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.”
“The bamboo is moaning” It’s raining really hard.
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
Edit: forgot a good one:
“Get your thumb out of your ass”, to stop doing nothing and start doing something
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
Ikea is starting to make more sense with all this cupboard talk
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.
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
There are no children being made here made me laugh so hard when i tried to imagine to translate it and use it randomly
Interestingly, English has the same exact expression (“get your thumb out of your ass”).
" there are no children being made here", nothing is happening/its boring/lets go
My sides went into orbit. How else would someone entertain themself, when this expression was coined? TV is a recent invention, after all…
" bear-favour", is a favour that gives bad results
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
björntjänst bear-favor: From a French fable (L’Ours et l’Amateur des jardins by Jean de La Fontaine) in which a tame bear wants to do his master a favor by hitting the fly who sat down on the master’s forehead, but hits the fly so hard that the master too is killed.
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.
Not as annoying as when they say Caucasian and it means European-looking people, not people from the Caucasus.
Bärendienst in German.
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).
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.
“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
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.
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Thank you Norway for showing the trans gender community your support in removing the d from the man
“Goddag yxskaft” in Swedish, so no man involved here
Goddag mand økseskaft
The Danish language has collapsed into meaningless, guttural sounds.
Kamelåså?
It’s almost the same as English.
Do you want to order 1000 liters of milk?
Yes please.
“Can’t see the forest through the trees” is also an English idiom meaning the same thing
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
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
To make a worseprovement! I like that one.
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
“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 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
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.
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).
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.
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.
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”:
- vale um caralho (worth a dick) = worth nothing
- não vale um caralho (not worth a dick) = worth nothing
“Go get your hair brushed by a donkey”: Stop pestering / go fuck yourself.
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).
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.
As an English speaker I would naturally interpret “You are worth dick” and “you are not worth dick” in the same way.
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.
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.
沉鱼落雁 (chén yú luò yàn) - literally “sinking fish and grounding geese” - describes a beautiful woman.
I know a woman who could “make fish stop swimming” as well. We’d also say she could “stop traffic” in that people could forget they were supposed to be driving.
She’s so gorgeous your brain hiccups.
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.
yeah, ren shan ren hai is a pretty good one, and it’s also probably one of the more frequently used ones.
Russian, my favourite one: when a crayfish whistles on a mountain. Means never gonna happen.
When pigs fly.
Or you can say “after a rainfall on thursday” which means the same thing, never gonna happen.
Portuguese: “Dia de S. Nunca à tarde” meaning “day of saint Never, after noon.”
Portuguese has a plethora of expressions like that:
- trinta e um de fevereiro (the 31st of February)
- na semana com duas quintas (in the week with two Thursdays)
- nem que a vaca tussa (not even if the cow coughed)
- quando galinha tiver dente (when chickens get teeth)
- nem a pau (not even by [being beaten with a] wood[en rod or stick])
- nem fodendo (not even fucking)
- nem aqui, nem lá na China (neither here, nor in China)
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”.
