Ask Lemmy

26734 readers

1585 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

163

Multilingual folks: what are some odd idioms in your language(s)? (lemmy.world)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

164 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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."

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (3 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago

To make a worseprovement! I like that one.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

s.th. is not the yellow from the egg: It's not the best
I only understand train station: I did not understand anything
Now we have the salad: Now we're screwed
now it’s about the sausage: Things have gotten serious
So is carved from another (kind of) wood: So is more capable