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Hey Pandas, What’s A Saying In Your Language That You Think Others Should Have Too? (Closed)
Like we have Maanantaikappale. I'll explain it in the comments. Its straight translation is something made on Monday. Meaning something that is a defective item.
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#1
German: "Herr lass es Hirn regnen" - "Lord, let it rain brains" in case somebody does or says something stupid. Optinal addition: "Oder Steine, hauptsache du triffst" - "Or bricks, doesn't matter as long as you hit"
Final score:
31points
Bisexual Axolotls 2 years ago
I am now even more motivated to keep learning German I need this energy in my life
censorshipsucks 2 years ago
well there's a different sense here right, this is saying something sarcastic about stupid people whereas that's just exaggerating how hard it is raining.
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RELATED:
#2
From Texas: Fixin' too. It means I'm getting myself ready to get ready to do something.
Final score:
26points
Bisexual Axolotls 2 years ago
NC and Texas are fairly similar in language, flags, and barbecue obsessions - another NC person
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valyn 2 years ago
Mom gave me a roundtoit for my birthday one year. It was a circular wooden disc with "toit" painted on it. I still have it, forty years later.
Load More Replies... RAVEN Howard 2 years ago
All the votes for everything seem to be downvoting... but yes, I use this everyday
Henrik Schmidt 2 years ago
"Fixin' to", I guess, or as modern Internet usage would have it, "finna".
Seamus Crumley 2 years ago
"You'll be 'fixin' nothing' is phrase my wife uses. "Your'e useless at 'fixin'.
#3
"Not my circus; not my monkeys" An American English saying that means: "I'm not responsible for it, so I'm not going to stress over it."
Final score:
23points
BLONDTROBL 2 years ago
My new favorite is: not my pants. Heard a guy on a reality TV show say that when he got busted with drugs.
Nonesuch 2 years ago
I believe I saw this same show. The guy was actually wearing the pants when he denied owning them!
Load More Replies... Seamus Crumley 2 years ago
My two sons growing up had this translation for the above. " It wasn't me, it was him" Even if one of them was caught red-handed.
Heather Vandegrift 2 years ago (edited)
A friend's of mine had a variation on this: Not my liquor store. It came from when her partner was an employee (not the rich owner) of a liquor store but would stress over work things too much. She would stop him when he was freaking out and say "HEY! Remember: it's not your liquor store!" Works great for work stuff to remind you that stressing out over what's happening that's out of your control, in a job where you are NOT the top person, isn't going to gain you anything!
#4
"Whatchamacallit" and "Thing-a-magig" are pretty useful ones, especially when you don't know what something is. I don't know if non-native English speakers use it/if there's some equivalent but it's really useful. "Bless your heart" is also a very Southern saying that I'm not entirely sure even translates to regular English. Just a heads up, it is not a compliment. You have pissed off a Southerner, or they think you're stupid.
Final score:
18points
RafCo (he/him/ele) 2 years ago
Qualquer coisa is maybe the closest equivalent in Portuguese. It just means "any thing". We have a name though with a similar meaning Fulano/Fulana. It's the name of a person when you don't know their name. Like basically "some guy"
censorshipsucks 2 years ago
In Afrikaans in South Africa we have "dingus" which means "thingus" (thingy).
Heather Vandegrift 2 years ago
Americans use dingus to mean someone stupid
Load More Replies... AmandaKay 2 years ago
"Bless your heart" is the Bible Belt shouting FU because Jesus won't let them actually swear so they blasphem politely instead.
Bisexual Axolotls (Submission author) 2 years ago
Very true, but it's also very useful for an atheist who does swear but needs to act professionally.
Load More Replies... Queen Mab 2 years ago
"Bless you heart" is really fulfilling to use if someone is being a jerk. Especially if they don't know what it means.
Bisexual Axolotls (Submission author) 2 years ago
Southern passive-agressiveness at it's finest
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Amanda Brokaw 2 years ago
Downvote for the "bless your heart" nonsense. It's an expression of sympathy that some people use sarcastically. It's NOT "a Southener thinks you're stupid."
Bisexual Axolotls (Submission author) 2 years ago
No need to be confrontational, I was making a joke based on my knowledge of the place I live. It was a joke, and bless your heart, I am fully aware of what it means, as I use it quite often.
Load More Replies... Seamus Crumley 2 years ago
It's a great word. 'IT' at the end can be replaced by a number other words - him, her and them for example.
