I would like to see some direct translation from your language into English.
This post may include affiliate links.
I wish there were a way to say easily in English "pena ajena" (Spanish). It basically means that you are cringing with embarrassment for another person who should be feeling the embarrassment for themselves but, sadly, has no clue.
I feel this way when I watch reality TV sometimes.
TO GO CUCUMBER (Danish Saying 🇩🇰)
“Hun gik helt agurk” = “She went totally cucumber”
meaning “She lost her head” or “She went nuts”
How is it that the land of vikings doesn't use the term berserk?
"Que digan misa!" Literally something like "Let them say Mass! It actually means you don't care what people say, let them say whatever.
Another favorite is "No tengo pelos en la lengua." = "I have no hairs on my tongue." Meaning you have no difficulty speaking, you speak your mind.
Spanish, BTW.
"Kellä onni on, se onnen kätkeköön".
Translation: "Whom has luck/happiness, shall hide luck/happiness".
While this finnish saying may sound cruel, it is actually about caring your about your fellow person; as we probably should know, people legit dislike it when other people are doing better.
Nu komt de aap uit de mouw
Literally translated: the monkey is coming out of the sleeve now.
Is said when something is revealed and stuff becomes clear.
And then we’ve added: ‘laat die andere mouw eens zien, want misschien dat er nog een aap in zit.’
Literally: ‘show us the other sleeve, because maybe there’s another monkey in there.’
Which means something along the lines of: ‘is there anything else you’d like to tell us?’
Southern US English: They don't have a pot to p**s in or a window to throw it out of.
Translation to Standard US English: They are very poor.
'(that person) speaks even though his/her elbows'
Colombian saying-' habla hasta por los codos'
A who really likes to talk and make a conversation with everyone. Never runs out of topics.
in Punjabi there's a saying: Juti khaneea haan.( Idk how to spell it)
It's like an idiom and it's not easy to translate into English but It means "do you want to get beat up?
But it LITERALLY means "do you want to eat shoes?"
Juti=shoes
Khaneea= wanna eat
A cobra vai fumar - The snake will smoke
That is a brazilian saying that means sh*t is about to get serious.
It is interesting how this expression came up, here is what Wikipedia says, in short: during WWII, people used to say "It's more likely for a snake to smoke a pipe than for the FEB (Brazilian Expeditionary Force) to go the front and fight". Well, when FEB entered combat, they used the expression "a cobra vai fumar" (The snake will smoke) and nicknamed themselves as "the Smoking Snakes". After the war the meaning was reversed, signifying that something will definitively happen and in a furious and aggressive way.
In Arabic it is said (translated) "holding the ladder horizontally" meaning that you take the hard way in anything, complicating your life or task.
In Italian, you can say ‘Cavollo!’ If you mess up or get mad about something. It means ‘Cabbage!’ Like you could say, ‘Cabbage! The printer is broken again!’
'That mouse will have a tail'.
Means an action will have certain consequences, now or later. The terrible part is, Apart from this proverb, the Dutch tend to translate their proverbs literally, and this sometimes produces hilarious scenes.
"As jy dom is, moet jy kak"
An Afrikaans South African saying which literally translates as "If you're dumb, then you must sh*t". Meaning that if you are go through life doing really dumb stuff, you have to live with the crappy consequences of your own stupidity. It's just a far better, snappier and pithier way of saying it.
In Germany there is the saying. “Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof” I only understand train station. The meaning is that I heard what you say but I don’t understand it. It goes back to World War 1. The command Bahnhof (train station) meant you were allowed to go home from the front lines, so soldiers only listened to hear if they can go home not caring about anything else.
"Der Teufel scheißt immer auf den größten Haufen" - "The devil always sh*ts on the largest pile" - means that those who already are unfairly advantaged are more likely to get even more advantages, esp. money ("Why does Greg get a raise? He must already make, like, twice of what we make!" "Well, the devil always sh*ts on the largest pile, I guess")
Er ist ein beleidigte Leberwurst!
