English to Russian Im Never Gonna Dance Again if You Dont Love Me
What does it mean to "have tomatoes on your optics?" Discover out beneath…
It's a piece of cake. Y'all tin can't put lipstick on a pig. Why add together fuel to the burn down? Idioms are those phrases that mean more than the sum of their words. As our TED Translator volunteers translate TED Talks into 116 languages (and counting), they're often challenged to translate English idioms into their language. Which made u.s.a. wonder: what are their favorite idioms in their own tongue?
Below, we asked translators to share their favorite idioms and how they would interpret literally. The results are laugh-out-loud funny.
From German translator Johanna Pichler :
The idiom: Tomaten auf den Augen haben.
Literal translation: "You take tomatoes on your optics."
What it means: "You are non seeing what everyone else can run across. Information technology refers to real objects, though — not abstract meanings."
The idiom: Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof.
Literal translation: "I merely understand the train station."
What it means: "I don't understand a thing about what that person is saying.'"
The idiom: Dice Katze im Sack kaufen.
Literal translation: "To buy a cat in a sack."
What information technology ways: That a buyer purchased something without inspecting it showtime.
Other languages this idiom exists in: We hear from translators that this is an idiom in Swedish, Smoothen, Latvian and Norwegian. In English, the phrase is "buying a grunter in poke," but English speakers practise as well "permit the true cat out of the pocketbook," which ways to reveal something that's supposed to be secret.
From Swedish translator Matti Jääro :
The idiom: Det är ingen ko på isen
Literal translation: "There's no cow on the ice."
What it ways: "There's no demand to worry. Nosotros too utilize 'Det är ingen fara på taket,' or 'At that place's no danger on the roof,' to mean the same thing."
The idiom: Att glida in på en räkmacka
Literal translation: "To slide in on a shrimp sandwich."
What it means: "It refers to somebody who didn't have to work to get where they are."
The idiom: Det föll mellan stolarna
Literal translation: "It fell betwixt chairs."
What it ways: "It's an excuse you apply when ii people were supposed to do information technology, simply nobody did. It has evolved into the slightly ironic phrase, 'It fell between the chair,' which you use when you want to say,'Yep, I know I was supposed to do it but I forgot.'"
From Thai translator Kelwalin Dhanasarnsombut :
The idiom: เอาหูไปนา เอาตาไปไร่
Literal translation: "Take ears to the field, accept eyes to the subcontract."
What it ways: "It ways 'don't pay any attending.' Almost similar 'don't bring your eyes and ears with you.' If that were possible."
The idiom: ไก่เห็นตีนงู งูเห็นนมไก่
Literal translation: "The hen sees the snake's anxiety and the ophidian sees the hen's boobs."
What it means: "Information technology ways ii people know each other'south secrets."
The idiom: ชาติหน้าตอนบ่าย ๆ
Literal translation: "One afternoon in your next reincarnation."
What it means: "Information technology's never gonna happen."
Other languages this idiom exists in: A phrase that means a like thing in English: "When pigs fly." In French, the same thought is conveyed by the phrase, "when hens have teeth (quand les poules auront des dents)." In Russian, information technology'due south the intriguing phrase, "When a lobster whistles on summit of a mountain (Когда рак на горе свистнет)." And in Dutch, it's "When the cows are dancing on the ice (Als de koeien op het ijs dansen)."
From Latvian translator Ilze Garda and Kristaps Kadiķis :
The idiom: Pūst pīlītes.
Literal translation: "To accident little ducks."
What it means: "It means to talk nonsense or to lie."
Other language connections: In Croation, when someone is obviously lying to someone, yous say that they are "throwing cream into their eyes (bacati kajmak u oči)."
The idiom: Ej bekot.
Literal translation: "'Become pick mushrooms,' or, more specifically, 'Go pick boletes!'"
What it means: "Become away and/or get out me solitary."
From French translator Patrick Brault :
The idiom: Avaler des couleuvres.
Literal translation: "To eat grass snakes."
What it ways: "It means being so insulted that you're non able to reply."
The idiom: Sauter du coq à l'âne.
Literal translation: "To spring from the erect to the donkey."
What it means: "It means to keep irresolute topics without logic in a conversation."
The idiom: Se regarder en chiens de faïence.
Literal translation: "To look at each other like earthenware dogs."
What information technology ways: "Basically, to expect at each other coldly, with distrust."
The idiom: Les carottes sont cuites!
Literal translation: "The carrots are cooked!"
What it means: "The situation can't exist inverse."
Other language connections: It'southward bit like the phrase, "Information technology's no utilise crying over spilt milk," in English language.
From Russian translator Aliaksandr Autayeu :
The idiom: Галопом по Европам
Literal translation: "Galloping across Europe."
What it ways: "To practise something hastily, haphazardly."
The idiom: На воре и шапка горит
Literal translation: "The thief has a called-for hat."
What it means: "He has an uneasy conscience that betrays itself."
The idiom: Хоть кол на голове теши
Literal translation: "You can sharpen with an ax on top of this caput."
What it means: "He'due south a very stubborn person."
The idiom: брать/взять себя в руки
Literal translation: "To have oneself in 1's hands."