#5
Maanantaikappale. Its straight translation is something made on Monday. Meaning something that is a defective item. Its referring to the common belief that products made on Monday are of lower than average quality.
Final score:
16points
Rinso the Red 2 years ago
Hah! Where I'm from, we always assumed defective items were made on a Friday because everyone was burnt out by then and rushing to get done for the week.
Paul Scheermeijer 2 years ago
Maandagmorgen machine = Monday morning machine in Dutch. Because factoryworkers had a hangover from weekends so quality is chips..
RAVEN Howard 2 years ago
This is somewhat accepted knowledge in the auto industry, vehicles made on Mondays and Fridays will have more mistakes... Mondays, because well, Mondays, and Fridays everyone is ready for the weekend... although, now that there are much more staggered schedules, not as much
Seamus Crumley 2 years ago
How the hell do you pronounce this word? No wonder it's a Monday word!
Heather Vandegrift 2 years ago
So, does that mean nothing gets manufactured on Mondays and that day is strictly for packaging or administrative things? I'm genuinely curious
#6
I'm not a native French speaker, but I love the phrase, "C'est pas tes oignons!" The direct translation is, "These aren't your onions!" but idiomatically, it means, "Mind your own business," and not in a polite way. (My dad was a professor of foreign languages, mainly French and German.)
Final score:
16points
Apatheist Account2 2 years ago
Yet in English we have "to know your onions", meaning to be knowledgeable. What is it with onions?
RafCo (he/him/ele) 2 years ago
I thought this came from an apocryphal story of the English sailor who took a million dollar tulip bulb from the house of a 17th century Dutch merchant because he thought it was an onion. The story is untrue, but the myth was popularized by a 19th century Scottish economist who wrote about the tulip bubble in Holland. Hence "know your onions". Anyways, this is what I have heard about the origin of that saying.
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Lightning and Thunder 2 years ago
Also in French they don’t say “that’s so cool” they say “that’s so owl”
Catastrophisticate 2 years ago
In the 19th century, "oignon" was used as a euphemism for b******e LOL Which explains the other similar expression "mêles-toi de tes fesses" (mind your own butt)
Catastrophisticate 2 years ago
oops... censored = the last word, plus "hole" LOL
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patricia patricia 2 years ago
I had a Czech flatmate some years ago and I learnt a saying I love: "it's not my circus, so they aren't my monkeys", to say something is not my problem.
#7
"Umuntu Ngumuntu Ngabantu." A zulu saying meaning, I am who I am because of other people. It is to acknowledge that we are not self-made but rather we owe a lot to others; they support us and we support them. It is the founding principle of the philosophy of ubuntu, that is, sharing and helping each other. Its name has been used for the free Linux distribution popularised by our own Mark Shuttleworth. Here's a song version. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW2E9HP5mc4
Final score:
16points
Glengoolie Blue 2 years ago
I don't think it's fair to blame other people for the disaster I turned out to be.
censorshipsucks (Submission author) 2 years ago (edited)
of course it is. Did you choose your parents? Or your home language? Or the country you were born in? or which school you went to (initially), and therefore what friend/s you made there? Did you choose your immediate family members that you were affected by?
Load More Replies... #8
phonetically: sadeeg a’gil khair min a’dou jahil, in Arabic it means that a clever enemy is better than a stupid freind. (عدو عاقل خير من صديق جاهل )
Final score:
11points
#9
Finnish: Kalsarikännit: "Underweardrunk" To get drunk at home in your underwear. also related is: Välikuolema! "in-between death" To pas out during a long drinking session, waking up and continuing. this is the little "in-between death"
Final score:
10points
Seamus Crumley 2 years ago
Nothing better than getting drunk in your underwear. Don't have to cahnge when going to bed - drunk. Great word!
#10
"They don't have a pot to pi$$ in or a window to throw it out of" - a person who is lacking resources.
Final score:
10points
Seamus Crumley 2 years ago
'I haven't got two pennies to rub together' is what we say (Ireland again)
#11
"Like a fart in a mitten". Newfoundlander phrase meaning that the truth will get out no matter how hard you try to hide it will be let out sometime.
Final score:
9points
Chris O'Quinn 2 years ago
In the US Midwest, we like to say "that'll go over like a fart in church", meaning the situation is unacceptable.
#12
"All hat and no cattle." It's a phrase in Texas and the southwestern US that means a person who talks big, but doesn't have anything to back it up.
