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

submitted 8 months ago by alquicksilver@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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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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[-] rcuv@programming.dev 16 points 8 months ago

Mandarin Chinese:

I thought of a couple involving animals.

沉鱼落雁 (chén yú luò yàn) - literally "sinking fish and grounding geese" - describes a beautiful woman.

虎头蛇尾 (hǔ tóu shé wěi) - literally "having the head of a tiger and the tail of a snake" - meaning: 1. having a strong start and a weak finish. 2. describing someone who is treacherous and doesn't do what they say they will.

Lots of idioms in Chinese are "chengyu" consisting of four characters.

[-] BigilusDickilus@lemmy.world 6 points 8 months ago

Chinese has so many good ones.

Please forgive the lack of tones, it's been a long long time.

Ren shan, Ren hai: a mountain and sea of people - a remarkable amount of people by Chinese standards.

Ma Ma, Hu Hu: horse horse, tiger tiger - a mixed bag, or something that's ok.

[-] rcuv@programming.dev 1 points 8 months ago

yeah, ren shan ren hai is a pretty good one, and it's also probably one of the more frequently used ones.

[-] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 1 points 8 months ago

沉鱼落雁 (chén yú luò yàn) - literally "sinking fish and grounding geese" - describes a beautiful woman.

I know a woman who could "make fish stop swimming" as well. We'd also say she could "stop traffic" in that people could forget they were supposed to be driving.

She's so gorgeous your brain hiccups.

this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2024

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