Sayings: logical/illogical/translated

badjak

badjak

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Not sure if this will work...
But as a non-native English speaker I wonder about some sayings, while at the same time sometimes translate some Dutch ones directly, causing some hilarity :)

So, gimme yours (translated and all)

Wondering about
" You can't have your cake and eat it"
If I got my cake, I am going to eat it! What the #$&#
To me, it should be "you can't keep your cake and eat it" :)

"Break a leg" for good luck????

Then translated ones (crude translation, sorry)
He (m/f) who burns his ass, has to sit on the blisters
(Meaning, if you do something silly, you have to suffer the consequences)

Any one else got some?
 
badjak said:
Break a leg" for good luck????
Click to expand...
It means 'do your utmost best' rather than 'good luck'. I believe it is a stage term but haven't checked that. My interpretation and understanding is that is saying 'get out there and perform the best you can even if it means you break a leg in the process'.
 
“Have your cake and eat it, too” means exactly as you translated it - you can have a piece of cake in front of you or you can eat that cake in front of you, but you can’t do both.

I’ll post some up later. We love our homespun sayings in these parts!
 
“She sure has bee in her bonnet” - upset and highly agitated about something.

A “colorful” one: “He’s got a stick up his azz!” - someone who expects everything to be exactly a certain way, and is easily offended when it’s not.

To skedaddle is to rush off in a hurry - analogous to when a British person says scarpered, more or less.

Another “colorful” one: “He’s happier than a pup
two peters.”
 
Break a leg does have a stage connotation. It's believed if someone wishes you good luck in the theater before going on stage, you will have a bad show, so they wish the opposite, AKA break a leg, from what I've always understood.
 
"Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater" which actually derived from times when people had no running water and the bath was drawn for all the family to share, starting with the father, mother, and children in age succession, so by the time it was time to bathe the baby the water was so dirty you couldn't see the baby. See below:

don't throw the baby out with the bathwater​

proverb Don't discard something valuable or important while disposing of something worthless. Why are we scrapping the entire project? Come on, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
See also: baby, bathwater, out, throw
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
 
Another colorful one: “He’s so stupid, he couldn’t pour pizz out of a boot if the instructions were written on the heel!” - self-explanatory, but if the instructions are on the heel, you’d have to turn the boot over to read them, thus emptying the pizz-filled boot whether you wanted to or not, but the fellow in question is so stupid, he’d even mess that up!
 
I did gardening for a lovely lady in Bearsted, Kent, when I was about 16. She was a Londoner. Any time I'd make a suggestion, she'd say "aw right, duckylove - push it down the hill , see if the wheels come off".In other words, give it a try. Failure is the road to success.
Venezuelans have some wonderful sayings.
"Cachicamo diciéndole al morrocoy, conchudo" ( The armadillo telling the tortoise he's got a shell). Translation: "The pot calling the kettle black"
" Camarón que se duerme, le lleva el corriente" ( a shrimp that goes to sleep gets washed away by the current). Something like don't rest on your laurels?
" A cada cochino le llega su sábado" ( every pig gets his Saturday) Traditionally, pigs were slaughtered on a Saturday, so when your time's up, it's up.
 
Just remembered my Latin master at Grammar School.
His favourite phrase (for the poor dumb students who hadn't studied) was:
"BOY! You're as thick as 10 teak lavatory seats! You should be down the road making salad bowls!!"
( There was a technical college close by which taught kids practical skills like woodwork, plumbing, etc.)

I think I'd have rather been there making salad bowls than learning Latin, but it's too late now. :laugh:
 
They can't organise a p#ss up in a brewery!
(They're pretty useless)

I don't always know if the ones used here are common British or made up colonial English ones :)
 
TastyReuben said:
“She sure has bee in her bonnet” - upset and highly agitated about something.

A “colorful” one: “He’s got a stick up his azz!” - someone who expects everything to be exactly a certain way, and is easily offended when it’s not.

To skedaddle is to rush off in a hurry - analogous to when a British person says scarpered, more or less.

Another “colorful” one: “He’s happier than a pup
two peters.”
Click to expand...
They're all british words and phrases too 😆
Just ever so slightly different.

Bee in her bonnet often means they have something they're on one about. I think that one's an old scottish saying, but I'm not sure.
My boss had a bee in his bonnet about pens being put cap down in the pen pots 🤣

Skeddadle means rush off or be gone where as scarper is getting away from a scene of a crime or possible trouble.
It's sometimes used to mean just rush off but the OP is joking by implying they are the trouble maker 🤣

And the last one we say a dog with two tails or ..... rather than pup.

karadekoolaid said:
The armadillo telling the tortoise he's got a shell). Translation: "The pot calling the kettle black"
Click to expand...
I'm not sure if that translation will make things clearer or murkier for some 😆
 
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