this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2025
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No Stupid Questions

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It could also just be English if you only speak English.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

To show the goats.

Lithuanian: rodyti ožius.

Means to cry, fight or roll on the ground when you didn't get what you wanted.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 1 week ago (2 children)

"Jeg bryr meg katta"

literally "I care like a cat", meaning "I don't care in the slightest and talking more about it is an insult to my time".

It's fallen mostly out of use, but I'm hanging on.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

are you perchance Norwegian? jeg lærer norsk (faren min er norsk, det er teknisk sett andrespråket mitt men jeg bruker det ikke mye. nå jeg lærer mer)

hvis du er dansk, jeg beklager at forveksler de to, men hvis du er norsk, det er hyggelig å se folk som snakker språket

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (5 children)

glem det, dansk bruker "mig". jeg glemte

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

That’s such a cool phrase though

[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Here's one in Egyptian Arabic: "He who gets burnt by soup will blow on yoghurt", meaning that someone who gets hurt once will bexome careful not to repeat the experience.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

I really like this! Getting burnt so bad that you'd blow on something cold like ice out of fear.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 week ago (4 children)

I don't speak German, but I picked up a few phrases for work. They have a few idioms that I think of sometimes:

"Ich glaub, ich spinne" which means I think I'm crazy, but literally translates to "I think, I spider." It's a great visual metaphor, being overwhelmed by the threads going everywhere that you imagine you're a spider spinning a web, and also you've entirely forgotten grammar.

"Bahnhof verstehen" or "Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof" means "I understand only the train station." It's something you say when you don't understand anything, you're completely lost, and you don't give a shit becaue you just want to get the fuck home.

I might be off on those translations or the subtext, but that's how I understood it.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

and also you've entirely forgotten grammar.

That's a misinterpretation. The German "spinne" is a proper verb in that sentence, like "to spin" in English.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The "Bahnhof verstehen" comes from the notion that many people learning a foreign language start with some simple sentences like "Can you tell me the way to the train station". So people who only "Bahnhof verstehen" (OK, horrible grammar here) have not proceed past the first lesson.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 week ago (5 children)

In colloquial English, you can say that someone is an idiot with the construction "you absolute [noun]" or "you complete [noun]" or similar.

It doesn't actually matter what the noun is, but it works better the more obscure or specific the thing is. For example "you absolute saucepan", "you complete hose pipe", or my personal favourite "you absolute strawberry plant".

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

One of my favorite youtubers Octavius King demonstrates this really well by using "complete and utter desk" as a derogatory term for the worst offenders to intellect.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 week ago

In Khmer, there's a phrase "មិនដឹងខ្យល់" which literally translates to "Doesn't know wind" as in they're so dumb they don't even know what wind is.

I guess it's kind of like calling someone an air head but from a different angle.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

"Correo de las brujas" translates to "the witches' mail" and means gossip or rumors. Kind of like "heard it through the grapevine" or a "a little birdie told me"

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago

I really like the german "Geburtstagskind". It refers to a Person whose birthday is today but literally translates to "birthday child". However you use it for any age. If its your grandfathers 80st birthday he still is the birthday child this day. Usually people just use the word without thinking about it , but i really like the idea that everyone can get childish again on their birthday. :)

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)

此地无银三百两—literally "this location does not hide 15kg of silver". imagine a sign saying that with an arrow pointing downwards

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

At a guess, to call attention to something by trying to hide it

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago (2 children)
  • Flat out like a lizard drinking
  • We’re not here to fuck spiders
  • As dry as a dead dingo’s donger
  • Forty cents short of a shout
  • A few kangaroos loose in the top paddock
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What does we're not here to fuck spiders refer to?

Besides the literal

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

It implies we are here to do something more productive than fucking spiders

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Two that are related to falling

猿も木から落ちる [Even] monkeys fall out of trees [too]. Just because you're good at something doesn't mean you'll always get it right.

七転び八起き Fall down 7 times, get up 8. Pretty self-explanatory

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

"Lukee kuin piru Raamattua" (Finnish).
Literally "to read like the Devil reads the Bible".
Meaning to examine something in bad faith. Never heard it used it in context of the Bible or anything religious, but eg. when interpreting law or contract, looking for the details that could be twisted for your purpose, rather than what the text attempts to convey.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Esperanto

krokodili- verb, literally something like "to crocodile"

It means when an Esperanto-speaker speaks in a language other than Esperanto while amongst other Esperanto-speakers.

No one's quite sure why that's the term for it, most likely because crocodiles have a big mouth.

When I learned that, it suddenly made a lot of sense why Duolingo taught me the word for "crocodile" so early.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You're mustard

English. It's a good thing, means the person is awesome.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago

You're mustard for teaching me this!

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago (4 children)

An example as if I was talking to you: "I'll wack you like an octopus" which technically already describes the action, however traditionally in my country after catching octopus in order to properly kill them and soften them up, fishermen basically smack/wacked them on the ground maniacally.

And I think it's become such a popular figure of speech because that mental image is hilarious and I love using it.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

"Das geht mir am Arsch vorbei."

German for I don't give a damn about that.

Literally: it passes by my ass.

