Idiom - Translating Idioms

Translating Idioms

Literal translation (word-by-word) of opaque idioms will not convey the same meaning in other languages. Idioms from other languages that are analogous to kick the bucket in English are listed next:

Bulgarian: da ritnesh kambanata (да ритнеш камбаната) 'to kick the bell'

Danish: at stille træskoene 'to take off the clogs',

Dutch: het loodje leggen 'to lay the piece of lead',

Finnish: potkaista tyhjää 'to kick the void',

French: manger des pissenlits par la racine 'to eat dandelions by the root',

German: den Löffel abgeben 'to give the spoon away' or ins Gras beißen 'to bite into the grass',

Greek: τινάζω τα πέταλα 'to shake the horse-shoes'

Italian: tirare le cuoia 'to pull the skins',

Latvian: nolikt karoti 'to put the spoon down'

Norwegian: å parkere tøflene 'to park the slippers',

Polish:kopnąć w kalendarz 'to kick the calendar',

Portuguese: bater as botas 'to beat the boots',

Romanian:a da colțul 'to take a corner',

Spanish: estirar la pata 'to stretch one's leg',

Swedish: trilla av pinnen 'to fall off the stick',

Ukrainian: врізати дуба 'to cut the oak, as in building a coffin'.

Finally, in Brazil, the expression chutar o balde 'to kick the bucket' has a completely different meaning: it means 'to give up on a difficult task, since a person coming to the end of their patience might kick a bucket in frustration'..

Some idioms, in contrast, are transparent. Much of their meaning does get through if they are taken (or translated) literally. For example, lay one's cards on the table meaning to reveal previously unknown intentions, or to reveal a secret. Transparency is a matter of degree; spill the beans (to let secret information become known) and leave no stone unturned (to do everything possible in order to achieve or find something) are not entirely literally interpretable, but only involve a slight metaphorical broadening. Another category of idioms is a word having several meanings, sometimes simultaneously, sometimes discerned from the context of its usage. This is seen in the (mostly un-inflected) English language in polysemes, the common use of the same word for an activity, for those engaged in it, for the product used, for the place or time of an activity, and sometimes for a verb.

Idioms tend to confuse those unfamiliar with them; students of a new language must learn its idiomatic expressions as vocabulary. Many natural language words have idiomatic origins, but are assimilated, so losing their figurative senses, for example, in Portuguese, the expression saber de coração 'to know by heart', with the same meaning as in English, was shortened to 'saber de cor', and, later, to the verb decorar, meaning memorize.