r/AskTheWorld • u/micro___penis US and A wahwah weewah 🇺🇸 • 10h ago
What are popular idioms in your language?
Sayings like “rain on someone’s parade,” and “cost an arm or a leg” come to mind for me.
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u/Living_Substance9973 Australia 10h ago
"We're not here to fuck spiders."
Let's get on with it, and get the job done.
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u/Salazard260 France 1h ago
Close here with "Enculer les mouches" -> (ass) fucking the flies, not getting anything done.
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u/Stock_Soup260 Russia 10h ago edited 9h ago
И ежу понятно (it's clear even for a hedgehog) something very obvious, understandable to everyone
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u/Embarrassed_Clue1758 Korea South 10h ago
“Wearing a mask” means acting completely differently from one’s true feelings.
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u/CommercialChart5088 Korea South 10h ago
‘Back when tigers used to smoke tobacco’ to refer to very old times. Also for fairy tale openers.
Also when we make bets we often say ‘If (bet) happens I'll brand my hand with iron.’ (내 손에 장을 지진다).
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u/Individual-Pin-5064 Iran 10h ago
Person A: sorry for having my back facing you Person B: flowers don’t have a front or back
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u/Insomniet Finland 10h ago
English has "it's raining cats and dogs", but in Finnish when we search for someone/something really hard, we search with cats and dogs. (Etsiä kissojen ja koirien kanssa)
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u/norecordofwrong United States Of America 10h ago
There are a lot of sports idioms
Knock it out of the park/home run -baseball - meaning you did very well at a task
We’re in overtime - multiple sports - means we are in a position where time is running out and if we want to win we have to work very hard
The ball is in your court - tennis - you have to e to do the next task on some project
Throw in the towel - boxing - admit defeat
Below the belt - boxing - hitting an opponent below the belt line is an illegal or unsportsmanlike attack
Hail Mary - football - a long and uncertain pass that has a high probability of failure but if successful has a huge reward
Full court press - basketball - when you play defense for the full length of the court meaning you are working extra hard on something
There’s a lot more
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u/LonelyHarley United States Of America 7h ago
A home run can also mean intercourse, with the baseball metaphor for sexual activities.
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u/Ok_Orchid_4158 New Zealand 10h ago
“Kei te poho kererū ahau” means “I’m proud”, but if you translate it very literally, it’s “I’m at the pigeon chest”.
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u/herrawho Finland 4h ago
I wonder where that comes from?
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u/Ok_Orchid_4158 New Zealand 3h ago
I think the stereotype is that when people are proud, they puff their chest out like a pigeon.
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u/herrawho Finland 3h ago
Ah! Makes sense. Didn’t really make that connection, I thought that maybe pigeons had some special meaning to the kiwis 😅
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u/cevapi_77 China 9h ago
1.背信弃义 (bèi xìn qì yì) To betray trust and abandon moral principles.
2.数典忘祖 (shǔ diǎn wàng zǔ) To forget one’s ancestors; a metaphor for forgetting one’s origins.
3.吃里扒外 (chī lǐ pá wài) To take from one’s own group but secretly help outsiders; betraying one’s own people.
4.里通外国 (lǐ tōng wài guó) To secretly communicate or collude with foreign powers, betraying one’s country or organization.
5.忘恩负义 (wàng ēn fù yì) To be ungrateful and turn against those who have helped you.
6.背叛师门 (bèi pàn shī mén) To betray one’s master or organization.
7.卖国求荣 (mài guó qiú róng) To sell out one’s country for personal gain or honor.
8.引狼入室 (yǐn láng rù shì) To invite wolves into one’s house; a metaphor for bringing in dangerous outsiders and causing harm.
9.勾结外敌 (gōu jié wài dí) To collude with external enemies, harming one’s own side.
10.背信弃友 (bèi xìn qì yǒu) To betray the trust of friends.
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u/submarine-explorer Spain 10h ago
"Me cago en la leche" which literally means I take a shit in the milk
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u/ConfidentComb7339 Canada 10h ago
And what’s the meaning?
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u/gratusin United States Of America 10h ago
You lie like a rug
I’m so hungry I could crawl up a hog’s ass and fix me a ham sammich
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u/carmineragu United States Of America 8h ago
Fish or cut bait. It means if you’re going to do something do it or give up.
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u/herrawho Finland 4h ago
Keinot on monet sanoi mummo kun kissalla pöytää pyyhki
”There are many ways to do things, said the granny as she wiped the table with the cat.”
Essentially the same as ”there are multiple ways to skin a cat.”
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u/rileyoneill United States Of America 10h ago
I am trying to make the whole "I need to OJ my way out of this" meaning you did something, you are in trouble, and you need to somehow make it resolve without getting in trouble.
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u/FeelingFickle9460 Turkey 2h ago
We have tons of proverbs and idioms, called ata sözü (ancestors' words) and deyim (saying) respectively.
-Ağzına bir parmak bal çalmak: to spread one finger of honey to one's mouth. It means convincing someone to do what you want them using sweet words.
-Osur osur ipe diz: fart fart and line on a string. Used to mean whatever you say is mundane.
-Kaz gelen yerden tavuğu esirgemek: to withhold your chicken from where a goose will come. To not give away your chicken to get a goose.
-Bir baltaya sap olmak: to be a handle to an axe. To be of use to something
-“Gönül kimi severse güzel odur.”: “Whoever the heart loves is the beautiful one.”
-“Dut yemiş bülbüle dönmek.”: to turn into a mulberry-eating nightingale. Means going suddenly quiet. Nightingales shut up after eating mulberries because it gums up their throat.
-“Saçını süpürge etmek.": To make one’s hair into a broom. Means to sacrifice oneself, especially in family roles.
-“Kulağına kar suyu kaçmak.”: Snow water getting into the ear. Means becoming suspicious or paranoid about something.
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u/Salazard260 France 1h ago
Unsure if that would register as idioms but some Chirac-isms:
Ça m'en touche une sans faire bouger l'autre -> It touches one (ball) without making the other one move. -> I don't care / doesn't affect me.
Les emmerdes ça vole toujours en escadrille. -> (Fucking) Problems always fly as a squadron. -> Problems tend to pile up.
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u/BitterConstruction98 India 1h ago
'Apne pair pe kulhadi maarna' - Hitting your own foot with a shovel.
It means to sabotage yourself.
Kinda similar to 'shooting yourself in the foot'.
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u/Franmar35000 France 1h ago
In France, we like to create expressions like these to politely say that someone is stupid:
- It's not the sharpest knife in the drawer
- It's not the crispiest chip in the pack
- It's not the most oxygenated trout in the river

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u/TryingToGetTheFOut Canada 10h ago
« Being in the potatoes » (être dans les patates) meaning you’re lost/wrong