#german idiom

[thatswhywelovegermany]

nur Bahnhof verstehen

literally: to understand nothing but train station

to understand nothing or not wanting to understand anything

Origin: The phrase has its origins in the First World War, when soldiers, tired from years of trench warfare, only wanted to hear the word “train station,” which for them was synonymous with a journey home.

#german idiom

[german-enthusiast]

Lieber arm dran als Arm ab!

arm (adj) dran sein (v) - to be unfortunate/in a bad position/suffering

Arm (n) dran - attached arm

Arm (n) ab - detached arm

dran <—> ab - attached <—> detached

A German idiom replied to someone who claims that they are "suffering" by using the expression arm dran sein (most often used in a sarcastic/exaggerated sense). Arm dran (being unfortunate) gets semantically switched to having an arm and then compared to the (obv. less fortunate) not having an arm.

#german #langblr #german learning #learning german #deutsch #language learning #german language #deutsch lernen #german vocabulary #german idiom

[chiara-klara-claire]

funny ways to say “in the middle of nowhere”

Collected funny ones under this post + contributions to this one (my selection). Most involve ass(holes), have god/the devil, (nonsense) names of villages…

🇩🇪German: in the ass of the world/ the pasture- am Arsch der Welt/der Weide; where Fox and Hare bid each other good night - Wo sich Fuchs und Hase Gute Nacht sagen (old-fashioned), where the dead dog lays - Da liegt der tote Hund, in Buxtehude/ (Kuh)kaff, in der Pampa, in Timbuktu

🇮🇹Italian: in assland - in culonia/culandia, in the wolves’ ass - in culo ai lupi, in the ass of the word - in culo al mondo; 🇫🇷 French in the asshole of the world - dans le trou du cul du monde

🇨🇿Czech: Where foxes bid good night to one another - Kde si lišky dávají dobrou noc

🇩🇰Danish: where the crows turn around - Hvor kragerne vender on Lars diarrheas field/on the field of Lars Shitpants - På lars tyndskids mark

🇳🇴Norwegian: far damn from violence - langt pokker i vold, “huttaheiti” (gibberish)

🇸🇪Swedish: out (there) in the spinach - ute i spenaten,“tjotaheiti” (see above, maybe originally from Tahiti)

🇪🇸in Spain: in the fifth hell/pine tree - En el quinto infierno/pino, where Christ lost the sandal/hat/lighter - Donde Cristo perdió la alpargata/gorra/mechero;

🇲🇽 Mexico: Where the devil farts - Donde el diablo se echa un pedo, and sometimes someone answers: “Y nadie lo escucha” And no one hears

🇹🇼in Taiwan: where birds don't lay eggs and dogs don't shit - 鳥不生蛋狗不拉屎的地方 

🇵🇱Polish - where crows turn around -  Gdzie wrony zawracają, where dogs bark from their ass - gdzie psy dupami szczekają 🐶; Where the devil says goodnight - Gdzie diabeł mówi dobranoc, where (black) pepper grows - gdzie pieprz rośnie, (mostly in the context of running as far away as possible or chasing someone away)

🇦🇺Australia: woop woop or "in the middle of woop woop' 🇳🇿 NZ: wop wops

🇻🇳Vietnamese: holy forests, poisonous waters - rừng thiêng nước độc / where mountain passes are windy/cloudy and winds swirl in vortexes - đèo heo hút gió or đèo mây hút gió (rarely used)

🇨🇦🇫🇷 Québéc: Saint clin clin des meuhs meuhs (actual village name…)

🇸🇦 Arabic (Saudi dialect): in the castle of wadren في مقلاع وادرين (an old castle in the middle of desert)

🇮🇱 in Israel: Israel: at the end of the world, take a turn left - סוף העולם שמאלה

🇫🇮Finnish: behind God’s back - jumalan selän takana, in the devil’s ass - helvetin perseessä;

🇬🇷 Greek: at the devil’s horn - Στου διαόλου το κέρατο;

🇧🇬 Bulgarian: on the ass of geography - На гъза на географията

🇮🇸 Icelandic Out in an asshole - úti í rassgati;

🇧🇷 in Brazil: in cock’s house - na casa do caralho;

🇦🇷 in Argentina: in the pussy of the parrot- en la concha de la lora 🦜;

🇪🇪 Estonian: in the bear's ass - karuperses 🐻

🇺🇸 USA: bumfuck Egypt

🇧🇪 in Belgium (Dutch): in a farmer’s asscrack - in een boerengat

🇺🇦 Ukrainian: in the devil's swamps в чорта на кулічках,  where the crow won't carry bones куди ворон кісток не заносить

