this is why we can't have nice things
- idiom
- Informal
:
por eso no podemos tener cosas bonitas
- He scratched the car again, and his sister groaned, 'This is why we can't have nice things.'
Examples
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After the kids spilled juice on the new sofa, Mom shook her head and said, this is why we can't have nice things.
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Every time someone breaks the office coffee maker, someone inevitably quips, this is why we can't have nice things.
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Don't break the vase again; this is why we can't have nice things!
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When you spill juice on the carpet, this is why we can't have nice things.
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Every time I try to improve my garden, the kids run through it; this is why we can't have nice things.
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When they broke the window during the game, I sighed and thought, 'This is why we can't have nice things.'
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After spending hours organizing the room, the dog knocked everything over, proving once again, this is why we can't have nice things.
Synonyms
A complaint that people keep ruining good things by being careless
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
this + be + why + we + can't + have + nice + thing
The literal components ('this is why' indicating cause + 'we can't have nice things' stating an inability to possess pleasant items) allow a learner to infer that someone’s action has prevented having nice things, so much of the basic message is compositionally recoverable. However, the phrase is conventionally used as a sarcastic, blaming remark with pragmatic nuance (short-hand censure) that is not fully predictable from the words alone. Because the meaning relies on conventionalized pragmatic/inferential use rather than pure compositional semantics, it is only partially transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
This is why we can't have nice things comes from a common scene: an owner points at a broken vase or a stained sofa after someone has ruined it and says the line in anger. That's why people use it today to show 'annoyance' that careless actions have spoiled their nice things.