat your's, too.

Muckraker
Posts: 344
Joined: 8 Feb 2008

The point of the saying is that the person your describing is trying to do more than is possible, hence the first statement is the one that should be used.

Then again, now i think about it either makes sense in that context, just because the have comes first doesn't mean anything. Both statements say that you can make one cake into two and do both with it, which is impossible, but thats the point.

Beat Writer
Posts: 194
Joined: 11 Apr 2008

Technically you still have the cake if you eat it.

So both could be true.

Gone Gonzo
Posts: 2105
Joined: 4 Jun 2008

Granted, the first does make more sense in terms of the meaning of the phrase but the first one sounds grammatically incorrect.

Press Junketeer
Posts: 489
Joined: 9 Dec 2008

Have cake and eat it too. That's the way I've always known it.

Although I have to admit, the other way DOES seem to better convey the point.

Curses!

Gone Gonzo
Posts: 1202
Joined: 26 Dec 2008

Say Anything:
If I had to choose from this list, #2 is the only one that makes sense to me.

But, my motto is, I'll have my cake and eat your's, too.

And that's a motto I can get behind as long as it isn't my cake.

Me personally i have heard each statement used and and verified as truth. So i have to take the both as long as you know what you are saying when you use it

Gone Gonzo
Posts: 1071
Joined: 26 Jan 2008

"To eat youre cake and have it" because surely there is nothing stopping me from eatting my cake when i have it.

Copy Clerk
Posts: 112
Joined: 9 Aug 2008

I have never heard the first saying before. Was the second saying a mistranslation of the first saying?

Personally the First saying makes more sense to me. The second one is common sense and I don't think you would ever have to tell anyone that. (Unless the collected cakes or something)

In any case it dosen't change the fact that the cake is a lie.

Gone Gonzo
Posts: 1390
Joined: 3 Apr 2008

Mr. Squirrel:
Have cake and eat it, because I really like cake.

chocolate cake

Press Junketeer
Posts: 499
Joined: 28 Aug 2008

ffxfriek:

Mr. Squirrel:
Have cake and eat it, because I really like cake.

chocolate cake

Especially chocalate cake indeed.

Gone Gonzo
Posts: 1821
Joined: 4 Oct 2007

Now, in my usual "you're arguing with me and I'm right fashion"

"You can't have your cake and eat it to!
The phrase's earliest recording is from 1546 as "wolde you bothe eate your cake, and have your cake?" (John Heywood's 'A dialogue Conteinyng the Nomber in Effect of All the Prouerbes in the Englishe Tongue')[1] alluding to the impossibility of eating your cake and still having it afterwards; the modern version (where the clauses are reversed) is a corruption which was first signaled in 1812."

http://edubuzz.org/blogs/donsblog/2008/10/05/you-cant-have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too/

So I have to admit my original statements aren't quite correct either

Gone Gonzo
Posts: 2325
Joined: 14 Sep 2008

Aren't both options true?

Muckraker
Posts: 344
Joined: 8 Feb 2008

"You can't have your cake and eat it to! <--have first, eat second

"wolde you bothe eate your cake, and have your cake?" <--eat first, have second, thats the crucial difference we are discussing here.

the "too" at the end is crucial as well because if you have it there either arrangement means trying to do both things to one cake.

Gone Gonzo
Posts: 1821
Joined: 4 Oct 2007

Vlane:
Aren't both options true?

Apparently so, although the second is a "corruption" of the original saying

However I'm not changing the poll options, I've made my bed and I'm not messing it up

Muckraker
Posts: 309
Joined: 17 Dec 2008

sms_117b:
There is a oldish saying:

"To eat your cake and have it" - where in you are getting the best of both worlds, your are eating your delicious cake and have it again to eat later, which is impossible.

However more and more I hear:

"To have your cake and eat it" - which is just common sense, I mean, if I have cake I'm going to eat it

So which do you all think is right as a saying?

Are you sure that the first isnt just a literal translation?

Gone Gonzo
Posts: 1821
Joined: 4 Oct 2007

Cogito:

Are you sure that the first isnt just a literal translation?

upon further reading the man that supposedly came up with the saying was English, no translation required.

If only I put this much effort into revision for upcoming University exams....

Gone Gonzo
Posts: 1067
Joined: 23 Dec 2008

I'm not sure I want to eat my cake, it's just SO delicious and moist.

Copy Clerk
Posts: 84
Joined: 28 Sep 2008

Mr. Squirrel:
Have cake and eat it, because I really like cake.

:) Same here.

Gone Gonzo
Posts: 2538
Joined: 29 Mar 2008

It's very simple, you either have cake, or you've eaten the cake you had.

Gone Gonzo
Posts: 1129
Joined: 9 Oct 2008

since the former is dimensionally fucked up, i'll choose the latter and hope its coconut flavored

Gone Gonzo
Posts: 1905
Joined: 9 Sep 2008

Why do we need a phrase that means "The best of both worlds"? It's already a phrase. How about we just scrap all cake phrases and stick to world ones. If you have trouble with world phrases, then get out of my language, you insect.

Beat Writer
Posts: 183
Joined: 19 Nov 2008

if i eat cake and then have it... does that mean i get two cakes!? Screw the other option! gimme your fucking cake and cookies!

and then more cake!

Pulitzer Laureate
Posts: 796
Joined: 15 Dec 2008

The cake is a lie.

(I can't believe no one has said this yet.)

Gone Gonzo
Posts: 1053
Joined: 29 Aug 2008

Ponder this.

"I would like to have my cake, then place it into a fridge, and take small slices every day, once it is gone, I buy a new cake. And repeat. Until I die, or run out of money, or my cake store goes bankrupt. If the latter is the case, I go to a pie store."

How would you guys philosophically break down this metaphor?

Gone Gonzo
Posts: 1553
Joined: 13 Oct 2008

Have your cake and eat it. You can't eat cake that you don't have.

Gone Gonzo
Posts: 1418
Joined: 12 Sep 2008

The saying came from Marie Antoinette when she was told the People of France were starving and unable to make bread so she made the comment they should eat cake instead. The bitch latter got what she deserved when she met the guillotine.

Gone Gonzo
Posts: 1284
Joined: 29 Jun 2008

The cake is a lie...(if you say otherwise may a dog violently rip out your throat after a vishiously short quick time event...)

 
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