#langblr #language blog #idioms #funny idioms #foreign languages #language facts #my selection #my fav is the german one <33333 #polyglot #have had this in the drafts for more than a year i guess #mine #my lists

[ben-learns-smth]

vegan blueberry cheesecake. chatting with the barista. blasting bastille. "your cap is really cool. such a mood".

ngl I'm struggling a bit atm and it was hard to come up with these things for my list of joy. it was also hard to do stuff at all today.. my german sign language class definitely lifted my spirits a bit, we're a fun group!

things I did today:

some travel planning

looked up job options for after summer

dgs2 class

things I still need to do:

have dinner

tidy the kitchen

pack bag for tomorrow and lay out clothes

currently on full volume: plug in - bastille

currently reading but forgot it at home on the nighstand: stone butch blues - leslie feinberg

#like the german idiom goes: the mood is in the basement #aber bastille regelt #mine #studyblr #knife gang #uniblr #heyzainab

[hydrogenperfoxide]

new rule: You don't get to make fun of a language or dialect unless you speak it. You don't get to make fun of it unless you love it.

Teasing is okay. it's playful. It's part of your relationship. When you don't actually know a person, when you're not *friends* you're just bullying. Fucking stop.

#this one is about dutch #dutch is silly #dutch is goofy #dutch is confusing and messy #so is every single language #it's also beautiful #it's sweet #dutch can be romantic #dutch can be friendly #dutch has words for things that imo are universal but don't have a term in english #it has weird and fun idioms #people just think it's particularly goofy because it looks a lot like english but isn't BECAUSE THEY'RE BOTH GERMANIC LANGUAGES #stop being mean and fucking appreciate the language #h2fox2.txt #h2fox2.rant

[ertrunkenerwassergeist]

Trying to continue Born Into the Wilds.

Cor is fighting this chapter every step of the way.

*shakes fist*

#ffxv #born into the wilds #*frustrated geist noises* #why do I have to pull every single word out of your nose? #this is a german idiom and sounds better in german #if I could physically throw an open office document I would

[ajarofpickledtears]

I love love love idioms and stuff like

for example, in English you have "it's pouring buckets" which is pretty much the same as the German "es schüttet wie aus Eimern"

then we have stuff like the one I mentioned yesterday (?), "skeletons in your closet" vs "Leichen im Keller (bodies in the basement)", which have the same meaning and are similar, but not the same

another example: "bull in a china shop" and "Elefant im Porzellanladen (elephant in a porcellain/china shop)"

there are things like something I just thought of when outside, an idiom referring to when someone is complaining about rain and they arr told "du bist doch nicht aus Zucker (you're not made from sugar)" - even though I don't think there is an English equivalent, the reasoning behind it could still be understood: sugar dissolves in water, so someone doesn't need to be "scared" of the rain cause it won't hurt them

and lastly, there are idioms that are very cultural or historically influenced, or where most people probably neither know nor care why those exist. ones I can think of right now is, to tell someone that they are "schwer auf dem Holzweg" - in this case, "auf dem Holzweg sein" means that a person is off the track, or, of it's more as a threat/warning, that they don't know what's coming for them. also, when I look up "Holzweg" I get "logging-path" as a translation.

bonus:

to my non-German speaking friends - can you make sense of these?

"Du kannst mir nicht das Wasser reichen (You can't hand me the water)"

"Mit ihr ist nicht gut Kirschen essen (It is not possible to comfortably eat cherries with her)" - this translation is a stretch because... this is actually quite hard

#language #linguistics #german stuff #deutsch #translation studies #idioms #cylas speaks

[mcmorare]

some of the most common bits of katrina's austrian slang:

oida - used CONSTANTLY. kind of an equivalent of saying "dude" or "hey," also similar to the british "oi," can be used in an excited or frustrated manner, by itself, as an interjection, or pretty much any manner to be fair.

heast - a one word expression for frustration such as "what the hell"

wahnsinn - literally means "insane" or "ridiculous," but can also be used to mean "awesome," "rude," or practically any expression of strong feeling.

eh kloar - "of course/obviously"

na geh - pretty much means "come on/oh no/dammit," can be used with various degrees of intensity from a simple response to friendly teasing or a casual conversation to genuine frustration.

schauma moi = pretty much means "yeah right" or "we'll see about that."

passt scho - "sure" or "right," can be sarcastic or genuine

achso - the closest translation i can think of would be "oh" or "alas," but it's much less formal than that, generally used as an expression of disappointment or frustration in reaction to something

na - can be used as a pronunciation of "nein" (no), but can also just be used as a general filler word

seas - an even more shortened version of "servus," a casual way to say hello

pfiat di/pfiati - a casual goodbye

schmarrn - bullshit/nonsense

#‘ ganz interessant ‘ - headcanons. #this is SOME of it obviously there are many more slang terms and idioms #ohhhhhh and i'm not even getting into the different pronunciations of normal german words #i love. languages and dialects

[thatswhywelovegermany]

am Arsch der Welt

literally: at the ass of the world

in the middle of nowhere

#german idiom

[german-enthusiast]

Alligatoah's Musik ist keine Lösung - Lyrics for German learners (Difficult!)

