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Multilingual folks: what are some odd idioms in your language(s)? (self.asklemmy)

submitted 7 months ago by alquicksilver to c/asklemmy

164 comments fedilink hide all child comments

What are some (non-English) idioms, and what do they mean (both literally and in context)? Odd ones, your favorite ones - any and all are welcome. :)

For example, in English I might call someone a "good egg," meaning they're a nice person. Or, if it's raining heavily, I might say "it's raining cats and dogs."

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Finnish ones (some sayings here too):

"Ski into a spruce!" -> Get lost!
"So the forest answers as one calls into it" -> what comes around goes around
"If you reach for the spruce you'll fall into the juniper" -> don't bite more than you can chew
"to be like hit on the head with a piece of wood" -> to be baffled
"it went into the forest" -> something failed
"to have own cow in the ditch" -> to have their own hidden agenda behind a request or actions
"to throw the spoon into the corner" -> to die

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Having pigs in the forest - to be hiding something.

The tax man would go from farm to farm back in the old days and count the number of pigs. The farmers would be taxed accordingly. Naturally, when you heard the tax man was coming, you'd send some pigs into the forest so that you'd be taxed less. Norwegian. :)

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