re: Untranslatable Idioms? page 3

There is an english equivalent that is very close... "to be wise after the event".

e.g. "He said he knew how it could have been prevented, but he was being wise after the event."

Anonymous.... I can give you one, which is so completely national that there is no way any English translation of it exists. It's Polish: "Madry Polak po szkodzie", which roughly goes: "A Pole is wise after a damage is done" (but it sounds really awful this way). It means that a Pole knows what should HAVE been done when it's too late to do anything (after the damage etc.).

What do you think about that?

===
Kuba

In the UK we sometimes say "We are all wiser with the benefit of hindsight!"

I think that it is a missspelling of pound, which is the money they use in france

No, in France it's the Euro. The pound is used in the U.K.

Tae-boSpeaking of Idioms,

I have this idiom in my office. He thinks he is so smart and that he is better than everyone else.

That's hilarious! Thanks, Tae-bo. And it was nice Dmitri!

Lionheart,

There was a commercial on television that played several years ago that talked about this italian phrase-"make a movie". I was surfing to see if I could find a site that might mention the exact Italian phrase and I only found your comment. I think it was a commercial for Kodak but I may be wrong. I have even asked an italian friend of mine, she had never heard of it either. I would love to know if it really is an italian phrase and how it goes.

I'm italian and I've never heard about that...and I've never seen that commercial for Kodak!

Hi,

Here are some examples in Bulgarian language:

1. "To kick the bell" - To die;
2. "To spit on one's palms" - To get to work;
3. "Five people don't wait for Peter" - If someone is late;
4. "You found America!" - When someone finally realizes something obvious;
5. "Don't sell cucumbers to cucumber grower/seller" - Don't try to fool someone well-experienced in some field;
6. "To send someone out for a green caviar" - To cheat or deceive someone;
7. "Hungry bear doesn't dance (folk dance)" - Worker should be well fed in order to work well;
8. "He spitted out the pebble" - He began to speak;
9. "When my pattens/clogs blossom" - Never;
10. "Every train has it's passengers" - There are people for everything;
11. "Crows don't peck each other's eyes"
12. "He's an old goat's kid" - You can't fool him/He knows he's business;

There are many others idioms and if you're interested I can post some more.

Best regards
Dan

Hi Lionheart......I'm Barbara....I saw what you wrote and I realized you're American...don't you?
I'm Italian....and just 3 weeks ago I was in the States...in Boston
Where are u from?.....Could you help me with some american (not english) idioms??
You know, my english teacher sked me to show to the class some american expressions...I got some...but a lot of them exist in English too

BTW the expression that you were asking about "make a movie" I have a sort of idea....I mean I remember something about a Kodak commercial...it was the last sentence of that commercial...I think it was "make your movie!"... I can make you sure that it isn't an italian idioms...I think it meant: kodak is always better and developing so today you can make also a movie just putting together the pictures or a new tecnology by kodak or stuff like that...but I don't think that's an idiom the word "movie" it's just due to the fact it's a prodoct for pictures, tapes..and so on...that kind of things

Bye barbara!!!!!