Why did you say Yi when you confessed?

It is an idiom to confuse the real with the fake. The word snake should actually be pronounced as Y, not sh. Why did you say Yi when you confessed? The reason for this is the following：

First, regarding the pronunciation of snakes, some people may misunderstand that it is often pronounced as shé in spoken language, so it should also be pronounced as shé in formal idioms. However, this statement is incorrect. In idioms, snake is a proper noun, which refers to reptiles, not the ordinary verb she.

Second, the whole story can be traced back to Emperor Zhuangzi, in which there is a story about a man named nothing who used different images to test a fortune teller named Ji Xian. The pot incarnates into four different images, including headless image, footless image, lifeless image and boneless image. In these images, the snake is a very vivid body element.

3. From the historical point of view, the pronunciation of snakes has changed from ancient Chinese to modern Chinese. In ancient Chinese, snake was pronounced as ráo, but in Middle Chinese, it was divided into two pronunciations: shé and yí. In modern Chinese, y has gradually become the mainstream pronunciation, especially among intellectuals and upper class, while shé has gradually become popular in spoken English. Therefore, in the idiom "pretending to be a snake", snake should be pronounced as "Y".

Methods of learning idioms

Understand the background and meaning of idioms: Knowing the source and background of idioms as much as possible will help you better understand the meaning and usage of idioms. Many idioms come from historical stories, fables, myths and so on. This background knowledge can help you understand idioms more deeply.

2. Discriminate the pronunciation and writing of idioms: Many idioms have multiple pronunciations and writing methods, so we should pay attention to discrimination in the learning process. Avoid using wrong pronunciation and writing forms in oral and writing.

3. Learning the usage and context of idioms: Learning idioms requires not only knowing its meaning, but also knowing under what circumstances it is used. We can observe the use of idioms by reading literary works and watching TV plays.