Multilingual folks: what are some odd idioms in your language(s)?
What are some (non-English) idioms, and what do they mean (both literally and in context)? Odd ones, your favorite ones - any and all are welcome. :)
For example, in English I might call someone a "good egg," meaning they're a nice person. Or, if it's raining heavily, I might say "it's raining cats and dogs."
"o que é um peido pra quem já está cagado?"
What's a fart to someone who already shit himself?
If you're already 30 minutes late, don't speed recklessly to save 3 minutes.
Haha! The equivalent in Ireland (not sure if it's used in other English speaking countries) is "may as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb"
Makes me think of " Why cry over spilled milk?" Which never made any sense to me lol
tnh I think the spilled milk saying is more about things that you can't control / already happened.
and the Brazilian saying is more like "it's ok to let a little more milk get spilled", however I can't think of a nice way of saying that.
edit: thinking more about that, maybe the milk saying can be used for this, but not necessarily
Yeah it didnt feel directly relatable but maybe adjacent to it
That is awesome
In Swedish there is
"Now the boiled pork is fried", meaning sometging has gone too far
" be on the cinnamon", to be drunk
"Put the legs on your back", to run
"You are out biking", you are missing the point
"Pay[back] for old cheese", to get revenge
" bear-favour", is a favour that gives bad results
"Now you'll see other buns", things will get rough
" there are no children being made here", nothing is happening/its boring/lets go
"Satan and his aunt", all kinds of people/everyone
"Good day, axe-handle", something like saying "yeah, you dumbfuck" after getting a nonsense repley from someone
"In only the brass", to be naked
"Show where the cupboard will stand", to firmly make a decision
"You cupboard", miss the point, being stupid
" shit in the blue cupboard", to make a mistake
I thought "be on the cinnamon" was going to be my favorite, but the list just kept getting better. I think you ended on the best.
Interesting
Some Norwegian politicians have completely ruined this expression, and now use it to mean "a really big favor".
It's almost as annoying as when Americans say they "could care less" when they mean the opposite.
Bärendienst in German.
Ikea is starting to make more sense with all this cupboard talk
Almost the same in German, "Bärendienst" means a bear's service, means a bad service or one which did much more damage than help, usually unintentionally
My sides went into orbit. How else would someone entertain themself, when this expression was coined? TV is a recent invention, after all...
If you are ever visiting Öland, and stop by Solliden, our King's summer retreat, you can go into a café and they have the toilets in a room you enter through a blue cupboard.
So yes, I have shat in the blue cupboard at the Kings summer retreat
Forgot: "Fastnat med skägget i brevlådan" Literal meaning being: "Stuck with your beard in the mailbox" which is basically saying you've fucked up and are getting caught in the act
Interestingly, English has the same exact expression ("get your thumb out of your ass").
There are no children being made here made me laugh so hard when i tried to imagine to translate it and use it randomly
Fun question! There's an abundance in Vietnamese. Usually used by parents and/or old folk (I can hear it now...)
Mèo khen mèo dài đuôi — Literal translation "cat praises cat's long tail." A way of expressing narcissism.
Uống nước nhớ nguồn — Literal translation is "drink water, remember roots." So you'd pause, reflect, and remember where you came from.
Gieo gió gặt bão— Literal translation is "sow winds, weather storms." A way of saying "you reap what you sow."
Có công mài sắt có ngày nên kim — Literal translation "Perseverance grinds iron some day into needles." Used like "practice makes perfect."
Trời có mắt — Literal translation "Heaven has eyes." Usually used when someone's wronged, but don't worry - heaven is watching.
Gần mực thì đen, gần đèn thì sáng — Literal translation "near the ink it blackens, near the lamp it lights." You're influenced by those you're around.
Nuôi ong tay áo — Literal translation "raise bees in shirtsleeve." As in "to nurture a snake in one's bosom," kindness will be met by betrayal.
I really like these. They all seem very poetic, at least in English. I think my favorite is "near the ink it blackens, near the lamp it lights."
ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada): ಶಂಖದಿಂದ ಬಂದ್ರೇನೇ ತೀರ್ಥ - shankadinda bandrene teertha.
