What is a figure of speech you like in your language?
What is a figure of speech you like in your language?
It could also just be English if you only speak English.
There's an expression in French, "enculage de mouches". Literally means "fucking flies in the ass" and, figuratively, refers to being impossibly pedantic and nitpicky. Closest equivalent in English would be "splitting hairs" I think
Oh we got that here too "flue knepperi" fly fucking
In Egyptian arabic we have
The world is a cucumber one day it's in your hand, the other it's in your ass
(Kama todeen todaan) Literal translation: As you give debt, you will owe debt. Alternative is as you judge you will be judged. Basically what goes around comes around
Do you have a feather on your head? When some one asks for special treatment, this is usually a response to that. Feather on his head is a reference to the sultan.
We stayed quiet so he came in with his donkey. Or we let him be, so he came with his donkey The proverb means don't let people walk all over you
Show me the width of your shoulders Something I heard a lot growing up, basically means go away. To show the width of your shoulders, you show your back, hence the expression
The first one is absolutely hilarious!
Here's one in Egyptian Arabic: "He who gets burnt by soup will blow on yoghurt", meaning that someone who gets hurt once will bexome careful not to repeat the experience.
I really like this! Getting burnt so bad that you'd blow on something cold like ice out of fear.
We have a similar one in Bulgarian too: "Парен каша духа" - roughly the same thing, but without explicitly mentioning youghurt.
There's a very similar version in Spanish
El que con leche se quema, hasta al jocoque le sopla
He who gets burnt by milk will blow on jocoque
Made me think of the (ptpt/ptbr) saying "Quem com ferro fere, com ferro será ferido" - Who hurts with iron, shall be hurt with iron
In French we have "a burned cat fear cold water" (chat échaudé craint l'eau froide)
"Jeg bryr meg katta"
literally "I care like a cat", meaning "I don't care in the slightest and talking more about it is an insult to my time".
It's fallen mostly out of use, but I'm hanging on.
are you perchance Norwegian? jeg lærer norsk (faren min er norsk, det er teknisk sett andrespråket mitt men jeg bruker det ikke mye. nå jeg lærer mer)
hvis du er dansk, jeg beklager at forveksler de to, men hvis du er norsk, det er hyggelig å se folk som snakker språket
That’s such a cool phrase though
In colloquial English, you can say that someone is an idiot with the construction "you absolute [noun]" or "you complete [noun]" or similar.
It doesn't actually matter what the noun is, but it works better the more obscure or specific the thing is. For example "you absolute saucepan", "you complete hose pipe", or my personal favourite "you absolute strawberry plant".
One of my favorite youtubers Octavius King demonstrates this really well by using "complete and utter desk" as a derogatory term for the worst offenders to intellect.
In this line of thought I like how "tool" is something useful in its primary meaning, but derogatory when used about a person.
I don't speak German, but I picked up a few phrases for work. They have a few idioms that I think of sometimes:
"Ich glaub, ich spinne" which means I think I'm crazy, but literally translates to "I think, I spider." It's a great visual metaphor, being overwhelmed by the threads going everywhere that you imagine you're a spider spinning a web, and also you've entirely forgotten grammar.
"Bahnhof verstehen" or "Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof" means "I understand only the train station." It's something you say when you don't understand anything, you're completely lost, and you don't give a shit becaue you just want to get the fuck home.
I might be off on those translations or the subtext, but that's how I understood it.
and also you've entirely forgotten grammar.
That's a misinterpretation. The German "spinne" is a proper verb in that sentence, like "to spin" in English.
So it can be what a spider does, but also what political doctors do, and the latter is the context here?
The "Bahnhof verstehen" comes from the notion that many people learning a foreign language start with some simple sentences like "Can you tell me the way to the train station". So people who only "Bahnhof verstehen" (OK, horrible grammar here) have not proceed past the first lesson.
My understanding is that is came from soldiers returning from WWI who did not speak enough German to communicate, but were seeking the trains home.
Not fluent at all, but I always parsed "Ich glaub, ich spinne" as "I feel like my head is spinning"
No, it's not "spin" like a top or top be dizzy. There's a bunch of meanings, and some are similar to those two, but none fit for dizzy.
"Head is spinning" is a metaphor. Literally tanslating metaphors doesn't usually work, which is why this thread is interesting
In Khmer, there's a phrase "មិនដឹងខ្យល់" which literally translates to "Doesn't know wind" as in they're so dumb they don't even know what wind is.
I guess it's kind of like calling someone an air head but from a different angle.
