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

submitted 4 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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[-] kava@lemmy.world 37 points 4 months ago

"o que é um peido pra quem já está cagado?"

What's a fart to someone who already shit himself?

If you're already 30 minutes late, don't speed recklessly to save 3 minutes.

[-] khannie@lemmy.world 13 points 4 months ago

Haha! The equivalent in Ireland (not sure if it's used in other English speaking countries) is "may as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb"

[-] Jarix@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

Makes me think of " Why cry over spilled milk?" Which never made any sense to me lol

[-] owsei@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

tnh I think the spilled milk saying is more about things that you can't control / already happened.

and the Brazilian saying is more like "it's ok to let a little more milk get spilled", however I can't think of a nice way of saying that.

edit: thinking more about that, maybe the milk saying can be used for this, but not necessarily

[-] Jarix@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

Yeah it didnt feel directly relatable but maybe adjacent to it

[-] Tramort@programming.dev 6 points 4 months ago

That is awesome

this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2024

163 points (97.7% liked)

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