Literally: it's holy water only if it comes from a conch.
Meaning: people are only going to take things seriously if a specific person says it.
Example scenario: you tell a friend that a cab to go somewhere costs X amount, but they don't believe you and check with a different friend and then accept that it's going to cost them X.
You'd then say this idiom to tease them since you gave them the same water (information) but it wasn't holy water since you weren't a conch (someone they trust/have faith in).
Mandarin Chinese:
I thought of a couple involving animals.
沉鱼落雁 (chén yú luò yàn) - literally "sinking fish and grounding geese" - describes a beautiful woman.
虎头蛇尾 (hǔ tóu shé wěi) - literally "having the head of a tiger and the tail of a snake" - meaning: 1. having a strong start and a weak finish. 2. describing someone who is treacherous and doesn't do what they say they will.
Lots of idioms in Chinese are "chengyu" consisting of four characters.
Chinese has so many good ones.
Please forgive the lack of tones, it's been a long long time.
Ren shan, Ren hai: a mountain and sea of people - a remarkable amount of people by Chinese standards.
Ma Ma, Hu Hu: horse horse, tiger tiger - a mixed bag, or something that's ok.
In most languages, "get well soon" is expressed as good wishes. In Russian, they use the imperative form, so it is like an order or a command. It's буд здоров(а), which is literally "be healthy" as a command. They also use it as "bless you" after sneezing. (For those whoe can't read Cyrillic, in Latin it's approximately said like "bud zdarov(a)". The -a suffix is the female version, without it is male.)
In French, the expression "du coup" (it means something like "therefore" or "so" or "thus") can be used in place of like 10 other expressions.
Is all being replaced by "du coup".
In German, capitalisation matters. In contrast with many other languages, nouns must be capitalised, or it changes the meaning. For example:
Notice how only the capitalisation changed. The first sentence means "help the poor to fuck" while the second sentence means "help those poor birds".
I didn't know that about German and capitalization. That's fascinating! How would that play out verbally? Would you just have to figure it out from context?
Yes, from context
I took German classes in high school and have been struggling ever since not to automatically capitalize nouns when I write in English. It's been like 25 years.
"Get well soon" is imperative!
In Indonesian, there's an idiom "guru kencing berdiri, murid kencing berlari" which literally translates to teacher pee standing, students pee running. Meaning that students/followers learn not only good examples but the bad as well, and will one day be better at it than their predecessors.
In Hebrew there is "para, para" which translates to "cow, cow" and it means "one at a time"
There is also "matzoz meh-ha-etzba" which translates to "sucked from the finger" and it means bullshit basically.
"Nishbar li ha-zain" which is "my penis broke" and it means "I'm done with this" in an angry and out of petience way.
In german we have the phrase "etwas aus den Fingern saugen", which also translates to "to suck something from the finger" and also basically means it's bs. Thanks for sharing!
Hebrew probably borrowed it since a lot of its slang comes from European countries
One of my favorite Koreanisms, is the one where when you're drinking and you cheer "먹어 죽자!" Which literally translates to "eat die". Essentially, it means let's drink until we're dead. Good times.
Slovak: "Boha ti jebem" literally translates into "I fuck your god". Unsurprisingly, it's a curse you tell someone who pisses you off.
The Slovak Prime Minister also likes to say "Do psej matere", which literally means "Into the dog's mom". The English equivalent would be along the lines of "For fuck's sake".
I'm going to learn to say this one, and i thank you for enriching my life
This is English, but Canada specific as far as I know.
"Fucking the dog" - means to slack off, particularly at work.
"I fucked the dog all day at work today" basically means I got nothing done.
It is distinct from "screw the pooch" which means to fuck something up badly.
Icelandic is full of fun idioms:
"He's totally outside driving" = he's very incorrect about something, possibly crazy
"It's hard to grab his horns" = He's very headstrong and stubborn
"A wave rarely comes alone" = If something bad happens, usually a lot of bad things happen at once
"He hasn't peed into the salty sea" = he's young an inexperienced
"He has unclean flour in the corner of the bag" = he's untrustworthy
"I totally come from the mountains" = I'm out of the loop, unaware of recent developments
Similar to 'Have you been living under a rock?'.
