nobody knows you're a dog
- idiom
- Texting
:
nadie sabe que eres un perro
- In virtual worlds, nobody knows you're a dog, making it difficult to trust appearances.
Examples
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On discussion forums, nobody knows you're a dog, so it's easy to create a new identity.
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The phrase nobody knows you're a dog illustrates how people behave differently online than in person.
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In the online world, nobody knows you're a dog.
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When you post anonymously, nobody knows you're a dog.
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In online communities, nobody knows you're a dog, which allows users to express themselves without fear of judgment.
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When participating in anonymous chats, remember that nobody knows you're a dog, so you can be whoever you want.
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The saying nobody knows you're a dog captures the essence of online anonymity, where real identities are often hidden.
Surface Forms
Morphology
nobody + know + you're + a + dog
The sentence literally asserts that no one knows that you are a dog, so a learner who knows 'nobody', 'know', 'you', 'are', 'a' and 'dog' can derive that it expresses others' lack of knowledge about your true identity (here used to signal online anonymity). The meaning is compositional and follows straightforward syntax, so the intended message about anonymity is directly understandable with minimal cultural/contextual knowledge.
Etymology
Nobody knows you're a dog comes from a famous cartoon that showed a dog at a computer pretending to be a person. That clear image explains why the phrase means 'people can hide who they really are online'.
