English Dictionary

a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down

IPA（発音記号）

/ə ˈspuːnfəl əv ˈʃʊɡə(ɹ) ˌhɛlps ðə ˈmɛdɪsɪn ɡoʊ ˌdaʊn/

ことわざ

An otherwise unpleasant situation can be pleasant when a pleasant aspect is deliberately introduced.

日本語の意味

苦い薬も、楽しい工夫が加えられれば飲みやすくなる。つまり、どんなに不味い状況でも、少しの心遣いや良い工夫によって受け入れやすくなる。

To convince the reluctant volunteers to finish the tedious data entry, I told them that a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.

気の進まないボランティアに退屈なデータ入力を終わらせてもらうために、私は「一さじの砂糖が薬を飲みやすくする」と言って彼らを励まし、楽しい要素を加えた。

意味（1）

An otherwise unpleasant situation can be pleasant when a pleasant aspect is deliberately introduced.

One is known as the sweetening parable, that is to say a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. Thus, when the aim is to preach to the people, to guide them along the bitter, arduous path of upholding burdensome precepts and prohibitions, a tale can lighten the load, make the medicine easier to swallow.