What it means: "It means 'to pull yourself together.'"
Other languages this idiom exists in: Translators tell us that at that place is a German version of this idiom too: "Sich zusammenreißen," which translates literally as "to tear oneself together." And in Polish, the same idea is expressed by the phrase, "we take ourselves into our fist (wziąć się w garść)."
From Portuguese translators Gustavo Rocha and Leonardo Silva :
The idiom: Quem não se comunica se trumbica
Literal translation: "He who doesn't communicate, gets his fingers burnt."
What it means: "He who doesn't communicate gets into trouble."'
The idiom: Quem não tem cão caça com gato
Literal translation: "He who doesn't have a dog hunts with a cat."
What it means: "Y'all make the most of what you've got." Basically, you do what y'all demand to exercise, with what the resources you have.
The idiom: Empurrar com a barriga
Literal translation: "To push something with your belly."
What information technology ways: "To go on postponing an important task."
The idiom: Pagar o pato
Literal translation: "Pay the duck."
What it means: "To have the arraign for something yous did not do."
From Polish translator Kinga Skorupska :
The idiom: Słoń nastąpił ci na ucho?
Literal translation: "Did an elephant stomp on your ear?"
What it ways: "You lot have no ear for music."
Other languages this idiom exists in : Our translators tell usa that in Croatian, at that place's also a connection made between elephants and musical ability in the phrase, "You lot sing similar an elephant farted in your ear (Pjevaš kao da ti je slon prdnuo u uho.)." But in the Latvian version, information technology's a bear who stomps on your ear.
The idiom: Bułka z masłem.
Literal translation: "It'south a curlicue with butter."
What it means: "It'south really piece of cake."
The idiom: Z choinki się urwałaś?
Literal translation: "Did you fall from a Christmas tree?"
What information technology means: "You are not well informed, and it shows."
From Japanese translators Yasushi Aoki and Emi Kamiya :
The idiom: 猫をかぶる
Literal translation: "To wearable a cat on one's caput."
What it ways: "You're hiding your claws and pretending to be a dainty, harmless person."
The idiom: 猫の手も借りたい
Literal translation: "Willing to infringe a cat's paws."*
What it ways: "You're so busy that you lot're willing to take aid from anyone."
The idiom: 猫の額
Literal translation: "Cat'due south forehead."
What it means: "A tiny space. Ofttimes, yous use it when you lot're speaking humbly well-nigh land that you own."
The idiom: 猫舌
Literal translation: "Cat tongue."
What it means: "Needing to wait until hot food cools to eat it."
*Aye, Japanese has quite a few cat idioms.
From Kazakh translator Askhat Yerkimbay:
The idiom: Сенің арқаңда күн көріп жүрмін
Literal translation: "I see the sun on your back."
What it means: "Thank y'all for being you. I am alive because of your help."
From Croatian translator Ivan Stamenkovic :
The idiom: Doće maca na vratanca
Literal translation: "The pussy cat will come to the tiny door."
What information technology means: "Essentially, 'What goes around comes around.'"
The idiom: Da vidimo čija majka crnu vunu prede
Literal translation: "We encounter whose mother is spinning black wool."
What it means: "It'south like existence the blackness sheep in the family."
The idiom: Muda Labudova
Literal translation: "Assurance of a swan."
What it means: "It means something that's incommunicable."
The idiom: Mi o vuku
Literal translation: "To talk about the wolf."
What it means: "It's like to 'speak of the devil.'"
Other linguistic communication connections: In Polish, "O wilku mowa" is the equivalent.
From Tamil translator Tharique Azeez :
The idiom: தலை முழுகுதல் (Thalai Muzhuguthal)
Literal translation: "To take a dip or pour water over someone's head."
What it means: "To cut off a relationship."
The idiom: தண்ணீர் காட்டுதல் (Thanneer Kaattuthal)
Literal translation: "Showing h2o to someone."
What it means: "It ways to be someone's nemesis."
From Dutch translator Valerie Boor :
The idiom: Iets met de Franse slag doen
Literal translation: "Doing something with the French whiplash."
What it means: "This apparently comes from riding terminology. It means doing something hastily."
The idiom: Iets voor een appel en een ei kopen
Literal translation: "Ownership something for an apple and an egg."
What it means: "It means yous bought it very cheaply."
Other language connections: Spanish translator Camille Martínez points out out that when something is expensive in English language, you lot pay two body parts for information technology ("information technology price me an arm and a leg"), whereas in Spanish you just pay one — either a kidney ("me costó un riñón") or an eye ("me costó united nations ojo de la cara").
From Korean translator Jeong Kinser :
The idiom: 똥 묻은 개가 겨 묻은 개 나무란다
Literal translation: "A domestic dog with feces scolds a dog with husks of grain."
What it means: "Information technology'southward a bit like, 'People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.'"
The idiom: 오십보 백보
Literal translation: "50 steps are similar to 100 steps."
What information technology means: "I think of information technology as, 'Vi of ane, one-half a dozen of the other.'"
What are your favorite idioms? Share in the comments section.
Source: https://blog.ted.com/40-idioms-that-cant-be-translated-literally/comment-page-2/