The doll can exhale fire.

[Silverobama]

I'm trying to describe the cartoon character in the picture. It's a logo of a local hotpot restaurant. I think the cartoon chatacters symbolises that the hot pot in the restaurant is spicy.



a) The doll can exhale fire.
b) The doll can breathe fire.


Are my italic versions natural?

 

[Tarheel]

I'm trying to describe the cartoon character in the picture. It's a logo of a local hotpot restaurant. I think the cartoon CHARACTER symbolises that the hot pot in the restaurant is spicy.

View attachment 5876

a) The doll can exhale fire.
b) The doll can breathe fire.


Are my italic versions natural?

They're OK. However, I'm pretty sure it's supposed to represent a customer, not a doll.

 

[Silverobama]

I was trying to describe the little boy in the picture but I don't know if there's a term for that. Also, will people really use "exhale fire" in spoken English?

 

[jutfrank]

Don't use 'can', since you're not talking about his ability. Don't use 'doll', since this is meant to be a human, not a doll, and use the present continuous, not the present simple.

Try again.

 

[Tarheel]

I was trying to describe the little boy in the picture but I don't know if there's a term for that. Also, will people really use "exhale fire" in spoken English?

Not normally, but that's not supposed to be real. (I like spicy food, but I don't know if that would work on me.)

 

[dunchee]

That cartoon reminds me of Red Boy, a well-known character in China "featured in the 16th century novel Journey to the West."(*1) This mythical yōkai(*2) can breathe fire. Perhaps that's why that restaurant uses him in their logo.


(*1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Boy
(*2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yōkai "... yōkai are not demons in the Western sense of the word," but in Japanese cartoons dubbed or subtitled in English, they are often called demons.

 

[Silverobama]

Don't use 'can', since you're not talking about his ability. Don't use 'doll', since this is meant to be a human, not a doll, and use the present continuous, not the present simple.

Try again.

The little boy is exhaling/breathing fire.

 

[Tarheel]

The food is spicy hot. Is he exhaling fire? Yes, but in a good way. It's like saying, "Do you like hot food? Well, we've got it!"

 

[jutfrank]

The little boy is exhaling/breathing fire.

Good. Use 'breathing' instead of 'exhaling'.

 

[Tarheel]

Good. Use 'breathing' instead of 'exhaling'.

I wouldn't. The idea is that after he eats the spicy hot food then fire comes out of his mouth. Of course, if that really happened nobody would want to eat that stuff.

 

[emsr2d2]

Bear in mind that "breathing fire" is pretty much a set phrase. I'm sure you've seen pictures of dragons with fire coming out of their mouths. They're described that way.

 

[jutfrank]

I suggested 'breathe fire' rather than 'exhale fire' mainly for the strength of the collocation—as emsr2d2 said, it's pretty much a set phrase. The way I understand the picture is that the little boy is doing it intentionally, so I think 'breathe fire' fits the meaning well too.