/ˈbʌtəflaɪz ɪn jɔː ˈstʌmək/
English idiom, everyday. To feel a nervous, fluttering excitement, before something important or around someone you’re attracted to.
Draft Not yet checked by a native English speaker.
How do people use Butterflies in your stomach
?
Everyday English, fine with anyone. The verb is “have”, “get” or “feel” (“I’ve got butterflies in my stomach”, “Paul felt butterflies in his stomach”), and people often drop the stomach and just say “I’ve got butterflies”. It covers any jittery excitement: a first date, an exam, a job interview, going on stage.
Also said have butterflies in one’s stomach, get butterflies, have butterflies
Butterflies in your stomach
in real sentences
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I have butterflies in my stomach.
Tatoeba, sentence by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
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I had butterflies in my stomach.
Tatoeba, sentence by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Butterflies in your stomach
come from?
English Wikipedia traces it to Florence Converse’s 1908 novel The House of Prayer, where a character feels “as if he had a butterfly in his stomach”. The single butterfly has since become a whole swarm. The image needs no theory: the light fluttering feeling of nerves really is like something with wings moving around inside you.
Mistakes learners make with Butterflies in your stomach
Keeping it for romance only. English Wiktionary defines it as the fluttery feeling of nerves or excitement in general, so it fits a driving test or a job interview just as well as a first date. Today it’s always plural: “a butterfly in my stomach” sounds odd.
Other English idioms like Butterflies in your stomach
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