Funny common-used expressions

[Nykkjen]

I would like to know what expressions do you use (or know for) that sound funny or ridiculous when translated to other languages.

I made a list of the most common in my language (croatian). Swearing sounds very funny, but I don't know should I put it here...


Računaj na mene. (Calculate on me.) --> You can confide in me.

To ne vrijedi ni pišljiva boba! (It's not worth a pissing berry!) --> It's not worth much.

Šta ima? (What has?) --> What's up?

Još kako! (Still how!) --> Definetly! / You can bet on it!

'Ko tebe šiša! (Who cuts your hair!) --> No one gives a damn about you!

Ona ga ne šljivi ni pol' posto (She doesn't plum him even half percent) --> She doesn't give a damn about him

On ima petlju. (He has a loop.) --> He's brave.

prebiti na mrtvo ime (to beat on the dead name)
izmlatiti k'o vola u kupusu (to beat like an ox in the cabagge)
podijeliti velike batine (to share big clubs)
--> to beat up badly

uzeti zdravo za gotovo (to take healty for over) --> to take for granted

Koji ti je? (Which is yours?) --> Why are you acting like this?

Kako kad (How when) --> depending on the moment

jaje na oko (egg on the eye) --> fried egg

živjeti na visokoj nozi (to live on high leg) --> to be rich

pljunuti otac (spitted father) --> the same as his father

psovati na pasja kola (to swear on the dog's cart)
psovati kao kočijaš (to swear like a carriage driver)
--> to be vulgar

biti prost k'o šlapa (to be rude as a slipper) --> to talk dirty

uhvatiti maglu (catch fog) --> run away

dati nogu/košaru (to give a leg/basket) --> to discharge someone from from work OR to break up with someone

iz čista mira (from clean peace) --> without a cause

u zao čas (in the evil moment) --> at the wrong time

u najmanju ruku (in the smallest hand) --> at least

Malo sutra! (Little tomorrow!) --> That will never happen!
(Sometimes the german word for "sutra" (morgen) is used = Malo morgen!)

trbuhom za kruhom (with belly after bread) --> in the search for the better living

pijan k'o majka (drunk as a mother) --> very drunk

voditi ljubav (to guide love) --> to have a sexual intercourse

Pjeva kao da mu je slon prdnuo u uho. (He sings as though an elephant farted in his ear.) --> He's a bad singer.

To je njegovo maslo! (It's his butter!) --> He's responsible for this.


I'm looking forward to more of these.

[matej]

I don't have any phrase but i would to translate this for you my dear lucija nykken....

SLOBODAN MILOŠEVIĆ -->freeman gentlefucker (the ex serbian president)

hehehehe, see you guys

[serenita]

Funny how you seem to know each other...
I guess the expressions that often sound the most funny in french are from Marseille, we better ask karine debarge to give us some.
Say: please, karine!

[Soleil]

There is a book of literally translated expressions French -> English called "Sky my husband!", meaning, in French ("Ciel ! mon mari !"), "Oh dear, my husband has arrived!"

Il pleut des cordes (It's raining ropes) = It's raining cats and dogs (this is the U.S. expression) = it's raining a lot!
Beau comme un camion (As good-looking as a truck) = Very good looking

Also, there are some expressions that seem clear to me but are not to everybody:

Brazilian-Portuguese from the Bahia region (I heard people from São Paulo ask what it means):
Caiu a ficha (The coin fell; imagine a phone booth: when the coin falls, the communication is established) = I/You/He... understood
In French, for the same, you would say "Tu imprimes ?" (Are you printing?) = Do you understand?

é um zero á ezquerda (he/she's a zero on the left hand-side) = he/she is nothing, just as a zero before a number

Also, in some Latin-American countries, you hear (I'll put it in Spanish):
"Mi amor" = my love, but when a salesperson in a shop tells you your shirt "looks great, my love" you sork of react when for them it's normal. Same for the taxi-driver asking you "where would you like to go, my love?"

And in Venezuela I heard a secretary ask her boss to "give her the tail home" (¿me das la cola hasta casa?)... she was just asking for a car-ride home!

I might think of others later...

[anabelle]

Expressions you listed in croatian sound very funny in ears of a Polish (especially “jaje na oko”, i burst out laughing ). All the more, a lot of expressions are similar to ours, f.ex. we say:
Jak się masz? (How do you have yourself?) – How are you?
Mam się dobrze. (I have myself well) – i’m fine

Żyć na wysokiej stopie (To live on a high foot) – to be rich

Śpiewa jakby mu słoń nadepnął na ucho (he sings as if an elephant trod (stood) on his ear) – He’s a bad singer

Dać nogę (to give a leg) – run away

Dostać kosza (to receive a basket) – to be refused when proposing a date or a relationship (usually a man is “receiving basket” from a woman)

In Polish there are a lot of expressions like this and we like translating them litterally on english for fun, f.ex.:

Płacić z góry (To pay from the mountain) – to pay in advance

Pal sześć! (Smoke six) – Don’t give a damn

Nie owijać w bawełnę (Not to wrap with a cotton) or Walić prosto z mostu (to strike directly from the bridge) – Not to mince matters, To say directly what one thinks

Kawa na ławę! (Coffee on the desk!) – To talk bluntly, directly

Nie rób wiochy! (Don’t make a village!) – Don’t make a fool of yourself

Wyjść na ludzi (To go out on people) – To become a successful person (despite bad past experience when somebody’s young)

Mogę cię podrzucić!(I can throw you up!) – I can give you a lift

Zejść na psy (To go down on dogs) – to become poor

Pójść z torbami (To go with bags) – to go bankrupt, to become poor

Podkładać komuś świnię (To lay a pig to somebody) – to play somebody foul

Coś na ząb (Something on a tooth) – A snack

Wioska zabita dechami (A village nailed down with planks) – God forsaken country place, a place far from civilisation

And my favourites :

Puścić pawia (To release a peacock) – to vomit

Mieszka gdzie diabeł mówi dobranoc, a psy dupami szczekają ( He lives where a devil says good night and dogs bark with their arses) – he lives in a very remote and depopulated area or countryside

[SubEspion]

There is a lot of expressions in Canadian French. Here are some.

