Idioms in foreign languages - and their translations

"Hentje de voorste zijn" literally means "To be hen (as in male chicken) first" (or something like that). What it means is beating the best (the hen).

Nice one, Technoguyrob.

Los marines entraron a Bagdad "como Pedro por su casa".
The marines entered Baghdad "like Pedro enters his house" (meaning, with surprising ease).

[hey, I don't know if I missed a preposition in the English phrase]

sounds good to me amigo!

Thanks, Tiger

Especially as many of my friends call me Pedro!

KP

I prefer "killed two birds once when I was stoned"

We kill seven fies with one hit. My mother has reminded me recently of a different idiom, I was sending out yet another application for a scholarship, complaining how futile an attempt it is (way tooo competitive) and she said not to give up, because

when the luck is tired, it will sit down even on an ass.

"Mata Hari" - Eye of the Sun - literally, today

"Mata Cuchi" - Wash the eyes - literally, girl watching

German Idioms
I was discussing Football with some German friends and couldn't translate several English idioms

When a defender controls an opponent's striker we might say:
" He had him in his pocket"



When a team can't reach a goal and then says " It wasn't worth it we might say"

"That's sour grapes"

What is the equivalent German?

Welcome to A2K, Deimos!

The translation for the first would be "Er steckt ihn in die Tasche" (which is nearly the same as in English, I wonder, wha my German co-citizens didn't know this)

The second is "In den sauren Apfel beissen" only slightly different to the English idiom.

I love some of the gestures which different cultures use as well--people seem to know that the French will kiss their bunched fingers, but then confuse the manner and meaning of the gesture. Frenchmen i've seen will kiss their fingertips and then rapidly shake the open hand, as though they'd just burned their fingers, while indicating an attractive woman, meaning "too hot to handle." They will also look at one another when bored, and run their fingernails back and forth across the cheek, meaning, "Well, this is sure exciting, think i'll go shave . . . "

Welcome to A2K, Deimos.

Gestures are more cultural than linguistic.

Cubans sweep two fingers across their foreheads, throw the hand down, firmly grasp the middle finger with the thumb and let the index beat hardly on the juncture, making a clickety sound. At the same time, they yell "¡sola vaya!". This took me years to master and it means: "I don't want to have anything to do with it".

Mexicans don't give only the middle finger. The index and ring fingers are crutched in a way to resemble the thingies that usually accompany the organ the middle finger is supposed to symbolize. I went through a lot of effort at grade school -using a pencil as a clutch- to be able to go through this motion.

Italians have a wide variety.
"Me ne frego" (I don't give a damn): the three central fingers are moved up the neck, towards the chin; after they reach the chin, the index, the middle and the thumb are thrown into the air; it's best to accompany the move with a sour face.
"Due Palle" (literally: "two balls", meaning "I'm fed up"). Both arms are placed at hip level, hands facing each other. The little and ring finger are clutched and the wrists turn the hands rithmically -not very fast-. Supposedly the speakers' balls grew so much, he's tapping them with the thumb.

My ex wife Solveig came here after two years in France so would mix up English phrases once in a while. For years she told everyone we were married by a piece of justice.

English speakers use the expression "Heads will roll", presumably as a reference to the excesses of the French Revolution (I suppose that's also the origin of 'Don't lose your head'). Do the French also use it? Anyone?

It's used in Spanish ("caerán cabezas"), but not in Italian.

In Pa GErman we say everything in the familiar, so

du kann nich mich verkaufen-- has nothing to do with sales, it means
"Im not that dumb".

Seems to me that many Slavik epithets have some reference to dogs or wolves.

I'm not Jewish, but lived on the eastcoast for eight years before returning back to the mid-west. I was amazed by the number of Yiddish expressions I had picked up. Back in the midwest, my students kept asking me what these epxessions meant until I finally and regretfully lost them

Some I recall: That music is too schmaltzy. (Chicken fat, too rich)

Kvetch as in "Quit your kvetching. (Stop your complaining. Literally means stop squeezing your face. The look little kids

I'm not Jewish, but lived on the eastcoast for eight years before returning back to the mid-west. I was amazed by the number of Yiddish expressions I had picked up. Back in the midwest, my students kept asking me what these epxessions meant until I finally and regretfully lost them

Some I recall:

That music is too "schmaltzy." (Chicken fat, too rich)

" Kvetch" as in "Quit your kvetching." (Stop your complaining. Literally means stop squeezing your face. The look little kids put on)

That's his "shtick." (His specialty as a comedian - pratfalls. double talk,etc.)
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Some gestures I've heard of:

Our A-OK circular sign we make with our thumb and index finger can get you into trouble in Brazil and other countries. It"s worse than the middle finger.

Don't hitch hike with your thumb in Nigeria. You are giving the finger to all those vehicles.

In Germany, don't ask for a beer with your index finger and thumb. You'll get two beers. Just hold your thumb up for "Ein bier, bitte."
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Chevrolet had to have a name change for the Chevy Nova in South America.
"No va" means "It doesn't go' in Spanish.

The Grand Mercury - the Big M. " El grande emmy" or the big bowel movement.

I have a request:

I would love to get a list of the sound of a gun, a cat ,and a dog in many languages. There is, I believe, nothing inherently right about the vocal sound effects we make for these words

English Gun: Bang. Bang. Dog; Bow-wow. Cat: Meow.

German

Polish

Spanish

Etc. Etc.

German

gun: bum-bum (children language/older expression: piff-paff)
dog: wau-wau
cat: miau-miau

Which, Billy, what sound for the cat exactly like the English, for the dog nearly alike, for the gun different.



farmerman

That's a common German proverb: 'Ich lasse mich nicht für dumm verkaufen' - don't take me fool

For all of our non-native English speakers, here are some common idiomatic American expressions and their meanings (mostly, "country boyisms"):

You cain't git there from here.--I am about to give you complex and incomplete directions, hoping to waste as much of your time as possible, and hoping to get you truly lost as quickly as possible, because i hold (city boys, Yankees, strangers, whatever) in comtempt.

Oh my achin' ass.--God i'm gettin' tired of listenin' to your bullshit.

In a pig's eye.--The day you attain that level of (beauty, intelligence, wisdom, whatever) is the day the final trump will sound up yonder.

Effen you say so.--I refuse to believe anything you say.

He's sure got a burr under his saddle.--He is entirely too enthusiastic, given his ignorance.

There are many, many more, but i'll have to think about it.