(He is an insulted liverwurst/liver sausage = He's a sore loser).
I also like. German: was du nicht willst das man dir tu das füg auch keinem andern zu. Meaning: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Sounds difficult, but is, in all seriousness, a simple thing.
Not my language but I've been living here for years.
Met someone when I was first in Germany, who said to me (when I didn't understand his german):
"You are heavy on wire!" / "Du bist schwer auf Draht!"
Still haven't really figured that one out.
Aha. after all these years I bothered to translate it. I guess it means "to be on my toes / to be on the ball" or quickwitted.
German: Ehrlich währt am längsten. Should about translate to: honesty is the best policy.
I see a lot of Afrikaans (one of the 11 official languages in South Africa). But we have a saying "al loop 'n leun al so snel die waarheid haal hom in tog wel." Which loosely translates to even if a lie runs like hell, the truth will always catch up with it. And I believe it does sometimes it just takes time.
A spoonful of tar in a barrel of honey (Russian: ложка дёгтя в бочке мёда), meaning some small bad detail that can/will spoil something big and good.
To let the goat into the veg patch (Russian: пускать козла в огород), meaning to allow someone to act where they could be particularly harmful.
Старый конь борозды не испортит (Russian: an old horse won't damage the furrow), meaning an elderly or experienced person will be able to cope with the task at hand. Funnily enough, there is also "a blunder can happen to an old woman too" (Russian: и на старуху бывает проруха), meaning even an experienced person can sometimes make mistakes.
A favorite one of mine is "Du gehst mir tierisch auf den Keks."
It means to get on somebody's nerves in a bad way. A direct translation would be: "You go me animally on the cookie."
(German, by the way)
And I have an english expression for which I still haven't found the right translation to German: "Whatever floats your boat." I know what it means, but found no equivalent in German.
There is a funny category in german sayings called "Denglisch" and its full of words and sayings. I have lots of favourites and one of these is "Heartly Luckwish" - Herzlichen Glückwunsch- Congratulations! 😄🥳
Always found this german saying pretty funny. It's usually said with a bit of anger.
Du kannst mir den Buckel runter rutschen!
(You can slide down down my hump/back = Leave me alone or p!ss off).
Or, where I live, they'd say "den Buckel nunne rutsche!"
A less common Afrikaans saying "Hang tak" litterally translates too "hang branch". This is usually said when somebody tells another person to hold on for a moment.
Another one "Alle grappies op n stokkie" translates too "All jokes on a stick". This is usually said when somebody wants to get serious, and stop the joking around.
Nu har du skitit i det blå skåpet!
Directely translated from swedish it would be:
Now you pooped in the blue cabinet!
And it's like:
Oh. Now you've done it...
You have really messed up!
Here in Franken/Bayern, germany, there is a local thing. "Blöder als 100m feldweg." In fränkisch(the local accent) "Blaider als 100meder feldwech." The meaning is. "Stupider than 100 meter dirt road."
As proud as a watering can.
German sayings and their history:
“Es ist 08 15.” It is zero eight fifteen. It is nothing special. It goes back to WW1 it was the most common machine gone who oftentimes didn’t really work that well.
“Etwas ausbaden.” To bath last. Meaning to be punished harder than necessary. It goes back to the times without running water. Usually people bathed in the same tub without changing the water and the last one got dirty water and had to clean the tub.
“Jemanden ausstechen” to poke someone out. To be better than someone else. Goes back to the duels knights had. You used a lance to poke out the other knight from his saddle.
“Einen blauen Brief bekommen.” To get a blue letter. Meaning to get bad news usually meaning that you have to repeat a school year. It goes back to the Prussian army who used their destroyed blue uniforms to create paper for letters who usually carried bad news for those who got them either the dead of a relative or an announcement of mobilisation who went to schools.
“Alles in Butter.” “Everything is inside butter.” Meaning everything is alright. To transport fragile goods especially over the alps you put them in a box and added melted butter who hardened an protected the goods during transportation.
