a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down

English

Alternative forms

• a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down

Etymology

From the Sherman Brothers' 1964 song "A Spoonful of Sugar".

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ə ˈspuːnfəl əv ˈʃʊɡə(ɹ) ˌhɛlps ðə ˈmɛdɪsɪn ɡoʊ ˌdaʊn/

Proverb

a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down

1. An otherwise unpleasant situation can be pleasant when a pleasant aspect is deliberately introduced.
   • 1999, Eli Yassif, The Hebrew Folktale: History, Genre, Meaning, Indiana University Press, →ISBN, page 372:

     One is known as the "sweetening parable," that is to say a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. Thus, when the aim is to preach to the people, to guide them along the "bitter," arduous path of upholding burdensome precepts and prohibitions, a tale can lighten the load, make the "medicine" easier "to swallow."

   • 2001, Maureen Reagan, First Father, First Daughter: A Memoir, Little, Brown, →ISBN, page 319:

     It put some fun into the tedious business of preparing for a presidential debate. A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, right?

   • 2004, John Hoover, How to Work for an Idiot: Survive & Thrive... Without Killing Your Boss, Career Press, →ISBN, page 11,

     If a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, a barrel of laughs can wash down the big pills you might need to swallow.

Related terms

• sugarcoat a bitter pill

Translations

An otherwise unpleasant situation can be pleasant.

• Danish: lidt sukker i skeen, hvis din medicin er sur
• Dutch: een klein schepje suiker wordt een bittere pil zoet
• Finnish: lääkkeen karvaan sä sokerilla makeaksi saat
• French: un morceau de sucre aide la médecine à couler
• German: ein Löffelchen voll Zucker bittre Medizin versüßt
• Icelandic: smá sykur hjálpar til við að halda lækninum frá
• Italian: un poco di zucchero la pillola va giù
• Spanish: un poquito de azúcar toda purga endulzará
• Vietnamese: trong cái rủi có cái may (literally “in misfortune, there is fortune”)