onaka to senaka ga kuttsuku lit. ‘your stomach and your back stick together’
Japanese idiom, casual. To be extremely hungry.
Draft Not yet checked by a native Japanese speaker.
How do people use お腹と背中がくっつく
?
Casual spoken Japanese, the kind of thing you say when you walk in the door after skipping lunch. It almost always comes softened with そう (looks like it’s about to happen) and often with くらい or ほど plus 腹ぺこ or お腹が空いた: “お腹と背中がくっつきそう” is the usual form. Kids say it and so do adults, though you wouldn’t use it in a meeting.
Also said 腹と背中がくっつく, お腹と背中がくっつきそう
お腹と背中がくっつく
in real sentences
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お腹と背中がくっつきそうなくらい腹ぺこだよ。
Onaka to senaka ga kuttsukisō na kurai harapeko da yo.
I’m so hungry that I could eat a horse.
Tatoeba, sentence by bunbuku, translation by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does お腹と背中がくっつく
come from?
None of the big dictionaries (Daijisen and the Nihon Kokugo Daijiten on Kotobank, English and Japanese Wiktionary) list it as a headword, so there’s no recorded first use. The picture explains itself: an empty belly sinks in until it seems to touch your spine. Most Japanese speakers know it from the children’s song おなかのへるうた (the getting-hungry song) by Hisao Sakata and Megumi Ōnaka, first printed in 1960 and broadcast on NHK’s Minna no Uta in 1962, though the phrase may well be older.
Mistakes learners make with お腹と背中がくっつく
Saying the plain past “お腹と背中がくっついた” as if it had really happened. The picture is an exaggeration of something that’s about to happen, so speakers nearly always add そう: “くっつきそう”.
Other Japanese idioms like お腹と背中がくっつく
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