[General] Two sentences about pregnancy

[Silverobama]

Hi.

Last Monday I went to an English club and I was told that I could use these two sentences to mean a woman who has a baby.

1) She is in a very interesting condition.
2) She is in a family way.

I've never heard of each. I wonder if they're natural to mean "She's pregnant".

 

[probus]

I agree with Piscean. It's "in the family way." I've never heard it with the indefinite article. And both expressions mean the woman is pregnant.

 

[emsr2d2]

Hi.

Last Monday I went to an English club and I was told that I could use these two sentences to mean a woman [STRIKE]who[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]has[/STRIKE] is having/expecting a baby.

1) She is in a very interesting condition.
2) She is in [STRIKE]a[/STRIKE] the family way.

I've never heard of [STRIKE]each[/STRIKE] either. I wonder if they're natural to mean "She's pregnant".

I've never heard the first. The second is, with the correct article, OK but it's not heard much. Here's a few more for you, though:

- She's in the club.
- She's up the duff.
- She's got a bun in the oven.

 

[GoesStation]

- She's in the club.
- She's up the duff.
- She's got a bun in the oven.

The latter is fairly common in American English. I've never heard the first two here. "In the family way" was an innocuous euphemism for "pregnant" in the days when a now-incomprehensible delicacy made an explicit statement impossible.

 

[probus]

I've never heard the first.

That's because you are too young.;-)

 

[Rover_KE]

Silver, another old-fashioned term you might encounter in the works of Jane Austen, say, is 'with child'.

Additional more modern expressions are expecting, eating for two and knocked up.

(not an obstetrician)

 

[probus]

My obstetrician daughter hates that "eating for two" expression, which is popular among her more obese patients. She tells them "Yes, you are eating for two but the other one is the size of a tennis ball. ":-D