When hens have teeth!
These French expressions made me smile when compared to sayings we have in the English language.
English - And pigs might fly!
French - Quand les poules auront des dents ! When hens have
teeth!
English - I have other fish to fry!
French - J'ai d'autres chats à fouetter ! I
have other cats to whip!
English - He has bats in the belfry!
French - Il a une araignée au plafond ! He
has a spider on the ceiling!
Sent by: Janie
Comments
This phrase in French makes me smile every time... English: Let's Go! French: Allons-y.
Here are a few Spanish ones:
To call a spade a spade: llamar al pan pan y al vino vino, to call bread bread and wine wine.
Look before you leap: antes que de te cases, mira lo que haces, before you get married, look at what you're doing.
Don't make a big deal out of nothing: no hay que hogarse en un vaso de agua, you don't have to drown in a glass of water.
To suck up to someone: hacer la pata a alguién, to do somebody the leg.
To run like the wind: ir como un pedo, to go like a fart.
To meet someone half-way: couper la poire en deux, cut the pear in half.
A stich in time saves nine: Ne remets pas à demain ce que tu peux faire aujourd'hui, don't leave till tomorrow what you can do today.
Don't count your chicks before they hatch: Ne pas vendre la peau de l'ours avant de l'avoir tué, don't sell the skin of the bear before having killed it.
At home in St.Kitts when one do not take heed of our elders they'd say: Talking to you is like blowing wind through a broken bottle. Meaning, you don't listen to advice.
C'est du gateau, it's as easy as pie
Pour une bouché de pain, we got it for nothing.
Travailler du chapeau, mad as a hatter.
Also, to pass out in French is tomber dans les pommes, to fall into the apples. The small unimportant events column in French newspapers are literally called the squashed cats column - La rubrique des chats écrasés or La rubrique faits divers, news in brief column.
Maybe the most amazing page that I read today?!?
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