Danish has this also, just phrased like "He's not got clean flour in the bag"
Maybe it's from common heritage
Yeah probably, a surprising amount of Icelandic idioms have Danish/Norwegian counterparts
Swedish has it as well, so I think we can safely scratch it down to common heritage.
They do not fuck around when it comes to unclean flour
An equivalent idiom in English for this one might be "When it rains, it pours"
'Les merdes volent en escadrille' = 'shits fly in a squadron' (famous expression coined by former President Jacques Chirac)
There’s also the very nerdy Shakespeare version of the same sentiment: “when troubles come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.”
Spanish, but only from my region:
"You are worth dick": You are worth nothing
"You are not worth dick": You are worth nothing
So basically to be worth dick and not be worth dick is the same.
We also have some variation like
"You are [not] worth three trip strips of cock": same meaning.
A bonus, not related to genitalia:
"Go get your hair brushed by a donkey": Stop pestering / go fuck yourself.
As an English speaker I would naturally interpret "You are worth dick" and "you are not worth dick" in the same way.
I think it's hilarious how often different languages use genitalia in their idioms. These feel like they'd work really well, even in English.
Oooh as a non native speaker, these are fun! Are the first two something like no vales polla or no vales ni polla?
Quite close! But we use another word, polla is mainly use in spain.
"[No] vales [ni] [tres tiras de] verga/mondá"
But if you use ni you necesarly need the no at the begining of the sentence.
Mondá is a slang word, very regional. Is also a bit more agressive.
Central America? Those kind of "click" for me if I retranslate them to Spanish with verga.
The "basic" insult also works in Portuguese with "caralho":
This sound hilarious. How is it phrased in the original? "Anda que un burro vos cepille el pelo" or something like that?
South america!
I didn't know that also works in Portugese!
The original is: "Vaya a que lo peine un burro". Bit of a hard translation and also is always formal (usted).
In Brazil we have "É de cair o cu da bunda" "Makes the butthole fall out of the ass", which indicates something impressive/unexplainable.
And "Que que tem o cu com as calças?" "What does the ass have to do with the pants?". Which asks for the relation of two completely different things. It is generally used as doubting there's a relationship at all.
Brazilian Portuguese does have lots of anus related sayings.
Turkish: "Niye böyle bakıyorsun? Karadeniz'deki gemilerin mi battı?"
-> "Why are you looking like that (Why such a face)? Did your ships sink in the black sea?"
It was already my favourite before 2022, but hell has it become ever more so then. Slava Ukraini!
Isn't there also a saying like "fucked by a polar bear in the desert", meaning being unlucky?
I believe you mean this one: https://eksisozluk.com/bahtsiz-bedeviyi-colde-kutup-ayisi-sikermis--165324
"Bahtsız bedeviyi, çölde kutup ayısı sikermiş." == The misfortunate bedouin gets fucked by a polar bear in the desert.
However, I am not sure if this means fucked in a literal sense or rather "fucked up" :) probably the latter.
In Danish we have "Goddag mand økseskaft" (literal: goodday man axe shaft) which can either mean you and another person is misunderstanding eachother/speaking about two complete things while thinking it is related, or it can mean that something gives absolutely no sense. The reason why I like it, is that even the Danish sentence makes no sense, eg. not a valid sentence. Another one I like is "ikke kunne se skoven for bare træer" (literal: not being able to see the forest for because of bare/naked/leafless trees - another might be: not being able to see the forest because of the trees) it means to lose the bigger picture, or to not find something right infront of you, eg. Looking for your phone while speaking with someone, that person could say it.
"Can't see the forest through the trees" is also an English idiom meaning the same thing
The Danish language has collapsed into meaningless, guttural sounds.
It's almost the same as English.
Do you want to order 1000 liters of milk?
Kamelåså?
