Language Trainers Blog

It’s a common thing to hear misquoted song lyrics (perhaps the most famous example is from Jimi Hendrix’s Purple Haze, “Excuse me while I kiss this guy” instead of “kiss the sky”), but occasionally you hear people mangling English idioms in equally hilarious ways. This is due in part to the heavily idiomatic nature of English.

The technical name for this is a Mondegreen – slightly different from a malapropism (or, when attributed to a certain former president, a Bushism).

Recently a friend was talking about fixing spelling errors in his college thesis as he wrote each chapter, claiming that he wanted to “nip it in the butt”. He didn’t understand why I was laughing so hard. The correct version is “nip it in the bud”, as in pruning plants – to cut it at the bud to stop it from growing again. His version was certainly funnier, but didn’t quite convey the same idea.

I also recently overheard somebody in public saying that something was a “pigment of my imagination”. I didn’t have the heart (or the balls) to correct them.

Perhaps one of the most famous Mondegreens is from a Britney Spears song, If You Seek Amy. The lyric in question goes:

All of the boys and all of the girls are begging to if you seek Amy

At first this doesn’t really make much sense, but replace the last four words with their phonetic equivalent, and you get something else entirely:

All of the boys and all of the girls are begging to eff yoo see kay me

She’s a smart one, that Britney.

When you’re very hungry, you might say that you could eat a horse, at least in English. If you translated this or other idioms literally into other languages, people might not know what you were talking about.

Spanish speakers also talk about horses when they’re really hungry – Estoy tan hambriento que podría tragarme un caballo (I’m so hungry I could eat a bull), although in Argentina they say – Tengo tanto hambre que me comería una vaca entera (I’m so hungry I could eat a whole cow).

In French it’s a bull rather than a horse that people claim to be able to eat when they’re famished – Je mangerais un boeuf. Or you might have the hunger of a wolf – J’ai un faim de loup. In Canadian French they do talk about horses when hungry though: J’ai tellement faim que je pourrais manger un cheval avec ses fers (I’m so hungry I could eat a horse with its horseshoes on), or even elephants: J’ai tellement faim que je pourrais manger un éléphant.

In Italian the equivalent expression is: ho una fame che mi mangerei un bue (I’m so hungry I would eat an ox).

Portuguese speakers talk about eating horses or oxen: Tenho tanta fome que comeria um cavalo (I’m so hungry I could eat a horse), or Tenho tanta fome que comeria um boi com guampa e tudo (I’m so hungry that I”d eat an ox with horn and everything). They also say, Estou com uma fome de leão (I’m hungry as a lion).

In German hunger, bears and wolves go together: Ich bin so hungrig wie ein Wolf (I am as hungry as a wolf) or Ich habe einen Bärenhunger (I have the hunger of a bear.

Czech speakers get so hungry that they could eat nails: Mám hlad, že bych hřebíky polykal(a)! (I’m as hungry that I should swallow/gobble even nails!).

When you go looking around the shops but don’t buy anything or even go inside them, you would say that you’re “window shopping” in English, even though you’re probably not shopping for windows,

In French you go “window licking” (faire du leche-vitrine).

In German you can go on a “shop window ramble” (Schaufensterbummel), while in Swedish the phrase means the same as in English – fönstershoppa (window shopping).

In Italian, Spanish and Portuguese you “go to the shop windows” (andare a vedere le vetrine / ir de escaparates / ir ver vitrines)

In Chinese the equivalent of this phrase is 逛街 (guàng jiē) or “street wandering/strolling” – this expression also means  to take a walk and to stroll down the street.

The equivalent phrase in Japanese is a transliteration of the English phrase -  ウィンドーショッピング (windōshoppingu).

If you think something is very unlikely to happen you might make references to flying pigs to signal your disbelief. Or you might talk about plummeting temperatures in hell. That will happen when pigs fly / when pigs have wings / when hell freezes over, you might say.

Flying pigs are also thought highly unlikely in Norwegian – når griser flyr (when pigs fly),  Swedish – när grisar flyger (when pigs fly), German – wenn Schweine fliegen können (when pigs can fly) or wenn Schweine Flügel hätten, wäre alles möglich (if pigs had wings, everything would be possible), and Welsh – pan fydd moch yn hedfan (when pigs fly).

