there's no cow on the ice!

1/25/2015

A really amusing list of TED translators' favourite idioms:
http://blog.ted.com/2015/01/20/40-idioms-that-cant-be-translated-literally/

And here are some interesting Chinese ones too:
* http://carlgene.com/blog/2010/07/20-actually-useful-chengyu-成语/
* http://matadornetwork.com/abroad/15-hilarious-animal-sayings-in-chinese/

What are your favourite idioms? Add them to the comments below...

1 Comment

Andy Clapperton

2/5/2015 03:27:43 pm

I've always found the range of different phrases for hitchhiking really interesting in Spanish:

* hacer autostop (Spain) - borrowed from English 'to make car stop'
* pedir botella - Cuba, 'to ask for a bottle', based on the bottle shape you make with your hand
* hacer dedo (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Uruguay) - 'to do the finger'
* pedir aventón (México y El Salvador)
* pedir jalón (Guatemala y Honduras)
* pedir "raid" o "ride" (México, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica) - borrowed from English
* pedir bote (Panama)
* pedir bola (República Dominicana)
* pedir pon (Puerto Rico),
* pedir chance (Colombia, Caribbean coast),
* pedir cola (Venezuela) - to ask for a queue
* jalar dedo (Ecuador)

In Cuba they actually have organised hitchhiking where you queue up on the edge of a town and the 'amarillos' (guys in yellow uniform) stop cars for you, though I'm not sure if they still do this.

la comida picante es muy importante

there's no cow on the ice!

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