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In Danish we got a good-humored phrase which goes like this:

Spis lige brød til

Literally speaking it means:

eat bread to or eat some bread

This of course makes no sense in English in Danish the phrase means:

Hey!, calm down, chill man, slow down and so forth

Do you have anything similar in English with the eat bread or eat some bread included?

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  • 5
    Have a cookie / biscuit?
    – Dan Bron
    Jun 10, 2016 at 23:53
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    To your original question: No such phrase is current in the United States as far as I know (I cannot answer for other English-speaking countries). However, we do have the colloquialism, "Hold your horses!" This may do what you want.
    – thb
    Jun 11, 2016 at 0:01
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    @thb I am familiar with the expression hold your horses, still it would be q.i. if there was something close to spis lige børd til
    – user172452
    Jun 11, 2016 at 0:02
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    But there is take a chill pill.
    – vickyace
    Jun 11, 2016 at 0:06
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    To someone who is getting over-animated in a discussion ... "Miss a beat" (sorry, no bread there).
    – Dan
    Jun 11, 2016 at 9:22

4 Answers 4

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It's not a common phrase among the English, to my particular knowledge, but there is a fairly well known passage in the Bible which might work for your purposes. It runs as follows:

Eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart.

The full passage can be found in Ecclesiastes 9:7.

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    No one ever says this when someone is stressed out. I'd probably think they were pretty oddball if someone said that to me.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Feb 4, 2019 at 10:03
  • Would it be possible for someone to downvote this?
    – EllieK
    Aug 24, 2022 at 14:41
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You could use take a chill pill.

See definition at ODO

A notional pill taken to make a person calm down or relax.

As a verb take a chil pill means calm down. See dictionary.com.

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  • This is rude to say to someone's face, however.
    – Laurel ♦
    Aug 24, 2022 at 12:13
  • @Laurel - I'm not sure that it's rude but it would imply that you thought someone was behaving a bit frantically. Whether or not that person would take offense would probably depend on the circumstance and the behavior. I'm sure that among certain groups it could even be said good-naturedly much like eat some bread.
    – EllieK
    Aug 24, 2022 at 12:43
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This might be regional in application, but consider the invitation, "Cuppa tea?".

  • In times of crisis, there is nothing like a nice soothing cup of tea. - dailymail

  • The findings reveal that even a single cup of tea can significantly reduce anxiety levels after suffering a stressful experience – and in some cases, make people calmer than they were before. - The Telegraph

It's a colloquialism, which Urban Dictionary helpfully expands to

Cup of Tea. One of the best drinks ever. Better than coffee.

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Have a KitKat?

(From the "Have a break - have a KitKat" slogan for the KitKat chocolate bars.)

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  • This isn't bad actually, it's quite clever but I don't know if our American friends are familiar with the tagline and if they have the same commercial. And I don't know if the tagline has changed recently.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Feb 4, 2019 at 10:02
  • @Mari-LouA I think the ad is fairly universal.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Feb 4, 2019 at 10:43
  • @Mari-LouA Which one is the tag line you are referring to? We get Kit Kat ads in the US (the song is what comes to mind first), but there may be different emphasis on different slogans, so I'm not sure what exactly the tag line you're talking about.
    – Mitch
    Feb 4, 2019 at 14:33
  • Though the intention of the phrase in the ad is to have a similar effect as the Danish system, do native English speakers actually use the phrase for the effect?
    – Mitch
    Feb 4, 2019 at 14:34
  • This brings up an interesting general language question. THere are many examples of company names becoming generic vocab items (kleenex, xerox, biro, google). But have any phrases from companies/advertisements become generic. 'Think Different', 'Calgon Take Me Away', 'I'm Loving It'. Nobody says those as generics.
    – Mitch
    Feb 4, 2019 at 14:54

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