地道英语表达｜I'd take a bullet for you

Today, we are going to learn an expression to express our love, loyalty, or devotion to another person. You could use this expression in love or romantic sense, but it could also be your love or loyalty to anybody that you have a strong connection with, or you care deeply for.

to take a bullet for someone

(爱的深沉以至于可以)为你挡子弹(为你而死)

‘to take a bullet for someone’ just means you love somebody so much, or you care for somebody so much that you would be willing to die for that person, or put yourself at great risk or in very a dangerous situation so that the person you love would not get injured.

So, the situation that is implied by this expression is that someone is pointing a gun at your friend or your loved one, and if you were there with them, you are saying that you would jump in front of the bullet. If your friend is going to be shot, you are saying with this expression that you would jump in front of the bullet and let the bullet hit you so that it would not hit them. You could almost think that you are the bodyguard for your loved one.

One part of this expression could be confusing is the verb ‘take’. Hereit doesn’t mean the take like ‘take a napkin’ or ‘take something home with you’.It doesn’t mean that you carry that thing away. It doesn’t mean you become the owner of that thing. In this situation, it means you let the bullet hit you. We have many expressions with this version of ‘take’, like ‘to take a hit’. If you ‘take a hit on stock market’, it means you maybe lost some money on stock market. If I am boxing and someone punches me on the face, I just took a hit literally.

Time to move on to some examples.

Example I

A: Hey, dude, I’ve got a big favour to ask.

B: Sure, what’s up?

A: Could I borrow your car for the weekend? I want to drive to Seattle to see my girlfriend.

B: You know, I love you and I’d take a bullet for you, but there is no way I’m letting you borrow my car, dude.

In this example, we see a friend tells his buddy that he loves him and he would take a bullet for him. But even though he loves him this much, he still won’t let him friend borrow his car. This example also shows that this expression means ‘I love you’, but not in the romantic way. 可以用于表达I love you, 但不是爱情。

Example II

A: What are you doing later? Wanna hang out?

B: I have to take Fido to the vet. He’s a litter sick.

A: Oh no, I hope he is OK. I love that dog. I’d take a bullet for him.

B: I’m sure he’s fine but better safe than sorry(安全第一，安全最重要). Right, man?

A: For sure, man.

The expression used in this example is to show how much the man cares about the dog, and he’d take a bullet for him. It’s important to mention that you can use expression to talk about pet, too.It’s not just limited to humans. But it must be something that is living. You can’t say ‘I’d take a bullet for the couch’, because the bullet cannot kill a couch since it’s not living.