Please imagine a bad doer or ill-natured person who oftentimes commits bad actions toward the people around him. E.g. backbites, gossips, lies about others, etc.
He says something bad to you and you decide to bring it up to your close friend. You say:
I think there is something wrong with his nature.
But there are barely any results on the internet for this phrase. In this link, one comment has the following:
I think McGrath admitted that ultimately one believes in Christ for existential reasons. IOW, as he said, man realizes there is something wrong with his nature, he is not as good as he ought to be, and he yearns for something better and something more fulfilling…
Since there is only one example on the internet, I think it is not common in English to say it this way. What's a more natural way of saying this?
Best Answer
There are of course many ways to say this, but "there is something wrong with his nature" is not one of them. In AmE at least, it's more idiomatic to say simply, "There's something (very) wrong with him." The implication is not anything physically wrong, but rather something is "wrong" in his head, generally having to do with odd or sometimes unethical behavior:
Note that it can be said in jest:
That being said: The situation that you describe (backbiting, gossiping, etc.) is not where we would ordinarily use this expression. In this case we might call someone "nasty", "spiteful", "two-faced", "bitchy", "small-minded", "bitter", or even "evil-spirited".
And lots of others, including metaphors comparing him to animals. Snakes are the most likely: "He's just a snake in the grass, waiting to bite you on the ankle when you least expect it."
[Edit] Just remembered, a more contemporary idiomatic way to say this is "He has issues." Although this can apply to anyone whose thought processes are questionable, not just someone who acts nastily.