基本来说，这个短语很容易误导人。“It takes two to tango”的字面意思是“探戈舞需要两个人来跳”，照此推理，本应推出个鼓舞人心的“团结才是力量”，可它怎么竟成了贬义词“一个巴掌拍不响”？不急，咱们慢慢来解析。
先说tango（探戈）。探戈一般要男女对跳，男人粗犷、女人妖冶，构成了探戈舞的巨大张力。这种舞蹈源于18世纪的阿根廷，当时被认为是上流社会的情面具，同时也是草根阶层释放欲望的最好方式。
Tango的这层“诱惑、情”意，很容易让人联想到它的同音异形词tangle（纠缠、扭缠在一起）。如果看过奥斯卡影片“Scent of a woman”（《闻香识女人》），想必您还能记得老上校对tango的经典定义“If you make a mistake, get all tangled up, just tango on.” 如果（探戈）跳错了，那就让大家的舞步都混乱好了，这才是探戈。
说到这儿，想必您也明白了，（It takes two to）tango其实是取了tangle的谐音，而整个短语“It takes two to tango”实质上由英国俗语“It takes two to make a quarrel”（一个巴掌拍不响）发挥创造而来。
下次如果有朋友向您抱怨，女朋友又跟他闹矛盾了，您就可以这样回敬他：A conflict is not the fault of just one person or the other; they are often both to blame, because it takes two to tango.（矛盾不能只归咎于一方，你们两个人都有错，因为一个巴掌拍不响嘛。）
It takes two to tango是个很具迷惑性的短语。它的字面意思是“探戈需要两个人来跳”，看不出任何贬义的迹象，但它的实际意思可就不见得如此了。它既可以不带贬义，表示“某些事情需要双方合作才能完成”，接近中文里的“孤掌难鸣“，也可以带有贬义，表示”出了问题，双方都有责任“，接近中文里的”一个巴掌拍不响“。简而言之，这个短语”亦正亦邪“。
其实，在早期最初的时候，it takes two to tango充满了浪漫彩，百分之百“正派“。1952年，美国歌星Pearl Bailey演唱的Takes Two to Tango就已经大受欢迎，成为了当年的畅销金曲。歌里唱道：
You can sail on a ship by yourself(你可以独自出海拍一个巴掌打一个地名)
Take a nap or nip by yourself(你可以独自午睡或喝酒)
You can get into debt on your own(你可以独自陷入债务的深渊)
There are lots of things that you can do alone(你可以独自做很多事)
But it takes two to tango, two to tango(但探戈需要两个人来跳，两个人来跳)
Two to really get the feeling of romance(两个人才能体会到浪漫的感觉)
Let’s do the tango, do the tango, do the dance of love(让我们来跳探戈，跳探戈，跳这爱之舞)
可见，当时的it takes two to tango就表示“探戈需要两个人来跳“，完全符合它的字面意思。与此同时，它还传达了”爱情需要双方共同努力“的信息。随着歌曲的流行，这句话迅速融入了日常英语，并且跳出了爱情的框框，泛指”有些事需要双方合作才能完成“。举例如下：
Nolan: Will you just how us the trick already? Enough teasing! （快把你的绝活表演给我们看，行不？不要再吊胃口了！）
Finch: I’m sorry you’ll have to wait a bit longer. Without the help of my assistant, I can’t do this. It takes two to tango. （抱歉你们还得多等一会儿。如果没有我助手的帮忙，我没办法表演给你们看。孤掌难鸣啊）
按照这样的趋势发展下去，it takes two to tango应该一直很“正派“，它的”邪“从哪里来呢？原来，tango和tangle谐音，而tangle有”争执，打架“的意思，所以it takes two to tango听上去就像是it takes two to tangle,即”两个人才能吵、打的起架来“。这正好和一句古谚语”It takes two to make a quarrel”完全吻合。早在1705年，这句谚语就已经出现在印刷品中，当时的原话是：When one will not, two will not quarrel.(只要一个不肯吵，两个就吵不起来。)
就是因为这个巧合，it takes two to tango“将错就错”，发展出新的含义：一旦吵起架来，必定是双方都有责任。在这个基础上，它又进一步引申为“有些坏事必定要双方都参与才可能发生，一个人做不了。”换句话说，就是“双方都不是什么好东西“。举例如下：
AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster we have part two of our look at proverbs in American English.
RS: We continue our conversation with Wolfgang Mieder, a professor of German and folklore at the University of Vermont, and a widely published expert on proverbs.
AA: And there are certainly lots of them, although there are also many proverbs that different cultures have in common. So is this a case where great minds think alike?
WOLFGANG MIEDER: If you look back in history and you compare the proverbs let's say of Germany, England, and also including the United States, France, Russia, Italy, Spain, you'd be surprised how many absolutely identical proverbs there are. The reason why that is, is that many of our everyday proverbs actually originated in Greek and Roman antiquity.
I'll give you an example. 'Big fish eat little fish' is a proverb that goes back, way back, into Greek antiquity, and then it was translated in Europe from language to language and it wound up in England, and of course the immigrants brought it to the United States.
RS: Professor Mieder says the Bible is the second major source for proverbs that cross national boundaries.
WOLFGANG MIEDER: I'll give you an example: 'Man does not live by bread alone' is absolutely identical in France, it's identical in Germany, it's identical in Poland. So that's the second major group. And the third one is Medieval Latin. If you take the proverb 'strike while the iron is hot,' we know it started in the Middle Ages, in Latin, and they used proverbs at that time to teach youngsters foreign languages, in other words Latin and Fren
ch or Latin and German and so on.
RS: Speaking of learning languages, how useful are proverbs in learning American English or any other language?
WOLFGANG MIEDER: Oh, oh, extremely important. You know, those instructors who, let's say -- or students who study to become teachers of English as a second language -- are very interested in word_master some of the colloquial language like proverbs and phrases. And we are now doing studies where, through questionnaires -- thousands of questionnaires -- we have established which proverbs, let's just say in the United States, are the most popular.
AA: And could you tell us the top five?
WOLFGANG MIEDER: Well, I will not say that these are exactly the top five, but I'll give you some examples.
AA: OK, great.
WOLFGANG MIEDER: Well, 'strike while the iron is hot' is certainly one. 'Absence makes the heart grow fonder' is one. 'New brooms sweep clean' might be one.