National sayings and phrases - directly translated

[Catfish]

"Doch selten hält das rote Licht
von nah, was es von fern verspricht"

Favourite quote from a friend when we approached a traffic light, but it certainly means something different

"Seldom the red light close keeps the promise, it promises from far away."

Most of those sayings rhyme in german, so some is wasted after translation. And there is no english word for "doch"

[Jimbuna]

"A few sandwiches short of a picnic"

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

"A few sandwiches short of a picnic"

...one brick short of a load (that's load in the very derogatory sense)

[Jimbuna]

"Barking up the wrong tree"

[Sean C]

My grandmother had a lot of funny sayings. I can't remember all of them. But one that always made me laugh was what she said when someone did something stupid:


"You ain't got the brains God gave a wooden goose!"

[Eisenwurst]

"I'm drier than a pommie's bathmat".- Let's go and have a drink !

[GoldenRivet]

Some i have heard float around in Texas... where much like our aussie friends, everything is bastardized english in which many things that wouldnt normally have a contraction, in fact do, and sometimes two or three, even four words flow together to form a sort of single sound.

"Its' Hotter'n two squirrels screwin'n'a whool sock!" - ie. very hot outside

"Drunker'n Cooter Brown." - ie. Very drunk.

"Runs lak-a-scalded dog (or; ape)." - ie. your car, motorcycle, etc is capable of great speed.

"Fixin' to" - ie. i am preparing to do some task. (Fixin' to Eat - Fixin' to go to dinner etc)

"Same difference" - an odd way of saying that two apparently different proposals or problems etc are in fact the same no matter which way you view them.

[Jimbuna]

Beat around the bush - To be indirect, and perhaps even reluctant or tricky, in saying or doing something.

[Rockstar]

You're "dumber than a bag of hammers" or "slower than steam of 'poop'. I use those one a lot when I was in the service.

[Commander Wallace]

Originally Posted by Rockstar

You're "dumber than a bag of hammers" or "slower than steam of 'poop'. I use those one a lot when I was in the service.

My dad said something similar. " You're dumber than a box of rocks."


I have used that saying a lot in my life.

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Beat around the bush - To be indirect, and perhaps even reluctant or tricky, in saying or doing something.

...not in Phuket! and "a hell of a 'git' you got''!

[mapuc]

Originally Posted by Catfish

Most of those sayings rhyme in german, so some is wasted after translation. And there is no english word for "doch"

An off topic answer to Catfish
I think the word "However" comes closes to the German word Doch.

Markus

End of an off topic....