Listen to the song (and read the lyrics) - look up the difficult words below (I added a vocab list with the colored words after paragraphs! Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives and others, proper names/neologisms/expressions) Don't let all the words overwhelm you, you can figure this out! The song is worth it!

Sehr geehrter Kaliba, netter Versuch

Kritische Texte, Weltverbesserer-Blues

Du denkst, du gibst dem System eine Reparatur

Unterschätzt dabei nur das Gesetz der Natur

Denn wir kommen mit Kohlekraft

Dem Monopol der Macht, mit Munition en masse

Durch Korruption ergattertem Logenplatz

Du kommst mit Notenblatt, wir haben uns totgelacht (guck ma')

Kaliba - Name the artist used to call himself; der Versuch - the attempt; kritisch - critical; der Weltverbesserer-Blues - a blues about making the world a better World (verbessern -> to make sth. better); die Reparatur - the repair; unterschätzen - to underestimate; das Gesetz - the law; die Kohlekraft - coal power/energy; das Monopol - the monopoly; die Macht - the power; die Munition - the ammunition; en masse (french) - a grand amount; durch __ ergattert - scavenged through.../gotten through...; der Logenplatz - a seat in a box/loge(in a theater); das Notenblatt - the sheet of music; totgelacht - died of laughter: guck mal - look/watch!

David gegen Goliath

Ist aus 'nem Märchenbuch voller erlogenem Quatsch

Bevor du Feuer bei der Generation entfachst

Fahren wir Hovercraft durch eine Mondlandschaft

Ein Anti-Kriegs-Klangerzeugnis?

Pff, ganz was Neues

John Lennon hat das schon in den 70ern gemacht

Hat ja richtig was gebracht

das Märchenbuch - the fairytale book; voller - here: full of; erlogen - lied about/bogus; der Quatsch - the bullshit/nonsense; entfachen - to spark/kindle; Hovercraft - a vehicle; die Mondlandschaft - moon-landscape; das Anti-Kriegs-Klangerzeugnis - the anti-war-sound-product; etwas Neues - something new; etwas bringen - to be effective

Du machst ein Lied gegen die gemeine Welt

Und in China hat gerade jemand Reis bestellt

Dann kommt der Krieg wieder, dann begreifst du schnell

Musik ist keine Lösung

Die Melodie löst bei ihnen Hoffnung aus

Heute hebt das Festivalgesocks die Faust

Aber morgen wachen sie in ihrer Kotze auf

Musik ist keine Lösung

Was willst du? Menschen mit deinen Liedern tragen?

Von der schiefen Bahn zur Zivilcourage?

Über allen Krisenstaaten Friedensfahnen?

Willst du noch 'ne Niere haben?

gemein - mean; bestellen - to order; wiederkommen - to return; begreifen - to understand (to grasp mentally); die Lösung - the solution; auslösen - to trigger/cause; die Hoffnung - the hope; heben - to lift; das Festivalgesocks - the festival-rabble/mob); die Faust - the fist; morgen - tomorrow; die Kotze - the vomit; auf der schiefe Bahn sein - to be delinquent, criminal; die Zivilcourage - the civil courage; der Krisenstaat - a country/nation in crisis; die Friedensfahne - a flag representing peace; die Niere - kidney

Denkst du, du bist jetzt die Stimme der Gesellschaft?

