Ma Nishtana - Idiomatic Usage

Idiomatic Usage

The phrase "ma nishtanah" is sometimes used colloquially by some Jewish families in an ironic sense, to express the opinion that some behavior or situation under discussion is not unusual. For example:

  • Child: "Dad's in a bad mood today."
  • Mother: "Ma nishtanah?"

Read more about this topic:  Ma Nishtana

Famous quotes containing the words idiomatic and/or usage:

    One of the necessary qualifications of an efficient business man in these days of industrial literature seems to be the ability to write, in clear and idiomatic English, a 1,000-word story on how efficient he is and how he got that way.... It seems that the entire business world were devoting its working hours to the creation of a school of introspective literature.
    Robert Benchley (1889–1945)

    Pythagoras, Locke, Socrates—but pages
    Might be filled up, as vainly as before,
    With the sad usage of all sorts of sages,
    Who in his life-time, each was deemed a bore!
    The loftiest minds outrun their tardy ages.
    George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)