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What does information technology mean to "have tomatoes on your eyes?" Find out below…

It'due south a piece of cake. Yous can't put lipstick on a hog. Why add fuel to the fire? Idioms are those phrases that mean more the sum of their words. As our TED Translator volunteers interpret TED Talks into 116 languages (and counting), they're often challenged to translate English idioms into their language. Which made the states 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: "Yous take tomatoes on your eyes."
What it ways: "You are not seeing what anybody else tin see. It refers to real objects, though — not abstract meanings."

The idiom: Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof.
Literal translation: "I only understand the train station."
What it means: "I don't understand a thing about what that person is maxim.'"

The idiom: Dice Katze im Sack kaufen.
Literal translation: "To purchase a cat in a sack."
What it means: That a buyer purchased something without inspecting it kickoff.
Other languages this idiom exists in: Nosotros hear from translators that this is an idiom in Swedish, Polish, Latvian and Norwegian. In English, the phrase is "ownership a grunter in poke," simply English speakers do also  "allow the cat out of the bag," which ways to reveal something that'southward supposed to be secret.

From Swedish translator Matti Jääro :

The idiom: Det är ingen ko på isen
Literal translation: "There's no moo-cow on the ice."
What information technology means: "There's no need to worry. We as well employ 'Det är ingen fara på taket,' or 'There'south no danger on the roof,' to mean the same affair."

The idiom: Att glida in på en räkmacka
Literal translation: "To slide in on a shrimp sandwich."
What information technology ways: "It refers to somebody who didn't have to piece of work to get where they are."

The idiom: Det föll mellan stolarna
Literal translation: "Information technology roughshod between chairs."
What it means: "It'due south an excuse y'all use when two people were supposed to do it, but nobody did. It has evolved into the slightly ironic phrase, 'It vicious between the chair,' which you utilise when you want to say,'Aye, I know I was supposed to do information technology but I forgot.'"

From Thai translator Kelwalin Dhanasarnsombut :

The idiom: เอาหูไปนา เอาตาไปไร่
Literal translation: "Have ears to the field, have optics to the subcontract."
What information technology means: "Information technology means 'don't pay any attention.' Nearly like 'don't bring your eyes and ears with you lot.' If that were possible."

The idiom: ไก่เห็นตีนงู งูเห็นนมไก่
Literal translation: "The hen sees the snake's feet and the snake sees the hen's boobs."
What it ways: "It means 2 people know each other's secrets."

The idiom: ชาติหน้าตอนบ่าย ๆ
Literal translation: "1 afternoon in your next reincarnation."
What it means: "It'southward never gonna happen."
Other languages this idiom exists in: A phrase that means a similar thing in English language: "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, it's the intriguing phrase, "When a lobster whistles on top of a mount (Когда рак на горе свистнет)." And in Dutch, it'southward "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 blow fiddling ducks."
What information technology ways: "It means to talk nonsense or to lie."
Other language connections: In Croatian, when someone is obviously lying to someone, you say that they are "throwing foam into their eyes (bacati kajmak u oči)."

The idiom: Ej bekot.
Literal translation: "'Go pick mushrooms,' or, more specifically, 'Go pick boletes!'"
What it ways: "Go away and/or leave me lone."

From French translator Patrick Brault :

The idiom: Avaler des couleuvres.
Literal translation: "To swallow grass snakes."
What it means: "It means being so insulted that y'all're not able to reply."

The idiom: Sauter du coq à l'âne.
Literal translation: "To jump from the cock to the donkey."
What information technology means: "Information technology ways to continue changing topics without logic in a chat."

The idiom: Se regarder en chiens de faïence.
Literal translation: "To expect at each other like earthenware dogs."
What information technology means: "Basically, to wait at each other coldly, with distrust."

The idiom: Les carottes sont cuites!
Literal translation: "The carrots are cooked!"
What it ways: "The state of affairs can't exist changed."
Other language connections: It's bit similar the phrase, "It'southward no use crying over spilt milk," in English.

From Russian translator Aliaksandr Autayeu :

The idiom: Галопом по Европам
Literal translation: "Galloping across Europe."
What it means: "To do something hastily, haphazardly."

