海角大神

I聽was at a dinner party with a Dutch guest who at one point during the conversation exclaimed, 鈥淣ow the monkey comes out of the sleeve!鈥� All the non-Dutch speakers were stumped by this phrase, which clearly illustrates Merriam-Webster鈥檚 definition of idiom: an expression that has 鈥渁 meaning that cannot be derived from the聽conjoined meanings of its elements.鈥澛�

It turns out that this is the Dutch version of the English idiom 鈥淭he cat鈥檚 out of the bag,鈥� or 鈥淣ow the truth is revealed.鈥� Idioms trip up language learners because they tend to use short, common words that even beginning students know 鈥� but make so little sense. Inspired by monkeys in sleeves, I looked for similarly puzzling idioms in other languages. Here are some of the wonderful ones I found.

Many languages express 鈥淚t鈥檚 never going to happen鈥� with an idiom involving animals doing something impossible. In English, we can say 鈥淚鈥檒l do that when pigs fly.鈥� In French, it鈥檚 鈥渨hen hens have teeth.鈥� The Russian version takes the cake, though 鈥� 鈥渨hen the lobster whistles on top of a mountain.鈥�

Common animals feature in idioms around the world, and while the animals themselves are the same, they are deployed in very different ways. In English, 鈥渢o get your ducks in a row鈥� means 鈥渢o get organized.鈥� In Brazilian Portuguese, people sometimes end up 鈥減aying the duck鈥� 鈥� accepting responsibility or blame for something they didn鈥檛 do, like ... well, nobody quite knows what this has to do with waterfowl.

If someone tells you 鈥淭here鈥檚 no cow on the ice鈥� in Swedish, they mean 鈥渞elax!鈥� This is not to be confused with the Dutch 鈥渨hen cows dance on ice,鈥� i.e., never. Cats rarely get treated well idiomatically. 鈥淚 have other cats to whip鈥� means you have 鈥渙ther fish to fry,鈥� in French. In Japanese, 鈥渨earing a cat on one鈥檚 head鈥� is pretending to be nice, perhaps because of a cat鈥檚 habit of keeping its claws sheathed until it wants to shred the furniture.聽

Food is another source of idioms. When French speakers say, 鈥淭he carrots are cooked!鈥� they mean that nothing can be done about a situation. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a carrot,鈥� on the other hand, means 鈥渙f course鈥� or 鈥渙bviously鈥� in Korean. Germans have quite a few sausage sayings, which sometimes contradict each other. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 sausage to me鈥� translates to 鈥淚 don鈥檛 care; it鈥檚 not important,鈥� but when someone says, 鈥淣ow it鈥檚 about the sausage!鈥� it鈥檚 very important, referring to a crunchtime when a decision finally has to be made, something like 鈥淚t鈥檚 now or never.鈥澛�

My favorite comes from Polish: 鈥淣ot my circus, not my monkey.鈥� Or as we say it less eloquently in English, 鈥淣ot my problem.鈥