The possibility of cows flying is considered unlikely in Finnish – sitten kun lehmät lentävät (when cows fly) or jos lehmällä olisi siivet, se lentäisi (if cow had wings, it would fly), and also in Catalan – quan les vaques volin (when cows fly).

In Spanish flying cows are also rare – cuando las vacas vuelen (when cows fly), as are hairy frogs – cuando las ranas crien pelo (when frogs grow hair).

Flying donkeys are what you have to watch out for in Italy – quando voleranno gli asini (when donkeys will fly).

The idea of hens growing teeth is thought to be unlikely in French – quand les poules auront des dents (when hens have teeth), as is the idea of cows with wings – quand les vaches auront des ailes (when cows have wings).

In Russian the most unlikely event is thought to be whistling crayfish – Когда рак на горе свистнет (When the crayfish on the hill whistles).

Learning idioms in foreign languages is a fun way to acquire new vocabulary and to get insights in the thought processes and culture of people who speak those languages. Today we have a selection of animal-related idioms from a variety of languages.

The Portuguese equivalent of ‘his bark is worse than his bite’ is cão que ladra não morde (the dog that barks doesn’t bite). In Spanish it’s perro que ladra no muerde, which means the same as the Portuguese, or perro ladrador, poco mordedor (a dog that barks rarely bites). These idioms are used to indicate that someone with a fierce or threatening appearance or manner isn’t a fierce or violent person. It can also be used more literally when talking about dogs. Related idioms in English include a barking dog never bites, all bark and no bite, and all mouth and no trousers.

Someone  who is very clumsy or rude, especially in delicate situations, could be described as being like a ‘bull in a china shop’.  In French they say such people are like ‘an elephant in a porcelain factory’ (Un éléphant dans un magasin de porcelaine). In Danish the equivalent is som en elefant i en glasbutik (like an elephant in a glass store), in Russian they say Слон в посудной лавке (An elephant in china shop) and in German it’s wie ein Elefant im Porzellanladen (like an elephant in a porecelain shop). The Dutch equivalent, als een olifant in een porseleinkast, means the same as the German and Russian.

If someone is a bit crazy, you could say that they have ‘bats in the belfrey’ or that they have ‘have kangeroo loose in the top paddock’. In Croatian you could say vrane su mu popile mozak (Crows have drunk his brain), while in French they that such as person has  a spider on the ceiling (une araigneé au plafond). Having little monkeys in the attic is the Portuguese equivalent - tem macaquinhos no sotão – and in Spanish such a person is said to be crazier than a goat (más loco que una cabra).

If someone talks in an incomprehensibly way or in an unknown language, you might say that they’re talking double Dutch, nonsense, gibberish or rubbish. The reference to double Dutch dates back to the 17th century, when the English had a low opinion of the Dutch and their language due to the hostilities between England and the Netherlands, according to this site. A term related to double Dutch is apparently used in the world of IT is reverse Polish. Another way of indicating that something is incomprehensible is to say that it’s all Greek or Chinese to you.

The Dutch equivalents of talking double Dutch are Dat is Chinees voor mij (That’s Chinese for me) and Dat is Latijn voor mij (That’s Latin for me).

In Italian incomprehensible speech is compared to talking Ostro-Goth (parlare ostrogoto) or that it’s Arabic to you (per me è arabo).

The Czechs compare unintelligible language to a Spanish village – Je to pro mne španĕlská vesnice ((It’s a Spanish village to me).

In French they say such language is like Chinese, Hebrew or Javanese – C’est du chinois (It’s Chinese), C’est de l’hébreu pour moi (It’s Hebrew to me), Pour moi, c’est du javanais (For me, it’s Javanese).

In German they compare such language to  Chinese – Spreche ich etwa chinesisch? (Am I speaking Chinese?), Bohemian villages (Böhmische Dörfer), or Chinese – Das ist Chinesisch für mich (That’s all Chinese to me).

Turkish speakers think of incomprehensible language as French – Olaya fransız kaldım (I am French to the conversation/chat).

L’esprit de l’escalier is a French expression that refers to clever or witty remarks you wish you’d made during a conversation, but which only come to mind afterwards. In some cases you might think of them shortly after the conversation, in other cases days, weeks or even months might pass before they pop into your head.

The expression was apparently coined by the French author Denis Diderot in the late 18th century and published in Paradoxe sur le Comédien. He originally meant it to refer to an infuriating situation when you leave a drawing room (usually on an upper floor at that time) and are halfway down the stairs before you suddenly think of the incredibly witty comment you could have made. Hence the reference to l’escalier (the staircase).

