Can you put two and two together and make five?

Today’s English
August 19th, 2017

The word draw is a frequently used one in English.  You can draw a picture, draw somebody’s attention, or finish a Game in draw (without winning on either side). Here are few other expressions connected with draw and they may draw your attention to spoken English.

In English, to draw a line doesn’t simply mean to make a line. It’s used when you set a limit to something, and differentiate something. If “battle lines are drawn", it means that something has become very clear now.

1. You need not be a miser but at the same time, you should draw a line at spending your money. (=to set limit)
2. You may be friendly with him, but don’t forget to draw a line.(=to set limit)
3. Both of them behave in the same way. I couldn’t draw a line between them. (=I couldn’t differentiate).
4. The battle lines are drawn. It’s so apparent now which party allies with which one.

If you stop doing something, you can say that you have drawn curtains on it.  You can use the same when you keep something secret.
1. He decided to draw curtains on his long career.
2. You can’t draw any curtains on your love affair.  We already know about that.

Can you put two and two together and make five?  This English expression humorously carries the meaning that you have wrongly understood something.  If you are slow in understanding, people will say that you are slow on the draw.
1. He’s just my friend.  Why do you put two and two together and make five?
2. She’s slow on the draw. Please explain everything in detail.

When the wheel of fortune rotates, we don’t know which number it will stop on.  There are many occasions in life on which you have the least control.  This is what the phrase “the luck of the draw" means.

1. Winning this lottery is sheer luck of the draw.  There’s nothing in our hand.
2. How did he score this much? It’s just luck of the draw.

“Most of us have the good or bad fortune of seeing our lives fall apart so slowly we barely notice.”
- Carlos Ruiz Zafón, “The Shadow of the Wind”