English to French May Your Shoes Be Filled With Hot Beef

What does it hateful to "have tomatoes on your optics?" Notice out below…

Information technology'south a slice of cake. You can't put lipstick on a pig. Why add fuel to the fire? Idioms are those phrases that mean more than than the sum of their words. As our TED Translator volunteers translate TED Talks into 116 languages (and counting), they're ofttimes challenged to translate English idioms into their language. Which made us wonder: what are their favorite idioms in their own natural language?

Below, we asked translators to share their favorite idioms and how they would translate literally. The results are laugh-out-loud funny.

From German translator Johanna Pichler :

The idiom: Tomaten auf den Augen haben.
Literal translation: "Y'all take tomatoes on your eyes."
What it means: "You lot are not seeing what everyone else tin see. It refers to real objects, though — not abstract meanings."

The idiom: Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof.
Literal translation: "I but empathize the train station."
What it means: "I don't understand a thing nigh what that person is proverb.'"

The idiom: Dice Katze im Sack kaufen.
Literal translation: "To buy a cat in a sack."
What it ways: That a buyer purchased something without inspecting it first.
Other languages this idiom exists in: We hear from translators that this is an idiom in Swedish, Smoothen, Latvian and Norwegian. In English, the phrase is "buying a squealer in poke," but English speakers do too  "let the cat out of the bag," which means to reveal something that'south supposed to be clandestine.

From Swedish translator Matti Jääro :

The idiom: Det är ingen ko på isen
Literal translation: "In that location'due south no cow on the ice."
What it means: "In that location's no demand to worry. We likewise use 'Det är ingen fara på taket,' or 'At that place's no danger on the roof,' to hateful the same thing."

The idiom: Att glida in på en räkmacka
Literal translation: "To slide in on a shrimp sandwich."
What it ways: "It refers to somebody who didn't accept to work to get where they are."

The idiom: Det föll mellan stolarna
Literal translation: "It fell between chairs."
What it means: "It's an excuse yous use when two people were supposed to practice it, but nobody did. It has evolved into the slightly ironic phrase, 'It fell between the chair,' which you use when you desire to say,'Yeah, I know I was supposed to practise it only I forgot.'"

From Thai translator Kelwalin Dhanasarnsombut :

The idiom: เอาหูไปนา เอาตาไปไร่
Literal translation: "Take ears to the field, accept optics to the farm."
What it means: "It means 'don't pay whatever attention.' Almost similar 'don't bring your eyes and ears with you.' If that were possible."

The idiom: ไก่เห็นตีนงู งูเห็นนมไก่
Literal translation: "The hen sees the serpent's feet and the snake sees the hen's boobs."
What it means: "It means two people know each other'south secrets."

The idiom: ชาติหน้าตอนบ่าย ๆ
Literal translation: "One afternoon in your side by side reincarnation."
What information technology ways: "It'south never gonna happen."
Other languages this idiom exists in: A phrase that means a similar matter in English: "When pigs wing." In French, the same idea is conveyed by the phrase, "when hens have teeth (quand les poules auront des dents)." In Russian, it's the intriguing phrase, "When a lobster whistles on peak of a mount (Когда рак на горе свистнет)." And in Dutch, information technology'southward "When the cows are dancing on the water ice (Als de koeien op het ijs dansen)."

From Latvian translator Ilze Garda and Kristaps Kadiķis :

The idiom: Pūst pīlītes.
Literal translation: "To blow little ducks."
What it means: "It means to talk nonsense or to lie."
Other linguistic communication connections: In Croatian, when someone is obviously lying to someone, you lot say that they are "throwing cream into their eyes (bacati kajmak u oči)."

The idiom: Ej bekot.
Literal translation: "'Get pick mushrooms,' or, more than specifically, 'Go pick boletes!'"
What information technology means: "Go away and/or go out me lonely."

From French translator Patrick Brault :

The idiom: Avaler des couleuvres.
Literal translation: "To eat grass snakes."
What information technology ways: "Information technology means being so insulted that you're not able to reply."

The idiom: Sauter du coq à l'âne.
Literal translation: "To jump from the cock to the donkey."
What it means: "It means to keep changing topics without logic in a conversation."

The idiom: Se regarder en chiens de faïence.
Literal translation: "To wait at each other like earthenware dogs."
What information technology means: "Basically, to await at each other coldly, with distrust."

The idiom: Les carottes sont cuites!
Literal translation: "The carrots are cooked!"
What information technology means: "The situation can't be changed."
Other language connections: It'south fleck like the phrase, "It's no utilise crying over spilt milk," in English language.

From Russian translator Aliaksandr Autayeu :

The idiom: Галопом по Европам
Literal translation: "Galloping beyond Europe."
What it means: "To do something hastily, haphazardly."

The idiom: На воре и шапка горит
Literal translation: "The thief has a burning hat."
What it means: "He has an uneasy conscience that betrays itself."

The idiom: Хоть кол на голове теши
Literal translation: "You tin can sharpen with an ax on top of this caput."
What it means: "He's a very stubborn person."

