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Idioms German - English Topic is solved
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Re: Idioms German - English
Thanks for sharing! Especially as they have several languages to choose from. Including Dutch and Russian which I learn.
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- Corinnebelle
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Re: Idioms German - English
One swallow doesn't make a summer.
What does this mean?
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Re: Idioms German - English
Corinnebelle wrote: ↑Sun Sep 25, 2022 8:57 pmOne swallow doesn't make a summer.
What does this mean?
a single positive sign, one hopeful individual case does not yet indicate a definite improvement of a situation
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Re: Idioms German - English
Here's a few more expressions:
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Re: Idioms German - English
Corinnebelle wrote: ↑Sun Sep 25, 2022 8:57 pmOne swallow doesn't make a summer.
What does this mean?
The proverb refers to the fact that the swallow is a migratory bird that returns to Germany in spring. So their arrival means that winter is over and soon it will be summer again. If you see only one swallow you will have to wait. So the meaning of the proverb is exactly what [mention]MoniqueMaRie[/mention] explained.
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Re: Idioms German - English
There are some more alternatives for the whistling pig, apart from the kicking horse:
Ich glaub mein Hamster bohnert (my hamster is polishing)
Ich glaub mein Muli priemt (my mule is chewing a quid)
Ich glaub mein Trecker humpelt (my tractor is limping)
Ich glaub mich küsst ein Elch (a moose is kissing me)
You can make up as many others as you wish! Don't forget to share them.
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Re: Idioms German - English
"Ich glaub' ich spinne": Obviously the phrase doesn't refer to the spider but to the verb "spinnen", to spin. In the past, when people didn't have our mass communication media, women used to meet in "Spinnstuben", doing household chores and telling stories (not always true ones). "Spinnen" is also present in the phrase "Seemannsgarn spinnen" (spin a yarn). The noun Spinne is related to the verb as this animal pulls strings like the "Spinnerin" does. A "Spinner" is a weirdo.
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Re: Idioms German - English
Sometimes sayings are also the result of misunderstanding.
A lyric by Ich+Ich contained the line "Es tobt der Hass da, vor meinem Fenster". But because the construction "...der Hass da..." is unusual, many Germans did not understand it and heard/thought to hear "es tobt der Hamster, vor meinem Fenster".
Since then, there is also the saying "da tobt der Hamster..." (the hamster is raging).
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Re: Idioms German - English
[mention]MoniqueMaRie[/mention] Yes,the famous hamster. This is also an example of what is called error segmentation (Fehlsegmentierung), a wrong interpretation of the border line between two words (as in meinte ich - mein Teich). This occurs rather frequently when reading a text. Seeing that you learn Italian, here's an Italian example: You may come across the word "busillis" in a sentence like "Questo è il busillis (punto difficile, difficultà). It goes back to the middle ages when someone read the Latin phrase" in diebus illis" and segmented it erroneously as "busillis". It has come to be an Italian word. Long live the hamster!
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Re: Idioms German - English
'Nur Bahnhof verstehen' is very interesting as I saw an explanation for this recently. Apparently this phrase originated among German soldiers during the later years of the First World War. It meant they were not interested in understanding orders/information unless they heard the word 'Bahnhof' as this meant they would be going home on leave. As in 'Du gehst morgen zum Bahnhof'.
I don't know if this is true, but it sounds plausible.
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Re: Idioms German - English
@DavidMTodd yes
In the following text I read: "Duden suspects the following origin of the phrase" followed by your explanation
https://de.wiktionary.org/wiki/nur_Bahnhof_verstehen
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Re: Idioms German - English
Well there you go! (as we say around here)
“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.”
― Nelson Mandela
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Re: Idioms German - English
Probably you go to the "Bahnhof"
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Re: Idioms German - English
There are some very interesting phrases here. I could easily waste a lot of time perusing these.
The translation for No. 67 (aus dem Nähkästchen plaudern) I think should be 'let the cat out of the bag'.
No. 52 (Wer anderen eine Grube gräbt, fällt selbst hinein) is a tricky one, there is not a commonly used equivalent in English. The most usual one would be 'hoist with his own petard' which comes from Shakespeare and is mainly used by the better educated. 'Make a rod for your own back' comes close, but it is not the same.
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Re: Idioms German - English
DavidMTodd wrote: ↑Mon Sep 04, 2023 9:20 amNo. 52 (Wer anderen eine Grube gräbt, fällt selbst hinein) is a tricky one, there is not a commonly used equivalent in English. The most usual one would be 'hoist with his own petard' which comes from Shakespeare and is mainly used by the better educated. 'Make a rod for your own back' comes close, but it is not the same.
Dict.cc suggests " the biter will be bitten" and leo.org "harm set, harm get".
I have no idea if these expressions are really used
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Re: Idioms German - English
@DavidMTodd "Let the cat out of the bag" exists in German as well. Its meaning is similar to the "Nähkästchen", but there is a slight difference. "Die Katze aus dem Sack lassen" implies that you reveal your true intention. The "Nähkästchen" has nothing to do with deception. "Plaudern" is "chat" in English, the "Nähkästchen" is a woman's sewing bag.
The saying goes back to the fact that women used to hide secret things often in their sewing box, because it was considered a safe hiding place that no one else had access to. Women especially liked to keep love letters in this sewing box in the past. When they met with other women to sew, they would take the letters out of the sewing box, show them and chat about the contents.
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Re: Idioms German - English
DavidMTodd wrote: ↑Mon Sep 04, 2023 9:20 amNo. 52 (Wer anderen eine Grube gräbt, fällt selbst hinein) is a tricky one
Wer anderen eine Grube gräbt, ist selbst ein Schwein.