I really like the german "Geburtstagskind". It refers to a Person whose birthday is today but literally translates to "birthday child". However you use it for any age. If its your grandfathers 80st birthday he still is the birthday child this day. Usually people just use the word without thinking about it , but i really like the idea that everyone can get childish again on their birthday. :)
Two that are related to falling
猿も木から落ちる [Even] monkeys fall out of trees [too]. Just because you're good at something doesn't mean you'll always get it right.
七転び八起き Fall down 7 times, get up 8. Pretty self-explanatory
Fall down 7 times, get up 8.
But you'll have to fall down an 8th time if you want to get up again 🤔
"Пиян като мотика". Translates from Bulgarian to "Drunk as a mattock". I remember asking my dad about this phrase when I was a kid - "Why? Do mattocks drink?" - and he answered "No, they fall down". Classic dad.
- Flat out like a lizard drinking
- We’re not here to fuck spiders
- As dry as a dead dingo’s donger
- Forty cents short of a shout
- A few kangaroos loose in the top paddock
What does we're not here to fuck spiders refer to?
Besides the literal
It implies we are here to do something more productive than fucking spiders
We’re not here to fuck spiders
Borrowing this one
A couple of figures of speech from Mexico that I find equally nonsensical:
Simón: Means yes.
Nelson: Means no.
Mátala(o) (kill it): to finish a drink or a snack.
Jalar (pull): To go somewhere or agree to a plan. You may also hear its long form "¿jalas o te pandeas?" (do you pull or do you bend?) meaning "are you coming or not?".
¿Se va hacer o no se va a hacer la carnita asada? (Are we doing or not the carne asada?): It means "Is the plan still on?"
Chapulinear: There's no literal translation for this one but I guess it would be like "grasshopper-ing". It means seducing a friend's partner.
Tirando el perro (throwing the dog): Flirting.
Arma la vaca (build the cow): Gathering money for a small collective purchase.
Huele a gas (Smells like gas): To leave. That's kind of like an advanced figure of speech because it comes from Fuga, which in and of itself is a figure of speech meaning "to leave quickly". It literally translates to "leak", as in a gas line leak, because you're supposed to leave in a way that mimics gas leaking from a pipe. So, when we need to leave but not as quickly, we don't say "leak", we say "smells like gas" implying there might be a leak.
Here's a modern one:
Quesadilla: Means "that's so sad" because it sounds like Qué sad (illa)
I knew a girl who tiraba el perro al novio de su amiga, so I guess she also was trying to chapulinear xD
"Lukee kuin piru Raamattua" (Finnish).
Literally "to read like the Devil reads the Bible".
Meaning to examine something in bad faith. Never heard it used it in context of the Bible or anything religious, but eg. when interpreting law or contract, looking for the details that could be twisted for your purpose, rather than what the text attempts to convey.Ukrainian "не лізь поперед батька в пекло" ("don't rush to hell before your father") - a mix of "don't be foolish / try to prove yourself / hurt yourself doing so" and also "let experienced people do their job / lead".
Also Ukrainian "або пан або пропав" ("Either [you become] a lord, or you disappear"), an important risky choice, or sometimes used as YOLO of yesteryear.
"Correo de las brujas" translates to "the witches' mail" and means gossip or rumors. Kind of like "heard it through the grapevine" or a "a little birdie told me"
"Das geht mir am Arsch vorbei."
German for I don't give a damn about that.
Literally: it passes by my ass.
You can also lift it up to a SFW level by saying "Das geht mir hinten vorbei." (It passes behind me), or strengthen it with "Das geht mir weit hinten vorbei." (It passes far behind me).
Or, if you wanna sound intellectual: „Das tangiert mich peripher.“
When I was young, myself and a group of friends were being accosted by a disheveled man on our walk home from the bar. We didn't really understand what he was saying, but we were able to discern one phrase, as he told us to "Put the pussy on a chain wax"
We had no idea what it meant, and thought it was hilarious, so we'd oft repeat it at random.
Thinking about it now, I suddenly realize what he meant. He was referring to the woman in our group, telling us to pimp her out, by putting her up against a chain-link fence that were so plentiful in rough neighborhoods where we grew up.
So now I'm telling you, so that if you ever encounter this gentleman, you'll know what he's talking about 😶👍
If you ever see that guy, you better draxx them sclounce!
On ne peut pas avoir le beurre et l'argent du beurre (We can't have the butter and the butter's money)
This one would be the French equivalent of "You can't eat cake and have it"
Tomber dans les pommes (Falling in apples)
This is an expression to describe fainting
Tailler une pipe (Carving a pipe)
Give a blowjob
I only just realized the pun inside "You can't have your cake and eat it too."
