To write like a crow

An example of my handwriting

If your handwriting is difficult to read, you apparently write like a crow, at least you do in Swedish – skriva som en kråka.

That’s one of things I discovered today when putting together a new page of Swedish idioms.

If your spelling is poor, you spell like a crow – stava som en kråka.

Why is this? Are crows known for their poor writing and spelling in Sweden?

I found “to have (hand)writing like chicken scratch” in English [source], though haven’t come across it before.

Are there equivalent idioms in other langauges?

The image is an example of my handwriting. I can write more neatly than this, though rarely write by hand these days anyway.

5 thoughts on “To write like a crow

  1. I’ve heard of “chicken scratching” as a synonym for bad handwriting all my life. I had assumed it’s universal — but if you haven’t encountered it before, perhaps it’s an American term, or even a regional term (I live and grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, USA).

  2. It’s the same in Russian: писать как курица лапой – “to write like a hen with (its) leg”. As if it had an idea how to write at all (in this case I think everyone would have been so amazed that they would not be bothered about the quality of such writing).
    In Russian we usually say that the worst handwriting comes from doctors when they write a prescription or a diagnosis. Sometimes it looks like this: uuuuuu u uuuu uuuuu uuuu uuuuuuuuu uuuu u uuu u uu uuuuu… Can you read it? No one can! 😉

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