This phrase is used in English, as well as in French, and there are a number of possible translations, including ’staircase wit’, ‘the wit of the stair’, ‘comebacks’ and ‘being wise after the event’. In German the equivalent is ‘Treppenwitz‘ – a literal translation.

Something similar happens to me after conversations in foreign languages when I often think of better ways of saying things, realise that I made grammatical mistakes and/or remember words that refused to come to mind during the conversations. Or I think of things I should have said during the conversation, but only after it’s moved on and it would be too late to say them.  The next time I need the words I might remember them, or I might suffer L’esprit de l’escalier again.

Are there equivalents of this phrase in other languages?

False friends or false cognates are words that sound and/or look the same in two languages but  different meaning. Not all familiar sounding words in Spanish mean the same as they do in English.

Many words that end in -tion in English end in -ción in Spanish and many of them have the same or similar meanings. For example action is acción, description is descripción, invitation is invitación and civilization is civilización. However there are some exceptions (excepciónes): decepción means disappointment, not deception, which is engaño; and insulation is not insulación, which doesn’t exist in Spanish, but aislamiento.

Other false friends in Spanish include:

• Actual = current, at the present time (actual = real / verdadero)
• Argumento = scheme, arrangement (argument = discución)
• Asistir = to attend, to be present, e.g. Asisto a la oficina cada día, I go to the office every day. (to assist/help = ayudar)
• Constipación = a cold, e.g. estoy constipado = I have a cold / my nose is blocked up. (I am constipated = estoy estreñido)
• Contestar = to answer (to contest something = contender)
• Disgusto = displeasure or misfortune. (disgust = asco / repugnancia)
• Efectivo = cash (effective = eficaz)
• Embarazada = to be pregnant (to be embarrassed = tiene vergüenza / se siente avergonzado)
• Grapa = staple (grape = uva)
• Lectura = reading (lecture = conferencia)
• Librería = bookshop (library = biblioteca)
• Noticia = a piece of news (notice = aviso)
• Particular = private (particular = especial)
• Policia = police (policy = politica)
• Pretender = to intend, try, seek (to pretend = fingir)
• Realizer = to become real (to realize = darse cuenta)
• Suburbio = slum (suburb = Barrio residencial)
• Suceso = event (success = éxito)

There are many interesting colour-related expressions in French, some of which have different meanings to their English equivalents.

White or blanc, which also means pale or blank, can signify that something is without risks – à blanc – and that it is pure – blanc comme neige (white as snow). It is also used to refer to novices – des blancs becs (the white beaks) – and to refer to linen, as in magasin de blanc (linen/whites shop).  If you are very frightened you might turn white as a sheet, but in French you turn white as a packet of aspirins – blanc comme un cachet d’aspirine.

Black is associated with illegal activity such as blackmarketering, or faire du marché noir, and moonlighting or travailler au noir. A black novel or roman noir is the equivalent of a crime novel, and when you want to be sure or something, you ask for it to be put down in black and white, or noir sur blanc.

In French you can go red with emotion – rouge d’émotion – or embarrassment – devenir rouge comme un cerise (to go as red as a cherry). If you stay out in the sun too long you might go as red as poppy, a peony, a crayfish or a tomato – rouge comme un coquelicot, une pivoine, une écrevisse, une tomate.

You might also go blue with rage – bleu de colère – or green with fear – vert de peur.

When you’re head over heels about something or someone it means that you’re very excited, and/or turning cartwheels to demonstrate your excitement. It can also be used when you’re falling – he rolled head over heels down the hill.

This idiom is often used in the phrase head over heels in love with. It was probably first used in the 14th century, when it was heels over head, which makes a lot more sense. At some point the parts got switched round.

Similar idioms in English include upside-down, topsy-turvy, arse over tea-kettle and arse over tit.

In German you might be Hals über Kopf (neck over head) about something or someone.

There’s a similar phrase in Dutch, hals over kop (head over heels) but it means ‘at the spur of the moment’ or ‘in a terrific rush’. Although you could fall hals over kop in love, a more common expressions is hij moest hals over kop naar het ziekenhuis (he had to be rushed to the hospital suddenly).

In Italian you can say that your head is spinning more quickly than usual with excitement – su di giri.

In Welsh you can be over your head and ears in love – dros dy ben a dy glustiau mewn cariad.