to mix apples and oranges
1
6.6
- idiom
- Informal
:
comparar peras con manzanas
- You are confusing apples and oranges.
- comparing apples and oranges
- mixing apples and oranges
Examples
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How about comparing apples and oranges?
Blog text (24) -
Comparing your life to another life is like comparing apples and oranges.
Blog text (10) -
Sorry, but this is an apples and oranges argument.
Blog text (24) -
But this is comparing apples and oranges.
Blog text (26) -
However, to be entirely fair, I feel you are mixing apples and oranges here.
Blog text (2) -
Comparing tax accounting and social studies is like comparing apples and oranges.
Academic text (2002) -
It's comparing apples and oranges and is a complete distraction from the thrust of this article.
Blog text (25) -
But no matter how many variables they account for, they're necessarily comparing apples and oranges.
Blog text (24) -
You can argue whether or not he exists, but to compare the universe to what God may or may not be is to compare apples and oranges.
Blog text (14) -
It's unfair to judge their performances; you're mixing apples and oranges.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The literal meanings of 'mix' + 'apples' + 'and' + 'oranges' (joining two clearly different fruits) give a strong clue that the phrase warns against combining unlike things, but the jump from literal mixing to the specific sense 'to compare things that are fundamentally different' is a metaphorical/figurative extension rather than a directly compositional meaning. Many learners can infer the general idea from the constituents, yet the precise pragmatic use (i.e. 'compare' rather than simply 'combine') is not fully predictable without exposure.
Etymology
The phrase mix apples and oranges comes from the simple picture of putting apples and oranges together, two fruits that look and taste very different. That's why it means 'to compare things that are very different and should not be compared directly'.