The Oxford English dictionary defines idioms and phrases as:
A group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words.
Put another way: idioms are sentences that sound ridiculous to everyone but the native speakers who use them.
That’s why it’s always fun to learn idioms in a foreign language. If you randomly bust out one of these idioms in conversation with native speakers, they will be pleasantly surprised.
Then in that moment of surprise, they may realize for the first time just how ridiculous that idiom sounds. Then they will laugh, and think you’re even cooler than you already are.
But you won’t get your desired effect on the audience unless you nail the pronunciation.
That’s why we’ve included slowed down audio and phonetic transcription for 24 idioms in Portuguese, Mandarin, Spanish, Italian, French and German.
If you find yourself struggling with any of the sounds, be sure to download our free Audio PDF pronunciation guide for your target language.
Portuguese Idioms
How to pronounce it: [kẽĩ / n̪ɐ̃ũ / t̪ẽĩ / kɐ̃ũ / ka / sɐ / kõ / ga / t̪ʊ]
When to use it: If someone asks you for something you don’t have
How to pronounce it: [#i / rax / u / ka / va / li / ɲʊ / d̪a / ʃu / vɐ]
Variation:Vou tirar meu cavalinho da chuva (“I’ll take my little horse away from the rain”):
How to pronounce it: [vou / #i / ra / mɛʊ / ka / va / li / ɲʊ / d̪a / ʃu / vɐ]
When to use it: When someone asks you to do something you won’t do
How to pronounce it: [t̪eh / ma / ka / ki / ɲʊs / n̪a / ka / be / sɐ]
Variation: Tenho macaquinhos na cabeça (“I have little monkeys in my head”)
How to pronounce it: [t̪e / ɲʊ / ma / ka / ki / ɲʊs / n̪a / ka / be / sɐ]
When to use it: When someone says something strange
How to pronounce it: [ba / &a / t̪ɐ / t̪ɔn̪ / t̪ɐ]
Variation: Que cara é essa? Parece que você está igual barata tonta! (“What kind of a face it that? You look just like a silly cockroach!”)
How to pronounce it: [ki / ka / &ɐ / ɛ: / sɐ // pa / &ɛ / si / ki / vo / seɪ / st̪a / i / gwaʊ / ba / &a / t̪ɐ / t̪ɔn̪ / t̪ɐ]
When to use it: If you or someone else drops something
Spanish Idioms
How to pronounce it: [gä / t̪o̞ / ko̞ŋ / gwän̪ / t̪e̞ / zno̞ / kä / sä / +ä / t̪o̞ / n̪e̞s]
When to use it: If someone’s not sure whether they can do something in order to reach their goal
How to pronounce it: [se̞ / me̞ / fwe̞ / lä / βjo̞n̪]
When to use it: When someone has asked you to fetch something and you forget
How to pronounce it: [mu / #o̞ /+wi / do̞ / i / po̞ / kä / sn̪we̞ / se̞s]
When to use it: When your friend refuses to get up to get the snacks
How to pronounce it: [e̞ / &e̞ / sbje̞n̪ / ko̞ / do̞]
When to use it: When someone is acting frugally
French Idioms
How to pronounce it: [ʒɛ / d̪o / t̪χ(ə) / ʃa / z̪a / fue / t̪e]
When to use it: When someone asks you to do something you don’t have time for
How to pronounce it: [le / ka / ʁɔt̪ / s̪ɔ / kɥit̪]
When to use it: When it’s too late
How to pronounce it: [d̪ɔ / n̪e / s̪a / lɑ̃ / go / ʃa]
When to use it: When you’re losing a game of ‘guess what’
How to pronounce it: [a / vwaʁ* / lə / mu / t̪aʁ* / d̪ə / ki / mɔ̃ / t̪o / n̪e]
When to use it: When you or someone else is getting mad
Italian Idioms
How to pronounce it: [ä / ve̞ / &e̞ / ʎɔ / ki / fo̞ / de̞ / &ä / ti / di / p+o̞ / ʃu / to̞]
When to use it: When someone can’t find something that’s literally right in front of them
How to pronounce it: [säl / tä / &e̞ / fɔ / si / pe̞ / &i / luŋ / go̞]
When to use it: When someone comments they find something difficult, respond ‘in my day, we jumped ditches the long way’
How to pronounce it: [t+ä / tä / &e̞ / ä / pe̞ / ʃin / fä / #ä]
When to use it: To treat someone rudely
How to pronounce it: [u / b&jä / ko̞ / ko̞ / me̞ / u / nä / ʃi / mjä]
When to use it: Describing how much you had to drink
German Idioms
