Thursday Thinking - Taking Things Literally

There are some things that you just can't understand if you insist on being literal. You weren't born yesterday, right? So you already know that about language. You know I'm not literally talking about your birth date when I say "you weren't born yesterday."

TED Talk manuscripts are translated into 105 different languages by volunteer translators. Idiomatic phrases pose interesting problems for translators. You might understand what someone means when they say "you can't put lipstick on a pig," but how would you say that in Chinese? And even if you do translate it literally, would anyone who speaks Chinese actually understand your meaning?

Every language has idiomatic phrases. TED Talk translators were asked to share some of their favorites in a recent blog post. They were asked to share the phrase, to then translate it literally, and then to explain the non-literal meaning.

Got any idea what any these idiomatic phrases might mean?
Click the link below to see if you're right.

“You have tomatoes on your eyes.”
“There’s no cow on the ice.”
“To slide in on a shrimp sandwich.”
“It fell between chairs.”
“To blow little ducks.”
“The carrots are cooked!”
“The thief has a burning hat.”
“You can sharpen with an ax on top of this head.”
“Pay the duck.”
“It’s a roll with butter.”
“Did you fall from a Christmas tree?”
“Willing to borrow a cat’s paws.”*
“The pussy cat will come to the tiny door.”
“Balls of a swan.”
“To talk about the wolf.”
“Showing water to someone.”
"Buying something for an apple and an egg.”
“A dog with feces scolds a dog with husks of grain.”
“50 steps are similar to 100 steps.”

To see the language of origin and the meaning of these phrases and more, CLICK HERE.