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Re: Local Phrases and Sayings [message #21691 is a reply to message #21646 ]

Tue, 13 October 2009 20:59

skating librarian
Messages: 570
Registered: October 2008
Location: Vermont

Senior Member

I like that theory ... not knowing where to put the verb ... for me "verbs at the end" were one of the problems I had with spoken German, since by the time the verb came 'round I had forgotten bits from the beginning of the sentence.

I went to college on the edge of Pennsylvania Dutch country. The college colors were the same as the German flag and when I work on the genealogy of my Mennonite ancestors I run across surnames that are the same as my college classmates. However the real proof of our school's ethnic leaning probably lay in the pies which were usually served at breakfast, especially shoofly pie.

"Winning a war is like winning an earthquake" Jeanette Rankin

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Re: Local Phrases and Sayings [message #22178 is a reply to message #3367 ]

Mon, 26 October 2009 11:47

Beauty/Anna
Messages: 481
Registered: November 2008
Location: America

Senior Member

Don't know if this counts but instead of saying "snap!"—which at the barn/ranch/camp I worked at this summer, everybody said allot but had only just picked up since they had been there and said when they were frustrated or really happy or some other unusual reason—I would say *Snapples* but now I just end up saying "Drat it all" seems more to the point—saying this when I had just capsized a bucket of water all over me—and several other people Smile

And where have you been Susan from Athens and ssshunt?

[Updated on: Mon, 26 October 2009 11:52]

"You are your best resource for success"

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Phrases and sayings [message #29518 is a reply to message #3365 ]

Thu, 20 May 2010 11:36

AJLR
Messages: 2564
Registered: September 2008
Location: England, UK

Senior Member
[Moderator]

Brought to the forefront of my mind by news that a friend is having a late baby, I started wondering how many different (polite, or mostly so) ways there might be to refer to someone being in this condition. In the English of England there's 'expecting', 'preggers', or 'being in the family way' (rather old fashioned, that one), or 'having a bun in the oven' (very colloquial!), or being 'in the pudding club'. What similar expressions might there be in other languages or traditions?

_{"Never let a computer know you're in a hurry."}

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Re: Local Phrases and Sayings [message #29548 is a reply to message #3367 ]

Fri, 21 May 2010 01:32

L.R.K.
Messages: 1079
Registered: October 2008
Location: Sweden

Senior Member

In Urdu there is "umeed se", which I think would translate best as "of hope".

ETA: Oh, and also that her "feet are heavy". There might be more, if I come to think of them...

[Updated on: Fri, 21 May 2010 01:34]

Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean, like butter that has been scraped over too much bread.

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Re: Local Phrases and Sayings [message #29563 is a reply to message #3367 ]

Fri, 21 May 2010 14:43

scarhandpiper
Messages: 95
Registered: October 2008
Location: Utah

Member

My mum used to tell us that if we (did something terrible),'our name would be Mud.'

In Butte, MT where I was raised, the "town" where you did your shopping and library browsing was uphill from most of the residential districts, so it was called "uptown" as opposed to "downtown".

The piping crowd will reply, when faced with a less than ideal situation, "It is what it is."

My kids call me Mumsie or Maman (French).

I love it when people say, "I lied." As if confessing to perjury was no big deal. It makes me laugh.

Out here if you're really excited about something, you are "over the moon" about it.

Gotta go. Sick kid.

Rose

Scar

"People think that stories are shaped by people. In fact, it's the other way around."
T.P.

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Re: Phrases and sayings [message #29613 is a reply to message #29518 ]

Fri, 21 May 2010 23:07

Black Bear
Messages: 3216
Registered: September 2008
Location: Indianapolis, IN USA

Senior Member
[Moderator]

A common phrase in the US for being pregnant (especially an unplanned or unwed pregnancy) is "knocked up." Which led to some interesting misunderstandings when a friend of mine was an exchange student in Ireland in the 1990s. Her host father cheerfully informed her before bedtime the first night, "Right, I'll knock you up around 8 tomorrow then!" You'll WHAT?? Smile

Also, preggo, preggers, "eating for two".... one of my coworkers is pregnant, you'd think I'd be able to come up with a few more...

