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Weird and wacky expressions

  Tags: Idiom | Multilingual
 Language Learning Forum : Multilingual Lounge Post Reply
88 messages over 11 pages: << Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 9 ... 10 11 Next >>
Mooby
Senior Member
Scotland
Joined 5894 days ago

707 posts - 1219 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Polish

 
 Message 65 of 88
20 October 2010 at 12:39am | IP Logged 
One of my students recently typed me out a sheet of ten Polish idioms,
this one's my favourite:

"Co ma piernik do wiatraka?"
What has gingerbread got to do with a windmill?

:Used when someone inexplicably changes the topic in mid-sentence.
4 persons have voted this message useful



Ari
Heptaglot
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 6371 days ago

2314 posts - 5695 votes 
Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese
Studies: Czech, Latin, German

 
 Message 66 of 88
20 October 2010 at 5:05am | IP Logged 
Cantonese has a rich flora of expressions containing the character 屎, shit. Such as:

糯米屎窟: "sticky rice asshole": a guest who overstays
揦屎上身: "To pull shit over one's body": to get oneself in trouble
捉蟲入屎窟: "to fill one's asshole with bugs": same meaning as the above
擔屎唔偷食: "to carry shit without taking a bite when noone's looking": very honest
攪屎棍: "shit-stirring stick": a trouble-maker
落狗屎: "raining dog shit": raining cats and dogs
大蛇屙屎: "big snake takes a dump": a big business deal
得閒冇屎屙: "to be available and have no shit to crap": to have free time
食飽飯等屎屙: "to have eaten until full and waiting to take a crap": same meaning as above
食屎屙飯 : "to eat shit and crap rice": unusual, unconventional or stupid

Okay, enough for now. There's more, but I'm getting tired.
5 persons have voted this message useful



rbakker
Diglot
Newbie
Australia
Joined 4411 days ago

2 posts - 3 votes
Speaks: English*, Dutch

 
 Message 67 of 88
31 March 2012 at 3:13am | IP Logged 
My favourite Dutch expression:

"Dat slaat als een tang op een varken"
Means: That makes no sense
Literally: That hits like forceps on a pig

Surreal!
1 person has voted this message useful



scarlett
Diglot
Newbie
United States
Joined 4666 days ago

19 posts - 21 votes
Speaks: English*, French

 
 Message 68 of 88
12 April 2012 at 4:45am | IP Logged 
Okay, une locution française:
Je te garde un chien de ma chienne.
Lit: I’m keeping a puppy for you from my female dog. (si gentil, n'est-ce pas?! mais: )
Idiom: I’m going to get you one day, you just watch out.


Edited by scarlett on 12 April 2012 at 4:47am

1 person has voted this message useful



clumsy
Octoglot
Senior Member
Poland
lang-8.com/6715Registered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4967 days ago

1116 posts - 1367 votes 
Speaks: Polish*, English, Japanese, Korean, French, Mandarin, Italian, Vietnamese
Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swedish
Studies: Danish, Dari, Kirundi

 
 Message 69 of 88
14 April 2012 at 4:05pm | IP Logged 
i tu jest pies pogrzebany.
Here is the dog buried
According to our dictionary it comes from German (da liegt der Hund begraben, so something similar).

I have no idea what kind of dog they are talking about.


Srali muchy bedzie wiosna -flies shat, there will be a spring.
I have no idea why srali muchy when sraly muchy is the correct form (flies are feminine in Polish, but here they take masculine verb).


it means 'you are talking nonsense'.
As much nonsense as the expression itself.


1 person has voted this message useful



FireViN
Diglot
Senior Member
Brazil
missaoitaliano.wordpRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5018 days ago

196 posts - 292 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishC2
Studies: Italian

 
 Message 70 of 88
14 April 2012 at 7:19pm | IP Logged 
A few slangs/expressions in Brazilian Portuguese:

Empurrar com a barriga
Literally.: To push with the belly
Meaning: To delay by being lazy at doing something

Afogar o ganso
Literally: To drown the goose
Meaning: To have sex

Encher o saco
Literally: To fill the bag
Meaning: To annoy

Tirar o cavalinho da chuva
Literally: To take the little horse out of the rain
Meaning: To give up/forget an idea

Mão de vaca
Literally: Cow's hand
Meaning: Someone who doesn't like to spend money, a saver.

There are some slangs that aren't very popular (possibly new slangs/expressions), but I use a lot with my friends:

Deitar loucamente
Literally: To lie down crazily
Meaning: To do very well at something (exam, for example)

Esse tá mais louco que o Batman
Literally: This one is crazier than Batman
Meaning: He's very drunk/altered somehow

Ter sangue no olho (zóio in my region)
Literally: To have blood in the eye
Meaning: To be furious, brave

There are some nasty stuff, but I won't post it here.
1 person has voted this message useful



NewLanguageGuy
Groupie
France
youtube.com/NewLangu
Joined 4396 days ago

74 posts - 134 votes 
Speaks: English*

 
 Message 71 of 88
19 April 2012 at 11:20pm | IP Logged 
French:

Pisser dans un violon: To piss in a violin.

To try and do something completely pointless.
1 person has voted this message useful



Josquin
Heptaglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 4633 days ago

2266 posts - 3992 votes 
Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish
Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian

 
 Message 72 of 88
20 April 2012 at 4:45pm | IP Logged 
I like the German expression "eine Kuh aufs Eis setzen". It literally means "to set a cow onto the ice", but the idiomatic meaning is to do something absolutely wrong and useless.

Icelandic has some interesting sayings, too:

"Sæt er lykt úr sjálfs síns rassi."
Literally: "Sweet is the smell of one's own arse."
Idomatic: "He thinks his shit doesn't stink."

"Það er skammgóður vermir að pissa í skóna sína."
"Pissing in your shoes won't keep your feet warm for long."



1 person has voted this message useful



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