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Weird and wacky expressions | ||
Tags: Idiom | Multilingual | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Multilingual Lounge |  | |
| LanguageSponge Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5766 days ago 1197 posts - 1487 votes  Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Welsh, Russian, Japanese, Slovenian, Greek, Italian | Message 17 of 88 09 September 2009 at 2:16am | IP Logged | ||
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I heard the expression from a friend a few years ago "wie Gott in Frankreich leben" - literally means "to live like God in France". The English would be something like "to live very well, live the high life".
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| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5766 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 18 of 88 09 September 2009 at 3:13am | IP Logged | ||
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"Da wird ja der Hund in der Pfanne verrückt!"
It is used meaning 'this is just too much, I'm not going to deal with it, I cannot deal with it', but translates as 'now the dog's going crazy in the pan.' 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5567 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian | Message 19 of 88 09 September 2009 at 5:16am | IP Logged | ||
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A fun German expression I like to use a lot is "Scheiße mit Reis!" ("s**t with rice") Not
sure how common it is in actual German parlance, though. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Hencke Tetraglot Moderator Spain Joined 6894 days ago 2340 posts - 2444 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 20 of 88 12 September 2009 at 10:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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Finnish: Nyt rupesi Lyyti kirjoittamaan. = Now Lyyti (a girl's name) started writing.
Meaning: Now it's working. Now everything started going smoothly. I googled around a bit and found there is quite an interesting story behind the saying: It originated a century or so ago when emigration to America was at its peak. The new emigres in America would naturally not receive any correspondence from back home until they had had time to settle and send an address back. Once the address was established the letters started arriving, ie. "Lyyti" started writing. It spread from there to be used about machinery or anything else that suddenly starts working again after some kind of problem or disturbance. Edited by Hencke on 12 September 2009 at 10:17pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| J-Learner Senior Member Australia Joined 6030 days ago 556 posts - 636 votes Studies: Yiddish, English* Studies: Dutch | Message 21 of 88 17 September 2009 at 5:22am | IP Logged | ||
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I explained in a chat room the other night, very localized bit of slang (only some people in my city).
"French wallet" It means to not take off enough toilet paper and a finger slips through. Crude? Yes Obscene? Certainly. Funny? Without a doubt! (Now I can see the thread getting closed down! :p) 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Belardur Octoglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5611 days ago 148 posts - 195 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2, Spanish, Dutch, Latin, Ancient Greek, French, Lowland Scots Studies: Biblical Hebrew, Italian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Korean | Message 22 of 88 17 September 2009 at 9:04am | IP Logged | ||
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One that always gets me laughing is "(he thinks he is) zwischen Gott und den Papst." in German. Literally, "in between God and the Pope," that is, so better-than-you that (he)'s even above the Pope...
I'm not sure how common that is, I've only heard it in Baden-Württemburg 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5847 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map | Message 23 of 88 17 September 2009 at 2:52pm | IP Logged | ||
Never heard that one! I live in Nordrhein-Westfalen (NRW). Fasulye Edited by Fasulye on 17 September 2009 at 2:53pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Conspiratah Newbie Australia Joined 5547 days ago 5 posts - 8 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written) | Message 24 of 88 09 October 2009 at 4:39am | IP Logged | ||
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Some expressions in Australian English, rather crude, but normally pretty funny:
"I don't give a rat's arse!" - I don't care "Piss-farting around" - Wasting time "I don't wanna blow smoke up your arse." - I'm not trying to flatter you "I don't wanna piss in your ear." - I don't want to rant/ramble on at you "He's got a few sheep loose in the top paddock." He's not all there (mentally) "Goin' off like a frog in a sock." - Another way of saying something's intense If I think of any more I'll post them - there's so many! 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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