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.”
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.
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
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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
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!
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.
- Ainsi
- Donc
- Alors
- Tout à coup
- Soudainement
- En conclusion
- Si je comprends bien
- De ce fait
- Ce qui fait que
- En conséquence
- Consequémment
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:
- Helft den Armen vögeln
- Helft den armen Vögeln
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
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
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.
" 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
Not quite an idiom but term of endearment: petit chou in French is little cabbage but is often used for young kids…
But it’s about the pastry, not the disgusting vegetable. Yikes.
Calling someone “Mon Chou” is like calling them “sweetheart”.
Hey cabbage is not disgusting!
“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
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.