Final score:
7points
CrazyKnitter 2 years ago
I've heard this in NC, but really only in the more rural areas. There's lots of farmland here (or there was, the city is expanding a lot)
#13
caddywumpus indicates something is not quite right. Hairball or train wreck is a situation not going well. Also the classic SNAFU - Situation Normal All Fouled Up & FUBAR - Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition. (note "Fouled" is often replaced by a different word that also begins with an "F"
Final score:
6points
#14
Welsh: Hiraeth "especially in the context of Wales or Welsh culture) deep longing for a home you can never return to, or one that was never yours " https://www.google.com/search?q=Hiraeth+definition&client=ms-android-oppo-rvo3&hl=en&prmd=ivn&sxsrf=APwXEdfSGWjCsRzc365xpImqQRwMyrO61A:1680119703653&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjr6fbQ9YH-AhWColwKHUVgCVEQ_AUIHygB&biw=400&bih=738&dpr=1.8&safe=active&ssui=on (for better descriptions)
Final score:
5points
#15
"Fart But Be Happy" It's Marathi (I can't write it), and it means to do anything but be happy with the result.
Final score:
5points
#16
Irish: Go raibh meas ag comharsana ort, go dtabharfadh trioblóid faillí ort, go gcosnaíonn na haingil thú, agus go nglacfadh Neamh leat.(May neighbors respect you, trouble neglect you, the angels protect you, and Heaven accept you,)
Final score:
4points
Seamus Crumley 2 years ago
99.99% of Irish people would not have a clue how to pronounce that. Never even heard the phrase in English either. You are much more likely to here this from us, "Good luck and have a bit of craic" Craic is pronounced crack - not a drug, but a word for a good time.
#17
Not my language and not my first submission, but I learned this one from an Australian TV show: "We're not here to make love to spiders" or the more crude version of that. I lost my s**t laughing. Honorable mention: "Well f**k me sideways"
Final score:
4points
#18
English we have...uh......break a leg? no......cat got your tongue? eh...break the ice? WHY ARE ENGLISH IDIOMS ALL VIOLENCE
Final score:
3points
Ashen Mccann (They/Them) (Submission author) 2 years ago
break a leg means good luck, mostly used in musical theater because it means to get in the "cast" cat got your tongue is for when your speechless, to break the ice means to break an awkward moment, thats why questions to ask people to start a conversation are called icebreakers, these are so common i know but i had a friend who was from another country and they didnt know any of these
#19
"Στον πού@$ο μου λουλούδια, και γύρω γύρω μέλισσες:::" Translating as "There are flowers and bees around mi d!Ck" Meaning: "I don't give a sh!t" in.... Greek!!!!
Final score:
3points
#20
Je can de boss neit zein door de boemen, it means that you can't see the forest for the trees
Final score:
3points
#21
French: "Ça ne vaut pas un pet de lapin": it"s not worth a rabbit's fart" meaning it's not not worth it or doesn't worth much
Final score:
3points
Öz Deniz Boro 2 years ago
Keyif. Pronounced just as it is. It is mostly a Mediteranian concept. Somewhat like slow living and cooling off but ultimately doing what you enjoy by yourself. Enjoying yourself or cooling off does not cover it. You deliberately create the time and environtment to have keyif in for the utmost relaxation and enjoyment.
#22
This isn't really a language based saying a much as a regional one. My grandfather was from Barbados and used to always say, 'don't have race horse ride jack-a*s' . It essentially meant 'sometimes you have to do the best with what you have, you won't always have the best things and we'll need to be resourceful but if you set your mind to something you can make what you have work for you.
Final score:
2points
Hales M (Submission author) 2 years ago (edited)
Thank you BP for your continued censorship of a word that is acceptably said on pre-teen tv. Also *will
Seamus Crumley 2 years ago
Sorry, but I love giving the Irish translations. We call a spade a spade, (it is what it is). A translation for the above is, 'Stop your effin whinging, and get on with it'
#23
"Ghupft wia gsprunga" - "No matter what option you pick the result will be the same"
Final score:
2points
Keksoli (Submission author) 2 years ago
I uses two different words for jump, that mean the same in english. Cant really translate it since both words are jump in english so it doesnt make any sense.
#24
Saying from Spain. My grandmother says it all the time. "Para tirar cohetes". It translates to " to throw rockets" it means something is really good. For example if you really like a dish you can say" that dish was worth throwing rockets " It sounds way better in Spanish.
