What's your country's "your barking at the wrong tree"

wellDuuh@lemmy.world to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 20 points –

My $10 says there will be variants of this catchy phrase. (Help me win this)

26

There's nothing similar, but "you're confused between porridge and gruel" comes closest.

Thats means that you are knowledgeable, but ignorant on the finer details that makes the case different. When you're troubleshooting something, it fits.

What is helpful is if you say what the saying means.

it means you are blaming the wrong thing/person for an issue.

I would also add it could be something more like investigating/searching and not necessarily blaming.

In the UK we use your term also 'You've got your wires crossed'

Same in Australia, but we also say OPs version just with mate on the end.

You're fighting windmills.

(A reference to Don Quichotte, of course)

The saying is hard to translate to English:
They can't see the forest behind the tree - that they were stuck on looking at.

An other one:
They can't find the udder between the horns.

Can’t see the forest for the trees?

I believe this is Swedish ("ser inte skogen för alla träd").

An attempt at a alternative translation; "can't see the forest because of all the trees". Which means you're perceiving the wrong part of the situation, and thus missing out on the bigger picture.

It doesn't ring the same, at least for me.

I like how you said it's hard to translate to English, but English has the same saying. The saying must have a common ancestor between our two languages! (Or maybe one is the common ancestor...)