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Top Secret Researcher
Original Poster
#1 Old 12th Oct 2009 at 1:18 AM
Default Lustige Redensarten - funny idioms
Wie jede Sprache hat auch Deutsch viele Redensarten zu bieten, die lustig klingen, besonders natürlich für Fremdsprachler. Also lasst uns doch mal hier eine Sammlung starten!
Like every language German, too, has to offer many idioms that sound funny, especially of course to foreign speakers. So let's start a collection here!

I mache den Anfang mit einer Redensart aus Norddeutschland, Bremen:
um den Pudding gehen: einen kurzen Spaziergang (um den Block) machen

I start with an idiom from Northern Germany, Bremen:
to walk around the pudding: to take a short walk (around the block)

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Test Subject
#2 Old 5th Apr 2010 at 3:37 PM
Die Redensart hab ich auch noch nicht gehört. Aber ich komm auch aus Süddeutschland.
Was ich immer besonders witzig find, ist, wenn eine Redensart im Englischen und Deutschen (fast) gleich heißt, wie zum Beispiel
den Geist aufgeben = to give up the ghost

I haven't heard of that idiom before. But I'm from southern Germany anyway.
Something I find extremely funny are idioms that are (almost) the same in English and German, like
den Geist aufgeben = to give up the ghost
Lab Assistant
#3 Old 9th Jan 2011 at 9:00 PM
Grüße aus Baden-Württemberg!

Ich persönlich finde es total schade, dass im Englischunterricht praktisch keine idiomatische Ausdrücke behandelt werden, besonders, weil ich 2012 Abitur mache. Aber immerhin habe ich die Anfrage auf eine Extra-Stunde "Idioms" schon gestellt.

As for me it's a pity that in English lessons at school is almost in no word spoken of idioms. That's especially sad as I will do my Abitur in 2012. But luckily I requested one special "idioms"-lesson.

Jetzt aber zu den Redewendungen:
Now let's talk about the idioms:

Da wird ja der Hund in der Pfanne verrückt
Englisch: Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle.

Es würde mir im Traum nicht einfallen ... zu tun.
Englisch: I wouldn't dream of doing ...

Wer's glaubt wird selig!
Englisch: A likely story!

Basta.
Englisch: Period. (That's the definite end and I will not change my point of view.)

Das ist an den Haaren herbeigezogen/aus den Fingern gesogen.
Englisch: That's far-fetched./That's made up of thin air.
Test Subject
#4 Old 15th Jan 2011 at 7:32 PM
Statt da wird ja der Hund in der Pfanne verrückt könnte man auch sagen ich glaub mein Schwein pfeift.
Am besten sind sowieso diese pseudo-englischen Sprichwörter wie I think my pig whistles oder that makes me no one so fast after.

Letzt hab ich außerdem von einer englischen Muttersprachlerin gelernt, dass to kick the bucket den Löffel abgeben oder ins Gras beißen heißt.


Instead of da wird ja der Hund in der Pfanne verrückt you could as well say ich glaub mein Schwein pfeift.
Anyway, you can always have the greatest laugh at pseudo-English idioms like I think my pig whistles (supposed to mean Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle) or that makes me no one so fast after (supposed to mean 'no one else can do this the same clever way as I do').

I recently learned from an native English speaker that to kick the bucket means den Löffel abgeben or ins Gras beißen.
Lab Assistant
#5 Old 8th Mar 2011 at 10:24 PM
Ins Gras beißen heißt aber auch "to bite the dust", ein Song von "Queen" heißt so
Es gibt aber noch viele andere Idiome für "sterben" im Deutschen, wie "die Möhren (bzw. Radieschen/das Gras) von unten wachsen sehen", "entschlafen", "über den Jordan/die Wupper gehen/hüpfen", "das Zeitliche segnen", "den Geist aufgeben", "die Augen schließen/auf Null setzen", "die letzte Reise antreten", "dran glauben müssen", "über Bord gehen", "in den Hafen einlaufen", "flöten gehen", "auf die Verlustliste kommen", "sein Leben aushauchen", "eingehen wie eine Primel", "hops gehen" und und und.

"Ins Gras beißen" can also be translated with "to bite the dust", wich is one title of a song by Queen ("Anotherone bites the dust")
But there is in German an awful lot of other expressions for "to die":
"die Radieschen von unten wachsen sehen" - "to be six feet under" or "to be pushing up the daisies"
"entschlafen" - "to pass over"
"über den Jordan gehen" - "to go west/the way of all flesh" or "to pass the Jordan"
"das Zeitliche segnen" - "to cease to be" or - poetically - "to shuffle off this mortal coil" (from Hamlet)
"den Geist aufgeben" - "to konk out" or, very literarically translated "to give up the ghost" or with a germanism: "to go kaput"
"die Augen schließen" - "to close one's eyes"
"die letzte Reise antreten" has no translation
"dran glauben müssen" - "to cop it"
"über Bord gehen" has also no real translation
"flöten gehen" - "to go down the drain"
"auf die Verlustliste kommen" has again no real pendant
"in die ewigen Jagdgründe eingehen" - "to go to the happy hunting ground"
"sein Leben aushauchen" - "to breathe one's last", "to sigh out one's soul"
"eingehen wie eine Primel" is translationless, "hops gehen" also.

Aber genug vom Sterben, wir sind ja nicht morbide oder so
But enough from dying, we aren't morbid or something like that

Greetings from Germany
Nasenfahrrad

Are you looking for translations of mods or catalogue descriptions?
I am a professional translator and interpreter for English-German and French-German.
Ask me if you need a translation into or from one of these three langauges, I'd love to provide! :)
Theorist
#6 Old 8th Mar 2011 at 10:33 PM
Quote:
"über Bord gehen" has also no real translation

I got "to go overboard" from google (That's what I thought it would be...), perhaps "to go off the deep-end"? (though that's more loosing your mind)

Hi I'm Paul!
Lab Assistant
#7 Old 12th Mar 2011 at 11:04 AM
I don't know if "to go overboard" in English also means dying, "über Bord gehen" can also mean falling into water from a ship, that's the literally translation, but if so I will of course correct my post.

But it's funny, there are some German words that do not exist in English, for example "Spießer", that's a person fulfilling all the clichées that exist. For a German this would mean wearing pullunders and short trousers, sandals with white socks, hornrims. Or the "typical bavarian" with a dirndl or a lederhose, eating bratwursts, pretzels and drinking beer all the time, sitting at the oktoberfest. All of them are never late, pedantic and well-organized. That's what we would call a "Spießer". But you will never find any appropriate translation for it...

Are you looking for translations of mods or catalogue descriptions?
I am a professional translator and interpreter for English-German and French-German.
Ask me if you need a translation into or from one of these three langauges, I'd love to provide! :)
Top Secret Researcher
Original Poster
#8 Old 12th Mar 2011 at 1:46 PM
I disagree, white socks in sandals are just a serious lack of taste, and while being very traditional, the typical Bavarian doesn't equal a "Spießer" for me. Being a Spießer is more about your last description, being conservative and narrow-minded, all about "law and order" and with a stick up their butt.
There are the words "bourgeois" and "suqare" for it.

Check out Omicron-Simtauri, my new space project!

Newest creation on my Livejournal: Fish with party hats: Garland and default
Looking for an Underground Station? thread on GoS
Grungy cars! thread on GoS latest: VW Type 2 Two-Tones
 
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