Final score:
2points
#25
Finnish: Sataa kuin Esterin perseestä – "To rain like from Ester’s a*s" Meaning its raining a lot.
Final score:
1point
#26
Crazy is as crazy does
Final score:
1point
#27
Argentinian: "BOLUDO" It is used to insult, to affectionately call a friend, to show surprise.
Final score:
1point
#28
I know that in Spanish, "bobo" means "fool" I know someone who's Cuban and uses it a lot to the jackasses at our school
Final score:
1point
#29
I'm not a world traveler and from the U.S. If you're on the back of a motorcycle, you're said to be, "riding b***h". Cause that's what bikers call their woman and it's usually who rides on the back. But, whether male or female, if on the back you're riding b***h. This female doesn't apply, I drive my own motorcycle.
Final score:
1point
Vermontah 2 years ago
I guess I knew nicer bikers. drink, party, all that but no disrespect for anyone in the group. We were friends off the bike though. What's your ride? We had harley then a Victory
Trish R (Submission author) 2 years ago
I like to ride not wrench, so I have Hondas.
Load More Replies... Seamus Crumley 2 years ago
With that phrase, I'd guess you ride on your motorbike alone most of the time.
Trish R (Submission author) 2 years ago
All the time. It's mine. Took me 25 years of having my license before I could afford to buy one. Got a great deal so I bought 2. My teenage sons wanted to learn to ride but not on my bike.i I got them a 600 to ride and whomever wants can ride it too or use it to learn how.
Load More Replies... censorshipsucks 2 years ago
I don't get the "riding shotgun" one for the front passenger though?
Trish R (Submission author) 2 years ago
It makes more sense that stagecoach drivers carried one in the passenger seat, but It came from TV and wild west shows where the pony express would carry a shotgun beside them in case of robbers, Indians or animals as protection. I'll have to do more googling because I thought the pony express was done on horseback. But media screws up everything.
Load More Replies... #30
Haggerty and Hennessy. Tempted not to explain. However, years ago in the New York Times Sunday magazine Bill Safire mentioned that it is pretty well known that Goodbye is a contraction of God be with you but it is less well-known that it only took one generation to make the switch. Those days it was common to part with the words have a good day hence haggerty. Later, people changed to have a good day hence Hennessy. Aren't you glad you asked?
Final score:
1point
Onion Patch Petunia (Submission author) 2 years ago
Sorry, the second have a good day should have read have a nice day.
Henrik Schmidt 2 years ago
I WAS going to ask how "have a good day" translated to "Hennessy"...
Load More Replies... #31
My grandfather used to say: do you walk to school or carry your lunch? Meaning: are you mixed up, confused? He also used to make up words. Dilfarge = an unknown. Example: what's that dilfarge on your shirt?
Final score:
1point
#32
I worked with a guy that if you asked what is that? and he didn't know he would say"Don't put yer lips on it". If he didn't know someone's name he would say "Yo face, c'mere" and sigh "marone" (bollocks)
Final score:
1point
#33
in Dutch: Het zal mij aan mijn reet roesten - that will rust my @ss = I don't give a sht
Final score:
1point
#34
Not really a saying but a word. In Spanish, we have a word for someone from the US without having to say American. The word is “estadounidense” and is literally “someone from the US”
Final score:
0points
What do you think ?
VodkaInMySweetTea 2 years ago
I also love the southern US phrase "Lord willing and the creek don't rise" when making plans. It means, barring any unexpected events. I'm planning to be there, but let's acknowledge that life gets in the way sometimes. "I'll see you on Monday - Lord willing, and the creek don't rise."
VodkaInMySweetTea 2 years ago
I've always loved the Hungarian word "tessék". It's so versatile and there's nothing like it in English. I've heard it used as: excuse me, you go first, come again?, welcome, can I help you?, would you please?, here you go, help yourself, you may begin, and get out of my car (when used by a taxi driver).
VodkaInMySweetTea 2 years ago
I also love the southern US phrase "Lord willing and the creek don't rise" when making plans. It means, barring any unexpected events. I'm planning to be there, but let's acknowledge that life gets in the way sometimes. "I'll see you on Monday - Lord willing, and the creek don't rise."
VodkaInMySweetTea 2 years ago
I've always loved the Hungarian word "tessék". It's so versatile and there's nothing like it in English. I've heard it used as: excuse me, you go first, come again?, welcome, can I help you?, would you please?, here you go, help yourself, you may begin, and get out of my car (when used by a taxi driver).
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