to say you swear
- idiom
- Informal
:
prometer
- He looked at me and said, 'Just say you swear that you're telling the truth.'
Examples
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Please say you swear you will help me!
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If you want me to trust you, say you swear you'll be careful.
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Before I tell you, say you swear you won't tell anyone else.
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Do you really say you swear that you will keep this secret?
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Before I tell you, say you swear you won't tell anyone else.
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If you want me to trust you, say you swear you'll be careful.
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Please say you swear you will help me!
Synonyms
∞
1.0
To say you will do something for sure
∞
4.6
To make a serious promise, often in court
209
3.5
To make a serious promise to do or not do something
166
4.1
To promise seriously or give something as a guarantee
How Serious
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'say' (state verbally) + 'you' (the addressee) + 'swear' (make a solemn promise) yields a request that the addressee verbally promise or affirm sincerity. This speech-act construction (verb of saying + clause expressing an oath) is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would readily infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
The phrase say you swear comes from the simple idea of asking someone to say the word swear, like when people put a hand on a book and promise to tell the truth. So it now means 'ask someone to make a serious promise' or 'check they are telling the truth'.