The idiom: брать/взять себя в руки
Literal translation: "To take oneself in 1's hands."
What it means: "Information technology means 'to pull yourself together.'"
Other languages this idiom exists in: Translators tell united states of america that there is a German version of this idiom too: "Sich zusammenreißen," which translates literally every bit "to tear oneself together." And in Polish, the same idea is expressed by the phrase, "we accept ourselves into our fist (wziąć się w garść)."

From Portuguese translators Gustavo Rocha and Leonardo Silva :

The idiom: Quem não se comunica se trumbica
Literal translation: "He who doesn't communicate, gets his fingers burnt."
What information technology means: "He who doesn't communicate gets into trouble."'

The idiom: Quem não tem cão caça com gato
Literal translation: "He who doesn't take a domestic dog hunts with a cat."
What it means: "You make the most of what you've got." Basically, you exercise what y'all need to do, with what the resources you have.

The idiom: Empurrar com a barriga
Literal translation: "To button something with your belly."
What it means: "To keep postponing an important chore."

The idiom: Pagar o pato
Literal translation: "Pay the duck."
What it means: "To have the blame for something you did not practise."

From Smoothen translator Kinga Skorupska :

The idiom: Słoń nastąpił ci na ucho?
Literal translation: "Did an elephant stomp on your ear?"
What it ways: "You have no ear for music."
Other languages this idiom exists in : Our translators tell us that in Croatian, at that place's also a connection fabricated between elephants and musical ability in the phrase, "You lot sing like an elephant farted in your ear (Pjevaš kao da ti je slon prdnuo u uho.)." But in the Latvian version, it's a acquit who stomps on your ear.

The idiom: Bułka z masłem.
Literal translation: "It'south a roll with butter."
What information technology means: "It'due south really easy."

The idiom: Z choinki się urwałaś?
Literal translation: "Did you fall from a Christmas tree?"
What information technology ways: "You are not well informed, and it shows."

From Japanese translators Yasushi Aoki and Emi Kamiya :

The idiom: 猫をかぶる
Literal translation: "To wear a cat on one's head."
What information technology means: "You're hiding your claws and pretending to exist a dainty, harmless person."

The idiom: 猫の手も借りたい
Literal translation: "Willing to borrow a true cat's paws."*
What information technology means: "You're so busy that you're willing to take help from anyone."

The idiom: 猫の額
Literal translation: "Cat's forehead."
What it means: "A tiny space. Frequently, y'all use information technology when y'all're speaking humbly nearly land that you ain."

The idiom: 猫舌
Literal translation: "Cat tongue."
What it ways: "Needing to look until hot food cools to eat information technology."

*Aye, Japanese has quite a few cat idioms.

From Kazakh translator Askhat Yerkimbay:

The idiom: Сенің арқаңда күн көріп жүрмін
Literal translation: "I see the sunday on your back."
What it means: "Thank you for being you. I am alive because of your assistance."

From Croatian translator Ivan Stamenkovic :

The idiom: Doće maca na vratanca
Literal translation: "The pussy cat will come up to the tiny door."
What information technology means: "Essentially, 'What goes around comes around.'"

The idiom: Da vidimo čija majka crnu vunu prede
Literal translation: "We run across whose female parent is spinning blackness wool."
What it ways: "Information technology's like existence the black sheep in the family."

The idiom: Muda Labudova
Literal translation: "Balls of a swan."
What information technology ways: "Information technology means something that's incommunicable."

The idiom: Mi o vuku
Literal translation: "To talk almost the wolf."
What information technology means: "It'south similar to 'speak of the devil.'"
Other language connections: In Smoothen, "O wilku mowa" is the equivalent.

From Tamil translator Tharique Azeez :

The idiom: தலை முழுகுதல் (Thalai Muzhuguthal)
Literal translation: "To take a dip or pour water over someone's head."
What it means: "To cut off a relationship."

The idiom: தண்ணீர் காட்டுதல் (Thanneer Kaattuthal)
Literal translation: "Showing water to someone."
What it means: "Information technology ways to exist someone'south nemesis."

From Dutch translator Valerie Boor :

The idiom: Iets met de Franse slag doen
Literal translation: "Doing something with the French whiplash."
What it means: "This patently comes from riding terminology. It means doing something hastily."

The idiom: Iets voor een appel en een ei kopen
Literal translation: "Ownership something for an apple and an egg."
What it means: "It means you bought it very cheaply."
Other language connections: Spanish translator Camille Martínez points out out that when something is expensive in English, you lot pay two body parts for information technology ("it cost me an arm and a leg"), whereas in Spanish you just pay 1 — either a kidney ("me costó un riñón") or an eye ("me costó united nations ojo de la cara").

From Korean translator Jeong Kinser :

The idiom: 똥 묻은 개가 겨 묻은 개 나무란다
Literal translation: "A dog with feces scolds a canis familiaris with husks of grain."
What it means: "It'southward a bit similar, 'People who alive in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.'"

The idiom: 오십보 백보
Literal translation: "50 steps are similar to 100 steps."
What it means: "I think of it every bit, 'Six of one, half a dozen of the other.'"

What are your favorite idioms? Share in the comments section.

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Source: https://blog.ted.com/40-idioms-that-cant-be-translated-literally/

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