this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2024
152 points (98.1% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26437 readers
2304 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

What are some (non-English) idioms, and what do they mean (both literally and in context)? Odd ones, your favorite ones - any and all are welcome. :)

For example, in English I might call someone a "good egg," meaning they're a nice person. Or, if it's raining heavily, I might say "it's raining cats and dogs."

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] rcuv@programming.dev 12 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Mandarin Chinese:

I thought of a couple involving animals.

沉鱼落雁 (chén yú luò yàn) - literally "sinking fish and grounding geese" - describes a beautiful woman.

虎头蛇尾 (hǔ tóu shé wěi) - literally "having the head of a tiger and the tail of a snake" - meaning: 1. having a strong start and a weak finish. 2. describing someone who is treacherous and doesn't do what they say they will.

Lots of idioms in Chinese are "chengyu" consisting of four characters.

[–] BigilusDickilus@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Chinese has so many good ones.

Please forgive the lack of tones, it's been a long long time.

Ren shan, Ren hai: a mountain and sea of people - a remarkable amount of people by Chinese standards.

Ma Ma, Hu Hu: horse horse, tiger tiger - a mixed bag, or something that's ok.

[–] rcuv@programming.dev 1 points 7 months ago

yeah, ren shan ren hai is a pretty good one, and it's also probably one of the more frequently used ones.

load more comments (1 replies)