Anyone ever tell you snitches get stitches

[Tae-Bbong-E]

I have seen this picture.
But I am not sure what the second sentence in it means. Plus, Would you say this sentence is grammatically correct?

Anyone ever tell you snitches get stitches

 

[jutfrank]

It's very casual and informal phrasing. The full, standard grammatical form is this:

Did anyone ever tell you that snitches get stitches?

It means this:

Snitches = People who tell on others
get stitches = get physically attacked

The idea is that it is dishonourable to tell on others, and so those who do it deserve punishment. It is meant as a veiled threat.

Note: The use of past simple gives it an American flavour. A British English speaker is more likely to use present perfect.

 

[Skrej]

The idea being that the snitch gets hurt badly enough in said attack to require stitches, although 'stitches' is also being used somewhat figuratively here as a synonym for 'requiring medical attention'.

Another version is: 'snitches end up in ditches" - i.e. the retaliation results in a murdered corpse dumped alongside the road.

Here's a funny video of Paul Bettany doing a mashup of the two phrases. There's some debate over which version is "correct".

 

[Yankee]

"Stitches" is a medical term that refers to a medical procedure that is used to close a wound.

 

[emsr2d2]

"Stitches" is a medical term that refers to a medical procedure that is used to close a wound.

That's true but I agree with Skrej that the injury that might be inflicted on the snitch does not have to result in stitches. It could be just about any relatively serious injury.

 

[jutfrank]

There seems to be another expression with a similar meaning: Grasses get slashes

Where I come from, it doesn't come close to rhyming!

 

[emsr2d2]

The opening syllable can rhyme in certain accents within BrE, but I would never say that -sses rhymes properly with -shes.

 

[jutfrank]

Since it's a very a Cockney word (originally, at least) ...:

grass = grasshopper = shopper (A 'shopper' is someone who 'shops someone in'.)

... I find it hard to say it in anything other than a London accent, in which it doesn't rhyme. True Cockneys know how to rhyme properly—they might call you a 'duck's arse'.

 

[GoesStation]

There seems to be another expression with a similar meaning: Grasses get slashes

Where I come from, it doesn't come close to rhyming!

It doesn't work in American English anyway. Those of us unfamiliar with Rumpole of the Bailey and Frost won't have a clue what "grasses" are.