STRANGE LANGUAGE IDIOMS

Submitted by ub on

Idioms are non-literal, but native speakers of a language rarely realize how nonsensical some sayings can sometimes be.
 

For instance, according to mental floss.com using the cat’s pajamas—a phrase popularized by flappers during the Roaring Twenties—to describe something as amazing doesn’t appear to make a whole lot of sense, even to felines or cat lovers.
 

But the English isn’t alone in having idioms that sound delightfully bizarre; here are 20 examples from languages around the word. In Spanish ‘WaterZero” means a rainstorm
 

  1. To slide in on a shrimp sandwich // Swedish
  2. Thinking about the immortality of the crab // Spanish
  3. Take your pants off to fart // Mandarin
  4. In the whale’s ass // Italian
  5. No one becomes an unbeaten bishop // Icelandic
  6. One’s shoes are thrown to the rooftop // Turkish
  7. Don’t push granny into the nettles // French
  8. You don’t know the letter ‘giyeok’ even after putting down a sickle // Korean
  9. Scare with a puff of peas // Afrikaans
  10. There are owls in the bog // Danish
  11. Lid shut, monkey dead // German
  12. Throw your rifle in the rye // Czech
  13. A handful of shit is better than a handful of fart // Thai
  14. Take the little horse out of the rain // Portuguese
  15. The fence is not made of sausage // Hungarian
  16. Should I sniff my nails? // Greek
  17. I’m neither the top of the onion nor the bottom // Persian
  18. Don’t let your daughter-in-law eat fall eggplants // Japanese
  19. You are a radish from which field? // Hindi
  20. To show someone where the crayfish are wintering // Ukrainian
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