Some personal favorites I have used or heard used lately :
"Der er ingen ko på isen" - "there is no cow on the ice" meaning that nothing is wrong after all
"Lave dobbeltkonfekt" - "making double confection" meaning making more work for yourself for no reason
"Gøre ham en bjørnetjeneste" - "doing him a bear's favor" - a well intended deed that makes things worse in the long run
It is not the yellow from the egg but I understand only train station. My lovely gentleman's singing club, I think I spider!
What that just one idiom ?
No, that are 4 different ones.
In Japanese they say "sonotori" translated literally it means "that bird" the English idiom equivalent is "on the nose"
I hate to be "that guy", but 鳥/とり/tori (bird) isn't related to the 通り/とおり/toori (way, road, etc) in the phrase.
Dutch has a few that some say are insane-sounding but for me make a lot of sense as a native English speaker:
Spanish: me cago en la leche. I shit in the milk. Like... fuck, damn! Being annoyed at something.
I learnt that one from For Whom the Bell Tolls before I learnt Spanish properly (only to later forget most of it).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Idioms_from_non-English_cultures
In Norwegian we say "helt sylta" ("completely pickled") when we have a very stuffy nose. I tried using that idiom when calling out of work in the US once, and was informed that I had just told them I was too drunk to go to work!
I love the Norwegian "helt Texas" or "completely Texas", which means something's totally crazy. Probably a reference to Westerns.
I feel like it's accurate to say Texas is completely Texas.
Yeah it's common in English that saying "I'm Xed" means drunk.
Fucked, twated, trollied, muntered, cunted, steamed etc.
According to John Oliver you can use any noun, like for example "gazeboed".
100% people in the UK would know what you meant straight away.
That's generally true, but there are some exceptions. For instance. "I'm pissed" can either mean "I'm drunk" or "I'm angry" depending on where you are and the context.
UK would always be drunk, in my experience.
Yeah, that's one of the geographical differences I was alluding to. In Canada it can mean either depending on context.
That's interesting to know. I guess there has been some cultural spillover in the UK so some may use it the American style, I just haven't heard it.
Yeah, some nouns are already taken, that's fair. Like "shafted".
Irish: Ar muidne muiche.
Literally "on the pigs back" and means "doing great" for example in response to "how are you?"
If someone "got a pig", it means he got lucky in German. Often in a rather desperate or unexpected position. "Der hat mal so richtig Schwein gehabt“ -> "he really got pig there" could for example be used if someone narrowly escaped an accident, if you managed to get exactly the minimum passing score in an exam, etc.
Apparently the expression comes from the middle ages, where the second place in a lucky draw was often a literal piglet. So you maybe didn't get the main prize, but at least you got pig.
Got pig, without the „a“. I have never heard „ein Schwein haben“, unless it is meant literally.
"The bamboo is moaning" It's raining really hard.
Never fear the sea, fear the storm.
What’s the sense/meaning of this one?
I don't know if it's the correct meaning, but something along the lines of looking beyond the surface of something.
My Egyptian ass be like: My time has come. Let's see...
Turn the pot on its mouth, the girl turns out like her mother (no idea why it's like this, literally no purpose other than that it rhymes). Used when a girl is like her mother, basically what it says on the cover. The guy version is "This cub from that lion", which can't be used for girls because lioness is an insult for some reason (kinda like bitch but stronger).
The winds come with what ships don't want: Not everything happens as we want it to.
Going around and spinning: To try to trick someone or dodge a subject by making the conversation go in circles and not touch an important point. Speaking of spinning,
To spin around oneself: To be in trouble and really busy/not know what to do.
To pretend to be from Banha (a place in Egypt): To pretend you have nothing to do with what's going on.
A black (sometimes blue or white) day or night: An unpleasant time/experience. Used as both a statement and a threat (like "your day will be black today" after your parents catch you doing something you're not supposed to).
Have them for lunch before they have you for dinner: Attack before you're attacked.
The monkey would've benefited himself: When you ask someone for something they would've done for themselves if they could.
Kahka with sugar: Zero (on exams). Kahk is an Egyptian biscuit-like sweet eaten on Eid, and it's circular like a zero.
