Expressions in your country
So, some time ago we talked about expressions with Rather Dashing. That got me thinking.
I thought people could share expressions from their country/region/family, that aren't generally common in English or are originally in another language.
Then, other people could try and guess what they mean.
I'll try with some French ones:
"to break oneself" ("se casser")
"to hold the candle" ("tenir la chandelle")
"I can't smell him" ("je peux pas le sentir")
Possibly more to come later. So what do you think these mean? I'll give the answer after there have been a few guesses. And please share some too if you can think of any!
I thought people could share expressions from their country/region/family, that aren't generally common in English or are originally in another language.
Then, other people could try and guess what they mean.
I'll try with some French ones:
"to break oneself" ("se casser")
"to hold the candle" ("tenir la chandelle")
"I can't smell him" ("je peux pas le sentir")
Possibly more to come later. So what do you think these mean? I'll give the answer after there have been a few guesses. And please share some too if you can think of any!
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"I can't smell him" -> I don't understand him?
Here's mine, "Hyenas are being born."
In a way, you do stand out, but it only applies in a very specific situation.
No, but you're on the right track
Mmh... There is trouble brewing?
EDIT: OKAY WOW I AM COOL FOR NOT READING THE THREAD
"to break oneself"
And a few new ones:
"I'm not out of the inn!"
Nope.
I'd also like to point out there is no way I'll ever, ever be able to resist reading spoilers. I mean, seriously, do you really think that if I had any kind of self-control I'd make half of my posts?
Stupid Egg ... someone keeps trying to do something the wrong way?
Funnily enough, if one's "back teeth are floating", it means they need to urinate as soon as possible. (not sure of the country of origin, but I imagine it either stems from the odd sensation in the jaw when you've been holding it in for a long time, or the idea of being completely full of urine)
Here in Pennsylvania, we have an enormous variety of idioms that can't be found anywhere else, mostly stemming from the Pennsylvania Dutch population.
I can't really think of a list to share, as I've lived here most of my life, and I'm not entirely certain which phrases I use are specifically Pennsylvanian. Most that I know are unique to here are singular words.
Fun fact: My family has always referred to "goulash" as "goop". We are the only people I know of that uses this term.
Edit: I've added the meanings in spoiler tags
Milde Moses
Mild Moses!
Det er bare blåbær
It's all blueberries.
Frisk som en fisk
Lively like a fish.
Saken er biff!
The case is a steak!
Sitter med skjegget i postkassa
Stuck with your beard in the mailbox.
Å få bakoversveis
To get a backwards hair-do!
I know what you mean. I tried finding a good translation for "Itj færra nålles", but it doesn't even make much sense in Norwegian. It literally translates to something like "Don't go do something one way or the other", but it really means "Take care"/"Don't get yourself into trouble".
It's actually pretty funny to try and find the original expression with only the translated one.
Not an expression, but i often call my friends "sacs à douches", which is a bad and direct trannslation of "douchebags" but doesn't make any kind of sense in french.
That's a load of bullshit / lies ?
It's a piece of cake ?
Out of the belly. (Esperanto English)
Someone is boring?
Something's not what you thought it was?
Unable to do anything about something?
To be offended by someone?
Also, I'm guessing "Hyenas are being born" might mean that there's a commotion or a lot of noise?
There are one or two British colloquialisms that people from other countries might not get straight away. The only ones I can think of right now are "it's raining cats and dogs" (which means it's raining heavily) and "bollocks" which is synonymous with "bullshit" (as in "that's a load of bullshit/bollocks")
It goes like a shower of ship -
...and, in case your wondering, we never say "shrimp on the barbie" and we rarely ever say "crikey!".
I like that one
Thanks. The world needs more people talking nonsense that only they will find funny.
Yeah, that's what I never got. Surely it would come out slowly and defeat the purpose of actually having a shower.
Edit: Oh, I just remembered another one...
Bored Shipless -
Does that mean it's thundering? (I base this guess on thunder sort of sounding like a deep evil laugh, and hyenas laugh- or at least sound like they are).
I've been wrong in my guesses about pretty much every phrase so far, so I'm not very hopeful of getting the correct answer here.
Uumm, the wind is strong and it's making a whistling sound?
Whoa, where's that expression from? For all I know it can be anywhere between Trondheim and Romsdalen. That's my guess anyways
Dat zit wel snor - That's going mustache -
Het raakt kant noch wal - It's doesn't hit the side nor the shore -
Pølsevev
Sausage weave (?)
Blakk som en kirkerotte
As broke as a church rat
Det er ugler i mosen
There are owls in the moss
Å kjøpe katta i sekken
To buy a cat in a bag
Norway has been a protestant dominated country for hundreds of years, so we've historically disliked the pope or anything catholic. This has led to some interesting pope-related insults, including:
Juksepave ("cheating pope", someone who cheats)
Somlepave ("dawdling pope", someone who dawdles)
Skrytepave ("bragging pope", someone who brags or boasts)
This one exists in dutch too.
"De kat in de zak kopen."
The Owls are not what they seem...
I thought of one more semi-international expression: Bjørnetjeneste, "a bear's service" (?). It is refers to a service given with good intentions which turns out to be unhelpful or harmful. (I.e. a disservice) I know it's called Bärendienst in German, I'm guessing there's good chances the same expression exists in Dutch.
The expression is apparently from a French story about a tame bear who wants to swat a fly off his human owner's face, but the strike kills the owner.
Here's we have one meaning the same, it's "Ser Violinista" or "Who play the Violin".
We have others, like:
"There's no moors in the coast" "No hay moros en la costa"
"This is Hairy" "Ésto es peludo"
The whole verb "Pelar" with mainly mean "to peel" or "to cut your hair really short"
"Eres un Patudo" "You have a big paw"
"Café Café" "Coffee Coffee"
"Echar la foca" "Trowing the seal"
"La mansa mina" "The big mine"
"Zapatero" "Shoe Repaired/Maker"
"Hacer una vaca" "Doing a cow"
I could go the whole day, I think...
Oh dear... I couldn't think of any that might be specifically Aussie, until you mentioned they'd all be profane.
I feel this reflects poorly on Australia as a country, but here are a few more (like Hayden, I generally wouldn't use them myself, although they are very common).
For ships and giggles -
"Tienes cara de poto" - Literally "You have an ass face"
"1 palo (verde)" - "1 (green) stick"
"Tying the cat onto the pork."
"To fall with your nose into the butter."
"He has butter on his head."
"I've never eaten it this salty!"
"The soup is never eaten as hot as it is served."
I'm just not gonna answer these, since I'm dutch as well.
But try your best!
Bæsje på leggen
"Pooping on (your own) shin"
Drite på daget
In the old times of horse-drawn vehicles, the horse's excrement would sometimes fall on the piece that connects a horse-drawn carriage to the horse. (I don't know the English word for that piece) This Norwegian expression refers to that occurrence, which probably was uncomfortable for the humans involved. The meaning of this expression is the same as for the one above.
There's my part:
"Me cagaste" "You pooped on me"
Haha, those too are commonly used here
Mind telling me the Arabic version? I won't give the answer away if I know it, but I can't tell what expression you're talking about.
I could think of some specific to my region, but most of them would be really hard to translate to English plus their meaning can vary depending on the situation ... so I'll better sting to the more general ones, like
"Da ist Holland in Not." 'There/then holland is in distress.'
In French we say "a bomb" or "a cannon".... Although come to think of it, it could actually be "canon" (they're the same in French) which would make sense too.
He was rocked (as a baby) too close to a wall
To eat dandelions by the roots
That's quite poetic, I like it.