“Den Faden verlieren” To loose the thread. Meaning to be no longer able to follow the conversation. In the past people who spun spread talked with each other, sometimes the if the conversation got carried away the thread ripped and spun himself around the spindle forcing to stop the conversation to restart the spinning process.
“Dem Fass den Boden ausschlagen” To break the bottom of the barrel. Meaning something is an obvious scam or extremely rude behaviour, back when guilds existed there were people who controlled that wine or bear weren’t watered down or had other ingredients in them. Was someone convicted his barrels were brought to the markets and the bottom was cut off to destroy the inferior product and publicly shaming someone. In the same category. “Ein Schlitzohr sein.” Being a Split ear. Meaning being a dishonest person. Was a man convicted of fraud and he wore earring they were ripped out creating a visible split ear.
“Die Lute riechen” “To smell the fuse” meaning to see someone’s bad intentions early. You could smell a canon being lit by a fuse and it gave you time to escape.
“Unter dem Pantoffel stehen” “To stand under the slippers.” Being a submissive husband to a dominant sometimes violent wife. Slippers were a female foot wear in the 15 till 17th century and some wives used the wooden slippers to beat their husbands into submission.
“Seemannsgarn spinnen” “To spin seaman’s thread” meaning to tell a fantastical story without any truth in it. When seaman had to fix their sails during their travels they usually told each other stories.
“Das kommt mir Spanisch vor.” It appears to be Spanish in my eyes” Something is really strange. It goes back to emperor Carl the fifth who came from Spain and his customs were strange to the people.
“Den Stab über jemand brechen” To break a stick above someone. Meaning to have a harsh judgment of someone. Until the 19th century a judge would break a literal stick over someone he sentenced to death to symbolise that their live was over.
“Nicht alle Tassen im Schrank haben” “Not having all cups inside the cupboard.” Meaning being insane or an idiot. It comes from the jiddish word toschia meaning mind which over time turned into Tasse (cup).
Not my first language but neurotypical language “does anyone want the last potato” really means “I’m taking the last potato”
German: "Dir kann ich auf den Kopf spucken!" - literally "I can spit on your head!" basically meaning that one is taller than the other. My Canadian fiancée thinks it's very mean, but also funny, and was very confused when I used the direct English translation because it's not a thing here.
And when abroad, be careful when you speak you own language. Someone could understand you perfectly . Happened to me a couple of times. Just one, in a tramway in Wien, Austria I said in French to a girlfriend, this lady is wearing a wig. Big signs and eyes rolling. How could I know that Perruque meant the same thing both in German and French? No harm done , the lady heard nothing but my friend was so embarassed lol. A lesson though. warning!
(to je) Lepší než drátem do oka.
Czech. "(That's) better than a wire into the eye." - it could be worse/could have turned out worse.
坏蛋, Huài dàn (Mandarin) which means bad egg. People in China use that saying a lot to describe bad people,basically calling them a rotten/bad egg.
I speak africaans.
Goeiemore is good morning in africaans.
My naam is is My name is.
Now-Now = Later
Now = Soon
Right Now = At that point in time
German saying. “Einen Zacken zulegen.” To put a prong on. The meaning is to start doing something faster.It goes back to the Middle Ages. A prong is basically a giant metal comb you put your cauldron on to constantly heat your food over 65 degrees Celsius since usually food could stay inside the cauldron for years and new food was simply added. In the evening you put it down a few prongs to bring it to a boil faster without using more wood.
I didn't get here soon enough but in French we say "My little finger told me" instead of English's 'A little bird told me'. I also like in Japanese they say "Ganbatte" instead of "good luck". It doesn't mean that! It means 'do your best' which I think is so much more encouraging!
I didn't get here soon enough but in French we say "My little finger told me" instead of English's 'A little bird told me'. I also like in Japanese they say "Ganbatte" instead of "good luck". It doesn't mean that! It means 'do your best' which I think is so much more encouraging!
