What weird idioms/phrases does your language have?
In Finnish we have "kissanristiäiset" (literally means a cat's christening), which means some trivial and meaningless celebration/event.
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In Finnish we have "kissanristiäiset" (literally means a cat's christening), which means some trivial and meaningless celebration/event.
One of my favorite examples in (American) English has to be "There's more than one way to skin a cat"; meaning there are multiple viable strategies for the task or problem at hand.
I never really appreciated how morbid it is until I saw the shocked face of a fluent but non-native english speaking colleague after using it in a meeting.
I almost got punched in a bar once for saying that a non-native English speaker was grinning like an idiot. Didn't occur to me he wouldn't understand the subtext on that one.
(For y'all ESL folks, it's meant to be an endearing phrase indicating a joy so strong that you can't stop yourself from smiling.)
Wait, just so I get this right, "there's more than one way to skin a car" is also used to express joy? What?
No they're talking about the idiom "grinning like an idiot" almost getting them punched despite being harmless to anyone with cultural context
Oh man i don't know how I didn't get that. Thanks.
When I was sticking my oar in too much on something he was doing, my Dad used to say "who's skinning this cat, you or me?"
“Konstit on monet, sano mummo kun kissalla pöytää pyyhki.”
It’s basically the same idea, and it even involves a cat. However, in this case, a grandmother is wiping the table with a cat, and says “konstit on monet”. Crudely translated as “ways (of getting stuff done) are numerous.“
Realistically though, I’m pretty sure the cat would not appreciate this method. Come to think of it, you probably wouldn’t want to do this with any animal, least of all with one that is famous for having “murder mittens”.
Similar to the German "All paths lead to Rome".
At least in Dutch we call it “meerdere wegen leiden naar Rome” (multiple roads lead to Rome) to do away with the morbidity...