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Have you ever found yourself translating Czech idioms into the English language? I have; and once you do there is no way out. No matter how serious the topic is, once you throw in the “…you can kill two flies with one swap that way….” (an equivalent of “kill two birds with one stone”) or “...that’s totally a Spanish village for me….” (meaning “I have no clue on this one”) you are bound to get confused looks from your English-speaking listeners and the serious conversation is over because everyone starts to laugh. Anyhow, here is some more of these play-on-words thingies that I found or thought of. Feel free to add some!

CZ: Taky vzdycky udelate tu samou chybu a prelozite jeden z nasich ceskych idiomu do anglictiny? A taky dostanete zmatene pohledy? Ja jsem v tomto ohledu “nevylecitelna”. Jestlize vam repertoar jiz dochazi, tak tady si jich par muzete pripomenout…

• Take your legs on your shoulders = vezmi nohy na ramena (take to your heels)
• Like soaked hen = vypadas jako zmokla slepice (you look glum)
• Throw it behind your head = hod to za hlavu (forget about it)
• To have a milk on your chin = tece mu mliko po brade (to be still very young and naive)
• Don’t be a butter! = nebud maslo! (don’t be a wuss)

The word “ear” happens to be very popular in our culture. As the Radio Praha article points out it happens to be connected mostly with school matters…

• You have something behind your ears = mas neco za usima (someone who is savvy)
• Write it behind you ears = zapiste si to za usi! (remeber that!)
• With scraped years = s odrenyma usima (finish something by a whisker)

• To spread honey around someone’s lips = mazat mu med kolem huby (to butter someone up)
• Don’t spread it so much! = nemaz se s tim (don’t take so long!)
• To jsi byl jeste na houbach = you were still picking mushrooms (you weren’t born yet)
• It’s worth a fart = stoji to za prd (it’s worth nothing)

And I can add couple of my personal favorites

• “you missed the toilet” = jsi mimo misu (you are completely wrong)
• “you are in rice” = Jsi v ryzi ( you are in trouble)
• “That’s a Spanish village for me” = To je pro me spanelska vesnice ( I have no clue about this particular topic)

Source: http://www.radio.cz/en/article/104107