Many people tend to ___ their stomach when they take photos.

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hi,

Many people tend to _ _ _ their stomach when they take photos. So that they look better.

What’s the suitable word to fill in the blank?
Cramp? contract? Hold back?

Thanks.

2

How about “to suck in” ?
And they look slimmer after that (and consequently better)

3

Hi OTS,

Nice idea but I would have thought anatomically impossible when you think about it. I would suggest ‘pull in’.

Alan

4

Thank you all.

5

Hi Alan,

Come to think of it, it IS impossible to suck it in.

Thanks for your suggestion!

6

It may be anatomically impossible, but that hasn’t stopped generations of drill sergeants from ordering their recruits to “suck in that gut, stick out that chest!”

7

Pulling In the Abdominals
Images like “pull your belly button to your spine”, or worse, “pretend you got punched in the stomach” are often used to encourage a deep pull-in of the abs.
What is it to “pull in the abs” effectively, and how is it different from the destabilizing “suck in the middle” approach …
pilates.about.com/od/gettingstar … lInAbs.htm
Regards.

8

You know drill sergeants - they have a propensity to ask the impossible!

9

Yeah… I believe drill sergeants tend to exaggerate in speech to show their superiority against recruits.

10

Hi Dean,

Your suggestion sounded perfectly natural to me, whereas ‘pull in’ sounds less natural to my American ears in such a context.

Must be one of those AmE vs BE differences again…
[color=darkblue]__________________________________________________
[size=75]“I can suck melancholy out of a song as a weasel sucks eggs.” ~ William Shakespeare[/size]

11

I don’t believe so. ‘Suck in’ sounds perfectly natural to me too!

As it looks as if there is a two word phrase missing from the original,it would be my instinctive reaction to fill it with ‘suck in’ before I considered ‘pull in’ or ‘hold in’.

12

Possibly this is a difference between British English and Welsh English!

13

Perhaps it’s a difference between Oxford English and the rest of the country. I have English friends who would recognise the same expression. Through the magic of the internet I’ve checked with teachers from Grange-over-Sands, Woverhampton, Shepperton, Milton Keynes and Cheadle.

14

I don’t think that they’d use that expression in Oxford, m’dear.

15

Thank you for the confirmation.