What is your favorite phrase from your language?

14 comments

1. “Não sou nada.
   Nunca serei nada.
   Não posso querer ser nada.
   À parte isso, tenho em mim todos os sonhos do mundo.
   ”

   I am nothing
   I shall never be anything
   I cannot want to be anything.
   Aside from that, I have within me all the dreams of the world.

2. “Doe maar normaal, dan doe je al gek genoeg”

   Just act normal, that’s crazy enough.

   I think it’s very telling of the ‘matter-of-fact’, ‘no-nonsense’ attitude of the Dutch

3. “Alles hat ein Ende, nur die Wurst hat zwei”

   Everything has one end, only the sausage has two.

   It mean “everything comes to an end”, but in German “ein” means both “an” and “one”

4. “An Bhfuil cead agam dul go dtí an leithreas”

   It’s hard to directly translate, but it’s something that students say to themselves to help get through the day. It’s a sort of “everything will be ok” phrase

5. Oh we got so many good ones in Finnish I can’t pick a winner so here’s a few.

   Joka kusee pieremättä, kuolee hymyilemättä – One who pisses without farting dies without smiling

   Käy kuin isä äidin selkään – Fits like dad on mommy’s back

   Kaikkeen tottuu paitsi jääpuikkoon perseessä ja sekin sulaa pois – You get used to everything, except an ice pick in your ass and even that melts away

6. Das Leben ist kein Ponyhof.

   Life is not a pony farm.

7. Ha hallgattál volna, okos maradtál volna.

   If you remained silent, you would remain smart.

8. “Chi non piscia in compagnia è uno sbirro o una spia” – “Those who don’t pee together are whether cops or spies”

9. Man kan ikke se grense under vann which is a phrase said by a Russian U-boat captain played by Norwegian Comedian Harald Heide Steen Jr. in a skit in a Norwegian tv series

10. “Den evenaar loopt niet door uw gat”

    The equator does not run through your (ass)hole.

    It means that the world does not revolve around you.

11. “Aje moe kakken, moeje kakken”

    These philosophical words were uttered in the iconic Flemish serie *De Ronde* about the Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders). They mean “If you have to take a shit, you have to take a shit”. Scholars are still debating the true meaning of these words.

12. “Leuka rintaan ja kohti uusia pettymyksiä.”

    “Chin to the chest and towards new disappointments.”

13. “Kaip pasiklosi, taip išsimiegosi”

    English translate: How you make the one’s bed, so you will fall asleep

    It means to create a difficult situation and endure unpleasant consequences.

14. >Ze kunnen beter over je fiets lullen, dan over je lul fietsen.

    In order to understand it you need to know the Dutch idiom “ergens over lullen”. “Lullen” as a verb means something like talking senselessly, e.g. making smalltalk or bullshitting. Literally though, “lul” means dick, so a more literal translation would be “dicking”. In this specific constellation “ergens over lullen”, or “dicking over something” means roughly gossiping or talking smack about something. The full saying then translates to

    >It’s better for them to dick over (i.e. talk smack about) your (bi)cycle, than for them to cycle over your dick.

    Which I find both a very poetic as well as a very Dutch way of saying essentially “let them talk”.