The idiom: На воре и шапка горит
Literal translation: "The thief has a called-for chapeau."
What it means: "He has an uneasy conscience that betrays itself."

The idiom: Хоть кол на голове теши
Literal translation: "Yous tin can sharpen with an ax on top of this caput."
What it means: "He'southward a very stubborn person."

The idiom: брать/взять себя в руки
Literal translation: "To accept oneself in one'southward hands."
What it ways: "It means 'to pull yourself together.'"
Other languages this idiom exists in: Translators tell united states of america that there is a German version of this idiom too: "Sich zusammenreißen," which translates literally as "to tear oneself together." And in Polish, the same thought is expressed past 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 domestic dog hunts with a cat."
What it ways: "You make the nearly of what you've got." Basically, yous do what you need to practice, with what the resources you accept.

The idiom: Empurrar com a barriga
Literal translation: "To push something with your belly."
What it ways: "To keep postponing an of import chore."

The idiom: Pagar o pato
Literal translation: "Pay the duck."
What it means: "To take the blame for something you lot 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 accept no ear for music."
Other languages this idiom exists in : Our translators tell us that in Croation, there'due south also a connectedness made between elephants and musical ability in the phrase, "You sing like an elephant farted in your ear (Pjevaš kao da ti je slon prdnuo u uho.)." Just in the Latvian version, it's a bear who stomps on your ear.

The idiom: Bułka z masłem.
Literal translation: "It's a scroll with butter."
What it means: "It's actually easy."

The idiom: Z choinki się urwałaś?
Literal translation: "Did you autumn from a Christmas tree?"
What it 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 wear a cat on ane's head."
What it means: "You're hiding your claws and pretending to be a nice, harmless person."

The idiom: 猫の手も借りたい
Literal translation: "Willing to borrow a cat's paws."*
What it ways: "You're and then decorated that you're willing to take help from anyone."

The idiom: 猫の額
Literal translation: "True cat's forehead."
What it ways: "A tiny space. Oftentimes, you use it when you're speaking humbly almost land that you own."

The idiom: 猫舌
Literal translation: "Cat natural language."
What it means: "Needing to wait until hot food cools to consume it."

*Yes, Japanese has quite a few true 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 ways: "Give thanks you for being you. I am alive because of your aid."

From Croatian translator Ivan Stamenkovic :

The idiom: Doće maca na vratanca
Literal translation: "The pussy true cat will come to the tiny door."
What it means: "Essentially, 'What goes around comes around.'"

The idiom: Da vidimo čija majka crnu vunu prede
Literal translation: "We run into whose mother is spinning black wool."
What it means: "It's similar being the black sheep in the family."

The idiom: Muda Labudova
Literal translation: "Balls of a swan."
What it ways: "It means something that'due south incommunicable."

The idiom: Mi o vuku
Literal translation: "To talk about the wolf."
What information technology means: "It's like to 'speak of the devil.'"
Other language 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 cascade water over someone's caput."
What information technology means: "To cut off a relationship."

The idiom: தண்ணீர் காட்டுதல் (Thanneer Kaattuthal)
Literal translation: "Showing water to someone."
What it means: "Information technology ways to be someone'south nemesis."

From Dutch translator Valerie Boor :

The idiom: Iets met de Franse slag doen
Literal translation: "Doing something with the French whiplash."
What information technology ways: "This apparently comes from riding terminology. It means doing something hastily."

The idiom: Iets voor een appel en een ei kopen
Literal translation: "Buying something for an apple tree and an egg."
What it means: "It means you bought it very cheaply."
Other linguistic communication connections: Spanish translator Camille Martínez points out out that when something is expensive in English, y'all pay ii trunk parts for it ("information technology cost me an arm and a leg"), whereas in Spanish you only pay one — either a kidney ("me costó un riñón") or an eye ("me costó un ojo de la cara").

From Korean translator Jeong Kinser :

The idiom: 똥 묻은 개가 겨 묻은 개 나무란다
Literal translation: "A domestic dog with carrion scolds a dog with husks of grain."
What it means: "Information technology's a flake 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 remember of information technology every bit, 'Six of one, half a dozen of the other.'"

What are your favorite idioms? Share in the comments department.

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Source: https://blog.ted.com/40-idioms-that-cant-be-translated-literally/comment-page-2/

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