Chier dé briques → To be really scared → To shit bricks

Être din patates → To make a mistake → To be in the potatoes

Manger sé bâs → To be nervous → To eat his socks

Avoar un air de beu → To have a bad humor → To have a humor of ox

Fou comme un balai → To be exited → Crazy like a broom

[Soleil]

Mieszka gdzie diabeł mówi dobranoc, a psy dupami szczekają ( He lives where a devil says good night and dogs bark with their arses) – he lives in a very remote and depopulated area or countryside

This reminds me of the equivalent in Spanish:

"Vive donde Cristo perdió el bolígrafo" = he/she lives where Jesus Christ lost his pen

I worked in a small town in Argentina, and people said it was 16 km after the end of the world (16 km después del fin del mundo), because it was 16 km away for the supposedly big city which really was already the end of the world!

And in French, when something is not that difficult, we say "Ce n'est pas le Pérou" (It's not Peru), as when going there was such a difficult trip.

'til the next ideas!

[gramie]

There is a lot of expressions in Canadian French. Here are some.

Chier dé briques → To be really scared → To shit bricks

Être din patates → To make a mistake → To be in the potatoes

Manger sé bâs → To be nervous → To eat his socks

Avoar un air de beu → To have a bad humor → To have a humor of ox

Fou comme un balai → To be exited → Crazy like a broom

This is really written in "jwal" you know, "Jwal" comes from 'cheval' meaning horse, but to speak jwal is to speak slang and, kind of a slured slang.
But there are many more such expressions, I just can't think of any right mow.

[gramie]

There is a lot of expressions in Canadian French. Here are some.

Chier dé briques → To be really scared → To shit bricks

Être din patates → To make a mistake → To be in the potatoes

Manger sé bâs → To be nervous → To eat his socks

Avoar un air de beu → To have a bad humor → To have a humor of ox

Fou comme un balai → To be exited → Crazy like a broom

This is really written in "jwal" you know, "Jwal" comes from 'cheval' meaning horse, but to speak jwal is to speak slang and, kind of a slured slang.
But there are many more such expressions, I just can't think of any right now.

[Runa27]

I know there's a French phrase (which I honestly wish I could remember!) that literally translates to something like "On the way down the stairs". It refers to that thing that happens when you have an argument with someone, and only later do you remember the perfect comeback*. I heard about it in a review of a book that's supposed to have idioms in foreign languages that cover things simply not expressable in English (like "On the way down the stairs" ), at least not without convoluted phrasing.

*Comeback probably sounds weird if you tried to translate the different parts. In English, "comeback" means... well, it's a retort. But the literal meaning is rather different (I think it comes from "[you] come back [with a good response to dispute or invalidate their remarks]").

There's a Romanian phrase that translates to "Go shoot yourself!", something I think you'd yell at someone if they were bothering you, if I remember correctly.

Also, though this doesn't really quite count per se, as I think they merely made it up and it's not actually a current idiom, in the American TV series "Firefly", they used a lot of random Chinese phrases (especially for cursing), because supposedly in the world of "Firefly", the Chinese and American governments formed the Alliance after we all left Earth.

There's a phrase - I have no idea where it was spoken, but one of the audio commentaries on the DVDs had an actor mentioning it as one of his favorite Chinese phrases that he got to say - that Captain Mal Reynolds says that translates to, I kid you not*:

"Mother of God and all her wacky nephews!"

(God, I love "Firefly". Such a fun show, and all these little things that you wouldn't even notice at first, too. Word of warning to Spanish-speakers though: if your English isn't good enough to watch it in raw English, use the subtitles and not the dub! The subtitles give a pretty good translation and actually capture the flavor of the dialogue. The dub is a shoddy adaptation. Which was disappointing, because I would have liked to practice my Spanish that way...)

*I'll bet that "I kid you not" could sound weird in translation, or be hard to translate without losing the punch as it were. Especially if you took "kid" as the slang for "child" or to mean "young goat" instead of the verb that also means "to joke".



-Runa27

[ANTHOS]

Excellent idea, Nykkjen - I love idioms - they are part of what makes languages so much fun.

Off the top of my head, I know loads of British English ones, which you probably nkow already, so here are some that I know from Greek

Literal translation -> Meaning
To make someone black / To give someone some wood / To make someone useless -> To beat someone up
To eat wood -> To be beaten up
What a head for zalatina! -> (zalatina is a dish consistnig of pig's head in aspic so you say this to someone who is exasparatnig yuo)
My testicles -> What nonsense

Andreas

[grzespelc]

Pal sześć! (Smoke six) – Don’t give a damn

I'd rather say it means "burn six"...

Zejść na psy (To go down on dogs) – to become poor

It means "to become worse" or "to begin doing something wrong"

[arkayn]

There is a book of literally translated expressions French -> English called "Sky my husband!", meaning, in French ("Ciel ! mon mari !"), "Oh dear, my husband has arrived!"

The second part is "Sky, my old Lady !"

[CharlotteHathaway]

Hey, Croatian guy, come back and help me with some idioms for my book! (my post is lurking around this forum somewhere).