You can also lift it up to a SFW level by saying "Das geht mir hinten vorbei." (It passes behind me), or strengthen it with "Das geht mir weit hinten vorbei." (It passes far behind me).

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

Or, if you wanna sound intellectual: „Das tangiert mich peripher.“

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago (2 children)

On ne peut pas avoir le beurre et l'argent du beurre (We can't have the butter and the butter's money)

This one would be the French equivalent of "You can't eat cake and have it"

Tomber dans les pommes (Falling in apples)

This is an expression to describe fainting

Tailler une pipe (Carving a pipe)

Give a blowjob

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I only just realized the pun inside "You can't have your cake and eat it too."

Most people complain that it's a pointless idiom because if you possess a cake, you are likely able to eat it.

Having cake is another way of saying eating cake. It's saying you can't eat your cake and then eat your cake again.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago (7 children)

"Butt fuck Egypt (BFE)," when referring to being in the middle of nowhere or the far edges of a parking area. For example, Sally complained to her friend in the food court, "I had to park all the way in BFE. I'm dreading the walk back to the car."

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago

New England, at least. BFE is half the state of Maine, but also the furthest spots in the Hannaford parking lot.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Growing up in the Midwest, I've heard BFE countless times.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago

前世害左你么?(In Cantonese/Taishanese)

Did I hurt you in your previous incarnation?

Parents always say this when they get mad.

I guess it translate to "What did I do in my previous life to deserve a shitty kid like you?"

So a round-about way of just saying trash-talking their kid basically.

I always respons, "So why did you hurt me in my my previous life?"

Or "Yea you hur me in my previous life and I reincarnated here for revenge" 🤣

(Who the fucked coined that phrase, why is reincarnation brought up wtf lol)

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

There's an expression in French, "enculage de mouches". Literally means "fucking flies in the ass" and, figuratively, refers to being impossibly pedantic and nitpicky. Closest equivalent in English would be "splitting hairs" I think

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

In Egyptian arabic we have

The world is a cucumber one day it's in your hand, the other it's in your ass

(Kama todeen todaan) Literal translation: As you give debt, you will owe debt. Alternative is as you judge you will be judged. Basically what goes around comes around

Do you have a feather on your head? When some one asks for special treatment, this is usually a response to that. Feather on his head is a reference to the sultan.

We stayed quiet so he came in with his donkey. Or we let him be, so he came with his donkey The proverb means don't let people walk all over you

Show me the width of your shoulders Something I heard a lot growing up, basically means go away. To show the width of your shoulders, you show your back, hence the expression

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

When I was young, myself and a group of friends were being accosted by a disheveled man on our walk home from the bar. We didn't really understand what he was saying, but we were able to discern one phrase, as he told us to "Put the pussy on a chain wax"

We had no idea what it meant, and thought it was hilarious, so we'd oft repeat it at random.

Thinking about it now, I suddenly realize what he meant. He was referring to the woman in our group, telling us to pimp her out, by putting her up against a chain-link fence that were so plentiful in rough neighborhoods where we grew up.

So now I'm telling you, so that if you ever encounter this gentleman, you'll know what he's talking about 😶‍👍

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Argentine here! Some of my favourites:

" Para andar a los pedos más vale cagarse "

Roughly translates to: "better shit yourself instead of going farting around" Worth noting: "andar a los pedos" also means being in a hurry.

" A caballo regalado no se le mira los dientes "

Roughly translates to: "Don't look at the teeth of a gifted horse", meaning you don't look for defects in things that have been handed to you.

" Siempre hay un roto para un descosido "

I think the English equivalent is "there's a lid for every pot".

" Lo atamos con alambre "

Translates to: "tie it down with wire". Usually refers to get something going even if it's barebones or a shaky fix.

I'll be thinking of more and maybe drop another comment later.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (4 children)

I like the horse one way more than the English saying “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” Yours makes way more sense

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

"I have to see a man about a horse."

It means you're going to the bathroom.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

~~Kill two birds with one stone.~~ Get two birds stoned at once. 😎

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

Stone two birds with one hit.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Referencing an unpopular future possibility - “that’ll go over like a turd in a punch bowl”

Describing something you don’t miss - “I miss that like I’d miss a case of the clap”

Rain coming in at a weird angle - “this rain is like a cow pissing on a flat rock”

When someone says they wish some specific thing would happen - “wish in one hand, shit in the other, see which one fills up first”

When you’re unenthusiastic about something - “I’d rather shit in my hands and clap”

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago

Ukrainian "не лізь поперед батька в пекло" ("don't rush to hell before your father") - a mix of "don't be foolish / try to prove yourself / hurt yourself doing so" and also "let experienced people do their job / lead".

Also Ukrainian "або пан або пропав" ("Either [you become] a lord, or you disappear"), an important risky choice, or sometimes used as YOLO of yesteryear.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Oddly meaning, you act like your dumbass parent.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

"Пиян като мотика". Translates from Bulgarian to "Drunk as a mattock". I remember asking my dad about this phrase when I was a kid - "Why? Do mattocks drink?" - and he answered "No, they fall down". Classic dad.

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