A pot with a hole is emptied on the one that lifts it: If you do something dumb you suffer the consequences.
Edit:
To get spanked: To fail.
To slam (your ass): To make up something (probably incorrect) in the moment. Comes from the idea of slamming your ass onto an exam paper and leaving whatever comes up as the answer.
Picking a few amusing ones from Portuguese and Italian that I use often.
There's also a funny Latin insult that I tend to jokingly use translated fairly often, "funge putride" (you rotten mushroom). I like it because it's really light, not something to really insult someone.
I love the "what does the ass have to do with the pants" one.
"Masamang damo", or weed, as in unwanted grasses in your garden, not the marijuana. You call that to someone undeniably evil (or to just someone whom you hate) but just won't go away or die, especially old corrupt politicians.
"Huwag kang pilosopo" which literally means "don't philosophise" but its casual meaning is "don't be a smart ass". However, knowing people in my country especially after electing the son of a former dictator thanks to "Facebook researches", this expression implies to someone not to think critically.
The Germans have a similar expression, "Unkraut vergeht nicht", it means something like "weeds do not go away", but it is usually used in a self-deprecating way, for example as a response to wishes for good health when ill.
Weeds don't wither would be a better translation
It is, thank you
Not quite an idiom but term of endearment: petit chou in French is little cabbage but is often used for young kids...
This is a great one to see first "in the wild" while studying French. The trip from "this can't possibly be what they're saying" to "that was exactly what they were saying" is a wild one.
But it's about the pastry, not the disgusting vegetable. Yikes.
Calling someone "Mon Chou" is like calling them "sweetheart".
Sorry. Which pastry is that?
ETA: I found it: https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/choux-pastry/
Wait really?? That makes so much more sense 🤣
I'm dying now because that's literally what I thought when my extended family says it.
Hey cabbage is not disgusting!
Russian, my favourite one: when a crayfish whistles on a mountain. Means never gonna happen.
When pigs fly.
Portuguese: "Dia de S. Nunca à tarde" meaning "day of saint Never, after noon."
Portuguese has a plethora of expressions like that:
You reminded me one in Latin in the same spirit: kalendis graecis, or "in the Greek calends".
Calends were the first day of the month in the Roman calendar, there was no Greek equivalent, so that meant simply "never".
"Ich glaub mein Schwein pfeift" (I think my pig is whistling) - in German that means "I can't believe it".
My favorite in Macedonian: My dick hurts. Teanslation: I don't gove a fuck. Also, the opposite is true, like if someone says "My dick doesn't hurt at all about so and so", it also means the same thing: I don't give a fuck. Go figure 🤷 😂.
This is hilarious 😂 Is it something those of us without dicks would also say? (In English, I might still tell someone to "suck my dick," despite not having one.)
Yeah, girls say it around here too sometimes 😂, but some also tend to replace the dick oart with pussy, so girls would say "my pussy hurts" or "my pussy doesn't hurt all" 😂.
We do "my dick sweats", for the same thing, which I now realize sounds super gross.
Yeah, it is 😂.
We also have a phrase "dick dangles in cold water" which basically means nothing's happening or something is irrelevant 😂.
In English, over time, “I could care less” has come to have the exact same meaning as “I couldn’t care less.”
Some people get wrapped around an axle (i.e. irrationally angry) about it, but i just mentally fill in some context myself: “I could care less… i suppose… if i really tried… but that’s not going to happen.”
There’s no governing body for English. If you communicate the meaning and social cues that you intended, then it’s “right.” Of course, communicating social cues is sometimes where you can get in trouble using newer linguistic constructions.
Yeah, I think the negation part in Macedonian was added later on, in newer generations because it sounded more "cool" I guess. But the phrase has been around for a very long time, probably like 70, 80 years, maybe even longer.
This makes me think about the French "je m'en bats les couilles" (litt. "I beat my balls with it"). Some girls say it too, others say they beat their ovaries instead.
lol, I had a weird mental picture about a girl beating her ovaries 🤣.
Finnish ones (some sayings here too):
Where does that last one come from?
