MOTIVATION

‘이미 엎질러진 물이야..’ 라는 표현은 현실적인 방안이지만, 문제를 겪고 있는 사람에게는 공감해주지 못할망정 참말로 도움이 안되는 표현입니다.

특히 여자친구나 아내가 어떤 일 때문에 속상해하고 있는데, 남자가 ‘이미 엎질러진 물에 울어봤자 소용없다’ 라고 하면 어떻게 될까요? 그날 전체가 엎어집니다.~~took me 4 years to learn this~~

‘엎질러진 물에 울어봤자 소용없다’ 라는 표현, 영어에도 있습니다. 그런데 물 대신 좀 더 미국스러운 액체를 써서 표현합니다.

Don’t cry over spilled milk!

DEFINITION

Fig. to be unhappy about what cannot be undone. (See also It's no use crying over spilled milk.) He is always crying over spilled milk. He cannot accept reality. It can't be helped. Don't cry over spilled milk. (freedictionary)

COMMENT

어떤 것에 대하여 울다의 cry over X 와 엎질러진 우유 spilled milk 로 나눠서 기억하시면 기억하기 쉽습니다.

FROM MOVIES

Apr 4, 2004 - I shan’t cry over spilled milk, although I’ve spent my lifetime perfecting the craft of whining over it. If there’s one silver lining to this whole mess, … (The mouthbreathers just Agnes of Godded all over Wonderfalls!)
Well, it’s no use cryin' over spilled milk. Speakin' of which, that’s me. I’m the cow. [Fly buzzing] Yeah, they’re real. Quit staring. I’m sort of between homes right … (Home On The Range )
-You’re right. Ambulance! Now! It’s all my fault. I should never have left her or let him down. Hey, that’s enough. Crying over spilled milk! It won’t bring her back. (Taxi 2 )
You can’t cry over spilled milk. Cry, and you cry alone. You can’t lose what you never had. Because you don’t know what you got until you lost it. So don’t lose … (Talk Radio )
Yeah, when you get to be my age, you can’t spend the time crying over spilled milk, you know. - Your age?- Yeah, the whole biological clock thing, it’s very real … (Charmed)

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FROM NEWS

Feb 27, 2012 - “With a rule like that, I guess it was worth crying over spilled milk.” It was an interesting example for Obama to highlight, because even though … (What It Takes to Kill a Regulation - Bloomberg)
Sep 8, 2016 - Just a few months ago, Jeremy Grantham was crying over spilled milk. Now he’s pouring himself another glass. Best known for catching the … (Grantham's Commodities Safety Dance - Bloomberg Gadfly)
Jan 22, 2004 - Crying over spilled milk is not just a waste of time; it also often colours people’s perceptions of the future. Some stockmarket investors trade far … (Freud, finance and folly | The Economist)
Nov 16, 1994 - Two men who broke out of the county jail in Benton, Arkansas, have reason to cry over spilled milk. They stole a milk truck but failed to secure … (American Topics - Short Takes - NYTimes.com)

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FROM TWITTER

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META & CONTEXT

Is it a slang? no.
Can I use it in a formal setting? no.

(data source: Davies, Mark. (2008-) The Corpus of Contemporary American English: 450 million words, 1990-present. Available online at http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/)