Most people complain that it's a pointless idiom because if you possess a cake, you are likely able to eat it.
Having cake is another way of saying eating cake. It's saying you can't eat your cake and then eat your cake again.
It’s saying you can’t eat your cake and then eat your cake again.
I read this like "have it on the shelf" . One can't save money and still spend it.
On ne peut pas avoir le beurre et l'argent du beurre
Et le cul de la crémière. Littearly "and the ass of the dairy-woman"
Esperanto
krokodili- verb, literally something like "to crocodile"
It means when an Esperanto-speaker speaks in a language other than Esperanto while amongst other Esperanto-speakers.
No one's quite sure why that's the term for it, most likely because crocodiles have a big mouth.
When I learned that, it suddenly made a lot of sense why Duolingo taught me the word for "crocodile" so early.
Are there really esperato speakers in the wild (not just Duolingo?) It would be a fun language to learn, but if no one speaks i'd rather just get better at german :)
An example as if I was talking to you: "I'll wack you like an octopus" which technically already describes the action, however traditionally in my country after catching octopus in order to properly kill them and soften them up, fishermen basically smack/wacked them on the ground maniacally.
And I think it's become such a popular figure of speech because that mental image is hilarious and I love using it.
"I have to see a man about a horse."
It means you're going to the bathroom.
I’ve heard the size of the animal denotes how long they will take and/or how urgently they need to leave.
Brb, I gotta go take a Brontosaurus.
I've always heard this used to mean "I've gotta leave quickly" rather than going to bathroom; but I'm British so it might not hold the same meaning of you're not also!
Argentine here! Some of my favourites:
" Para andar a los pedos más vale cagarse "
Roughly translates to: "better shit yourself instead of going farting around" Worth noting: "andar a los pedos" also means being in a hurry.
" A caballo regalado no se le mira los dientes "
Roughly translates to: "Don't look at the teeth of a gifted horse", meaning you don't look for defects in things that have been handed to you.
" Siempre hay un roto para un descosido "
I think the English equivalent is "there's a lid for every pot".
" Lo atamos con alambre "
Translates to: "tie it down with wire". Usually refers to get something going even if it's barebones or a shaky fix.
I'll be thinking of more and maybe drop another comment later.
I like the horse one way more than the English saying “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” Yours makes way more sense
"Butt fuck Egypt (BFE)," when referring to being in the middle of nowhere or the far edges of a parking area. For example, Sally complained to her friend in the food court, "I had to park all the way in BFE. I'm dreading the walk back to the car."
Nice. In German we have "am Arsch der Welt", lit. translating to "at the arse of the world" to refer to the middle of nowhere
In portuguese, we also like to say "where Judas lost his boots"
English has "the arse end of nowhere" too. Wir sind alle gleich.
Why Egypt specifically? I've heard the phrase bumfuck nowhere before.
I think it's just a reference to being very far away from the speaker's main area of residence. Plus it just rolls off the tongue delightfully.
That's actually quite an interestingly accurate one, considering that something like 95% of Egyptians live near the Nile River, and anywhere that is NOT near the Nile is desert wasteland.
Other accurate analogies would be anywhere in Canada that is NOT near its' southern border, or nearly anywhere/everywhere in inland Australia, they call it the Outback for a reason.
You're mustard
English. It's a good thing, means the person is awesome.
You're mustard for teaching me this!
前世害左你么？(In Cantonese/Taishanese)
Did I hurt you in your previous incarnation?
Parents always say this when they get mad.
I guess it translate to "What did I do in my previous life to deserve a shitty kid like you?"
So a round-about way of just saying trash-talking their kid basically.
I always respons, "So why did you hurt me in my my previous life?"
Or "Yea you hur me in my previous life and I reincarnated here for revenge" 🤣
(Who the fucked coined that phrase, why is reincarnation brought up wtf lol)
To show the goats.
Lithuanian: rodyti ožius.
Means to cry, fight or roll on the ground when you didn't get what you wanted.
Kill two birds with one stone.Get two birds stoned at once. 😎Stone two birds with one hit.
Referencing an unpopular future possibility - “that’ll go over like a turd in a punch bowl”
Describing something you don’t miss - “I miss that like I’d miss a case of the clap”
Rain coming in at a weird angle - “this rain is like a cow pissing on a flat rock”
When someone says they wish some specific thing would happen - “wish in one hand, shit in the other, see which one fills up first”
When you’re unenthusiastic about something - “I’d rather shit in my hands and clap”
C'est la vie. Because it is what it is.
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
Oddly meaning, you act like your dumbass parent.
Burying the cunt of a mouse