I'm not 100% sure but I think it's from a time when spoons were rarer and everyone had their own spoon. So, to discard your spoon meant you're done with eating for good.
I started listing some in Japanese, but realized this site does a better job than I could: https://www.fluentu.com/blog/japanese/japanese-idioms/ I've heard a fair number of those in person, some frequently.
Croatian "Ovce i novce" - literally sheep and the money. Same meaning as have your cake and eat it. "Kašika mu u med pala" - spoon fell into honey, meaning he got lucky "Tako ti je grah pao" - this is the way beans fell, meaning it is what it is "Izvukao si deblji kraj" - you got the fatter end, opposite meaning from you got the shorter end. It's kind of a weird one, as it is also sometimes used to mean the same as the shorter end. "Da ti dupe puta vidi" - so your behind can see the trip. Meaning to travel for no special reason, usually used when a reason is given, but is probably just an excuse to travel
Having pigs in the forest - to be hiding something.
The tax man would go from farm to farm back in the old days and count the number of pigs. The farmers would be taxed accordingly. Naturally, when you heard the tax man was coming, you'd send some pigs into the forest so that you'd be taxed less. Norwegian. :)
German:
tie a bear on so. / so.'s back - to fool so.
make so. believe a X is an U - to fool so.
being blue - being drunk
the devil is a squirrel - devil is in the details
--
My favourite is hard to translate.
'verschlimmbessern' - to want to fix something but making it worse in doing so.
Imbadprove maybe
I want to add some:
The core of the poodle - the truth, the solution to a riddle
Being on the wood way - Being confidently wrong
Butter to the fish - lets be honest and come to the point
That is like jacket and troursers - two things being the same
This is like jumping and leaping - two actions being the same
s.th. is not the yellow from the egg: It's not the best
I only understand train station: I did not understand anything
Now we have the salad: Now we're screwed
now it’s about the sausage: Things have gotten serious
So is carved from another (kind of) wood: So is more capable
In Arabic "Government of Donkeys" is often used to deride especially incompetent governments, and no I don't believe it's meant to translate to "Ass" instead of "Donkey", Ass came to english by way of Rome and Arabic is on the Yunan side of the Greece Yunan linguistic split.
Although if you wanted to zhuzh it up for proper conveyance in english "Confederacy of Asses" gets the point across a lot less clunkily
In Dutch "that hits (fits) like pliers on a pig", meaning that it's completely absurd.
"Blood crawl where it can't go", means that if you want it bad enough, you'll find a way.
"For an apple and an egg" means it's very cheap. But "little apple little egg" means it's very easy.
But my alltime favourite is "poepje", which is a term of endearment that little means "little shit"
Swede here.
Phrase : "Nu har du skitit i det blå skåpet"
Translation : "Now you have taken a shit in the blue cupboard"
Meaning : "You really fucked up now".
Something can go "like chopped shit" - smoothly, I guess.
Thinking suitcase (being a gutter mind).
Painting Satan on the wall (making mountains out of mole hills).
X on the ceiling (well done/good for you) - no idea, don't ask.
Whittling splinters (splitting hairs) I guess is fairly obvious.
One can also be "snowed down" (an idiot), an onion sausage (idiot), way out in the field (clueless, lost, idiot).
Something is "completely Texas" when it's chaotic, uncontrolled, unregulated or just generally nuts.
A Northerner might describe something that only barely worked/made it on time as "by [one] cunt hair".
These are interesting. Which language?
These are from Norwegian.
In Piedmontese (northern Italian dialect):
"To be mounted over squared ball bearing" = to be really strange, not as other people
"Horse brand" = a product of an unknown low quality brand
"To beat the goat" = throw a tantrum
Also from Piemonte I've never heard the horse brand one but "three hens brand" was used regularly when I was a kid.
My favourite though is "Coma na barca ant el bòsch", like a boat in the woods
Italian here (Veneto) How do you say it in your dialect? The ball bearing one. I really can't translate it myself into something that could make sense to me.
"esse montà 'n sle bije quadre", and the literal translation in italian is "essere montato sulle biglie (cuscinetti a sfera) quadre"