How to pronounce it: [aʊs / aɪ / nɐ / mʏ / kə / aɪ / n(ə)n / e / lə / fan / ʔtn / ma / xən]
When to use it: If someone is exaggerating a situation
How to pronounce it: [ɪç / glaʊp / maɪn / ʃvaɪn / p͡faɪft]
When to use it: Whenever something surprising happens
How to pronounce it: [a / ləs / hat / aɪn / ɛn / də / nuɐ / di / vʊɐst / hat / ͡tsvaɪ]
When to use it: When you want to sound philosophical in conversation
How to pronounce it: [zi / ʃpil / di / bə / laɪ / dɪç / tə / le / bɐ / vʊɐst]
When to use it: When your sibling refuses to eat their greens
How to pronounce it: [aʊf / aɪ / (nə)m / baɪn / ʃtet / ma / nɪçt / gut]
When to use it: To encourage someone to stay for another beer
Mandarin Chinese Idioms
How to pronounce it: [duì niú tán qín]
When to use it: When you are speaking to someone and it’s falling on deaf ears, it means they don’t understand you. There’s also an element of speaking about something intellectual to someone unintellectual.
How to pronounce it: [huà shé tiān zú]
When to use it: When someone tells you a story with unnecessary details
How to pronounce it: [hún shuǐ mō yú]
When to use it: This has a negative connotation, it refers to a situation where someone is profiting illegally or immorally from a bad situation
Did we miss any of your favorite sayings in other languages? Let us know in the comments below.
This is great! Thanks so much for this. Idioms are something that I have been wanting to learn in Spanish (well, German and Italian, too, but Spanish is my focus right now) because I think it’s so important for being able to express yourself naturally. I’m always wanting to “translate” English idioms, but I know they often don’t translate directly. Anyway, this post will be coming in handy for me. Thank you!
Glad you found it useful Annette!
Native Chinese speaker here, glad to see you threw some Chinese idioms there.
A bit of additional input:
1. 对牛弹琴 would be better translated as”playing instrument to a cow” since the 琴 (broad term for a range of string instruments) here was probably referring to some traditional Chinese instrument, instead of the very Western piano. Also, it’s important to point out, the underlying message here is that you are preaching high culture to an animal, so it is often used to express frustration/anger that the audience is not intelligent enough to fully comprehend the speech.
2. 画蛇添足, nice picture but a typo here, it should be just 画蛇添足 and the last 3 words was copy and pasted from the previous idiom. It is not used to say you’ve been told a story with redundant information, rather is it used to describe that you tried too hard and it ended up having the opposite effect.
3. 浑水摸鱼 is strictly a negative term, it is not used as praise for seizing a rare opportunity. On the contrary, it is used to describe people who profit illegally or cheat the system.
Again, really enjoyed your article and hope you find my comments helpful!
Hey! Thanks Christy, this is great. It’s exactly what we mean. Idioms often include subtle meanings that are obvious to native speakers and completely unobvious to language learners. It’s this subtlety that makes using them in conversation so impressive. We’ve amended our images based on your comment – thanks for such a great input!
There is no link to the Mandarin pronunciatiion pdf
Let me fix that for you Flurbius!
You’ve missed what I consider one of the best Mandarin idioms I’ve ever heard. tuō kù zi fàng pì
脱裤子放屁.
Literally it means: “Take off your pants to fart” In practice it means to do something absolutely worthless or which is a complete waste of time.
Yes! That one falls into what we call 歇后语 (xie hou yu), it is a two-parted pun. 脱裤子放屁 is the riddle part, and the often omitted second part is 多此一举 (duo ci yi ju) /completely unnecessary!
Haha! That’s a great one!