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163

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

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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."

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 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 9 months ago

To make a worseprovement! I like that one.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 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 9 months ago* (last edited 9 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