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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.

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