_{"The time is always right to do what's right."--MLK Jr.}

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Re: Phrases and sayings [message #29616 is a reply to message #29613 ]

Fri, 21 May 2010 23:22

librarykat
Messages: 565
Registered: October 2008
Location: Redneck Riviera

Senior Member

Black Bear wrote on Fri, 21 May 2010 22:07

Also, preggo, preggers, "eating for two".... one of my coworkers is pregnant, you'd think I'd be able to come up with a few more...

In Hawaii, we say "hapai." And, my daughter-in-law IS hapai, with a boy, due around the end of October. I want to be called "Babachan" - that's what Hubby called his maternal grandmother (his family is Japanese, mostly living in Hawaii).

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Re: Phrases and sayings [message #29642 is a reply to message #29613 ]

Sat, 22 May 2010 12:41

claning
Messages: 266
Registered: February 2010
Location: California

Senior Member

A good (American) friend of mine, after nearly ten years in Scotland, amused her mother greatly by commenting that the milk in the refrigerator had "gone off!"

(In British English, this means it's gone sour. In American English, it means it exploded!)

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Re: Local Phrases and Sayings [message #29951 is a reply to message #3367 ]

Fri, 28 May 2010 23:41

cuivi
Messages: 23
Registered: May 2010
Location: DC suburbs

Junior Member

Not sure if this counts but my mother has a saying in Mandarin- Muo Yu- that literally translates to "touch fish." It means wasting time. As if you have nothing better to do than to hang around the fish market and slide your finger across the side of dead fish, which I find somewhat amusing (but then I do have a rather morbid sense of humor).

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Re: Local Phrases and Sayings [message #35783 is a reply to message #3367 ]

Mon, 01 November 2010 15:22

L.R.K.
Messages: 1079
Registered: October 2008
Location: Sweden

Senior Member

I came to think of a Swedish saying today - apropos that it is so difficult to see colour in the dark.

I mörkret är alla katter grå.
In the dark all cats are grey.

Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean, like butter that has been scraped over too much bread.

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Re: Local Phrases and Sayings [message #35791 is a reply to message #3367 ]

Mon, 01 November 2010 19:50

shalea
Messages: 779
Registered: October 2008
Location: Raleigh, North Carolina, ...

Senior Member

Sort of related to this thread, I found out recently in a discussion with a co-worker in the Netherlands that the Dutch have phrase that translates almost exactly to "the blind leading the blind."

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Re: Comfort Food [message #44956 is a reply to message #3365 ]

Tue, 20 September 2011 08:51

AJLR
Messages: 2564
Registered: September 2008
Location: England, UK

Senior Member
[Moderator]

Just saw a link to this, today, in my newspaper. Love the variety. Smile

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/europe/travel-tips-and-articles/ 76816

_{"Never let a computer know you're in a hurry."}

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Re: Local Phrases and Sayings [message #44959 is a reply to message #3367 ]

Tue, 20 September 2011 16:21

L.R.K.
Messages: 1079
Registered: October 2008
Location: Sweden

Senior Member

That's great! Though some are pretty obvious, the meaning of others is rather obscure - but I'm sure there are sayings in every language where one just repeats the saying, not knowing the actual meaning of it (the origin), merely the application.

Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean, like butter that has been scraped over too much bread.

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Re: Local Phrases and Sayings [message #50795 is a reply to message #3367 ]

Wed, 18 July 2012 09:43

L.R.K.
Messages: 1079
Registered: October 2008
Location: Sweden

Senior Member

"shaitan ki aant" (Urdu) = the devil's intestines

something that just drags on and on.... and on...

(That's how I feel about the book I'm reading just now. Not that it's a bad book - far from it, actually. But it has really become "the devil's intestines" - it feels like I'll just never get to the end of it... )

Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean, like butter that has been scraped over too much bread.

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