Register  Login  Active Topics  Maps  

Weird and wacky expressions

  Tags: Idiom | Multilingual
 Language Learning Forum : Multilingual Lounge Post Reply
88 messages over 11 pages: 1 24 5 6 7 ... 3 ... 10 11 Next >>
LanguageSponge
Triglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 5779 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 
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".
1 person has voted this message useful



Bao
Diglot
Senior Member
Germany
tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5
Joined 5779 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 
"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 5580 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 
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 6907 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 
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 6043 days ago

556 posts - 636 votes 
Studies: Yiddish, English*
Studies: Dutch

 
 Message 21 of 88
17 September 2009 at 5:22am | IP Logged 
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 5624 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 
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 5860 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 
Belardur wrote:
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


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 5560 days ago

5 posts - 8 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 24 of 88
09 October 2009 at 4:39am | IP Logged 
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



This discussion contains 88 messages over 11 pages: << Prev 1 24 5 6 7 8 9 10 11  Next >>


Post ReplyPost New Topic Printable version Printable version

You cannot post new topics in this forum - You cannot reply to topics in this forum - You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum - You cannot create polls in this forum - You cannot vote in polls in this forum


This page was generated in 0.3584 seconds.


DHTML Menu By Milonic JavaScript
Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved
No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization.