don't get me started

[Erik 182]

Hi there,


Please explain me what "don't get me started (on sg)" means?

I heard it on the telly: The girl left her boyfriend for someone else but later on she wanted to get him back and the boy said: "Don't get me started on repairs"

Thank you

 

[maxiogee]

It means:- "I have strong opinions on (something) and I go on at length to people about it once I have started. You would be really well advised not to bring up that subject!"

 

[emma42]

Hi. I don't understand why the boy would say "Don't get me started on repairs". Why would he want to go on and on and on about "repairs"? What has this got to do with the girl wanting to get him back?
Erik, please explain!

 

[Erik 182]

Hi. I don't understand why the boy would say "Don't get me started on repairs". Why would he want to go on and on and on about "repairs"? What has this got to do with the girl wanting to get him back?
Erik, please explain!

Emma,
Trust me, i wouldn't have asked it, if i knew it.

 

[Erik 182]

Emma,
Trust me, i wouldn't have asked it, if i knew it.

I guess "don't get me started on repairs" can mean in this context that the girl flatters the boy that everything can be the same as it was before breaking up but the guy knows there is no chance to get this relationship right and says "don't get me started on repairs" = "don't flatter me that I could get it right and everything is going to be alright"

Please correct me if I am wrong, but nothing else comes to mind in connection with this.

Thank you so much

 

[emma42]

Thanks for trying to explain, Erik!

It doesn't sound right in British English, the "repairs" bit, I mean. I don't know about American English. He might say, in BE

"Don't get me started on fixing broken relationships", or something like that.

Anyway, you know what "Don't get me started means" at least!

Emma

 

[ChiMike]

Thanks for trying to explain, Erik!

It doesn't sound right in British English, the "repairs" bit, I mean. I don't know about American English. He might say, in BE

"Don't get me started on fixing broken relationships", or something like that.

Anyway, you know what "Don't get me started means" at least!

Emma

I suppose it's possible here (almost anything is), but we would usually say: "on patching things up" (which means, of course, literally, "on small repairs") or "on making up."

However, what he may have meant may, in fact, be literal: Well, things seem to be going really well between us again, but don't think you can get me started on repairs around the apartment (or the house). We haven't reached the point where I am willing to do whatever you ask." So: "Don't (try to) get me started on repairs quite yet!"

Only the full context of the arguments they had before breaking up would allow one to decide.

 

[emma42]

Erik, did you perhaps mishear "repairs"? Could it have been a name which sounded like "repairs"? Could it have been the name of the man for whom the woman originally left the boyfriend?

Don't get me started on Rip Ayres?

I know, I know, I am scraping the bottom of the barrel, but this is driving me mad, or as ChiMike might say, "nuts".

 

[Erik 182]

Erik, did you perhaps mishear "repairs"? Could it have been a name which sounded like "repairs"? Could it have been the name of the man for whom the woman originally left the boyfriend?

Don't get me started on Rip Ayres?

I know, I know, I am scraping the bottom of the barrel, but this is driving me mad, or as ChiMike might say, "nuts".

You're so nice, Emma
I might mishear that. Really don't know. We Hungarians have a phrase to these situations, it goes like this: "Nothing is sure thing but death".
More we are writing about it more it's clear to me.

Thanks a lot you guys

Regards,

 

[emma42]

You are welcome, Erik. We have a similar phrase, I can't remember exactly how it goes, but something like:

The only things we can be certain of are death and taxes(!)

This is going off topic, so perhaps we had better stop.