Die finden dich solange cool, bis du Geld hast

Vielleicht wirst du von manchen für den mutigen Schritt geliebt

Andere sagen: "Der will doch nur gute Publicity"

Nein, es ist nicht leicht, du musst Gegenwind verkraften

Zweifelhafte Leute aus der falschen Ecke werden für die nächste Single klatschen

Zum Beispiel anzuggetarnte, rechtsextremgesinnte Spasten

Die dein Video posten, weil sie kalkulierte Jagd auf jugendliche Wählerstimmen machen

Klar, denn keiner versteht deine Texte nach einer Jever-Palette

Du hast mehr Schnapsleichen auf dem Gewissen als Leben gerettet

Die Satire wirst du schwer im Dorf erläutern

Es sind Perlen vor die Säufer

Schenk den Menschen Botschaften und dein Temperament

Sie werden nur darüber streiten, wer dich länger kennt

Glaub mal nicht, dass da irgendetwas hängenbleibt

Außer dem Download der MP3

die Stimme - the voice; die Gesellschaft - the society; solange... bis - until; mutig - brave; der Gegenwind - the adverse wind, here: opposition, critique; verkraften - to bear, to handle; zweifelhaft - questionable; die Ecke - the corner; klatschen - to applaud; anzuggetarnt - disguised with suits; rechtsextremgesinnt - right (pol.) and extremist; der Spast - (insult!) idiot; kalkuliert - calculated; die Jagd - the hunt; jugendlich - teen; die Wählerstimme - the vote; die Jever-Palette - 24x0.5l beer (Jever is a beer brand); die Schnapsleiche - a person who died because of alcohol; auf dem Gewissen haben - to be at fault for sth. - aka to "have sth/sb on your conscience; retten - to save; erläutern - to explain; Perlen vor die Säufer - parody of german expression "Perlen vor die Säue" (Pearls in front of pigs), to give sb. something valuable who doesn't appreciate it; die Botschaft - the message; streiten - to argue; hängenbleiben - to stick (information); außer - except for

Du machst ein Lied gegen die gemeine Welt

Und in China hat gerade jemand Reis bestellt

Dann kommt der Krieg wieder, dann begreifst du schnell

Musik ist keine Lösung

Die Melodie löst bei ihnen Hoffnung aus

Heute hebt das Festivalgesocks die Faust

Aber morgen wachen sie in ihrer Kotze auf

Musik ist keine Lösung

[vocab see first chorus]

Wenn du alles soviel besser weißt, du Wunderknabe

Warum sitzt du nicht im Bundestag, hm?

Hast'e gedacht, der Job als Protestsänger ist krisensicher

Doch wäre Weltfrieden, braucht man deine Lieder nicht mehr

Wenn man die Geiseln in Guantanamo befreit

Und das Weltklima wieder einen Status quo erreicht

Muss ich darauf hinweisen, ohne schadenfroh zu sein

Du singst dich in die Arbeitslosigkeit

der Wunderknabe - a child prodigy (boy); der Bundestag - Germany's house of representatives, most important political place; der Protestsänger - a musician singing in protest; krisensicher - safe even during a crisis; die Geisel - the hostage; befreien - to rescue/to free; erreichen - to reach; auf etw. hinweisen - to point sth. out; schadenfroh - happy about sb. else's misery; die Arbeitslosigkeit - unemployment

Gib es zu, du brauchst die Tränen, die Angst

Die Hero-Junks, die Krebserkrankten

Die Schlägerbanden, den Mädchenhandel

Die Denunzianten von nebenan

Die Militärtyrannen, die Hate-Kampagnen

Die Karriereschlampen, die Laserschranken

Die toxigenen Substanzen, die in den Meeren landen

Der Planet geht baden, doch wir gehen zusammen

etw. zugeben - to admit (to sth); der/die Krebserkrankte - person suffering from cancer; die Schlägerbande - group of violent criminals; der Mädchenhandel - (illegal) trade with young girls; der/die Denunziant - a snitch, often to a tyrannical power/government (often used in connection with Nazis who ratted out Jews); die Hate-Kampagne - campaign with the only motive of hating and denouncing sth.; die Karriereschlampe - a woman who was made a career only because she's had sex with people in power; die Laserschranke - an electronic device with a laser to make a sound when sb/sth passes through (like at the exit of a store); toxigen - toxic; landen - to land, but here to end up in; baden - to swin/go into a pool/lake/ to have fun

Schenk dir ein und du siehst, dich bemerkt keiner

Das Glas ist halb leer, Meister *

Erlaub dem Zweifel, deinen Kopf zu ficken

Denn es steckt immer noch Mist in jedem Optimisten

Mach's wie wir, uns ist die Schöpfung latte

Wenn Gott nur sieben Tage braucht, kann er's ja öfters machen

einschenken - to pour (in); bemerken - to notice; *subtle when auditory: leer, Meister (as in "the glass is half empty, master") or Lehrmeister (as in "the glass (alcohol) is almost a teacher"); erlauben - to allow; der Zweifel - the doubt; ficken - to fuck; in etw. stecken - to be a part of sth.; der Mist - the shit, dirt, BS; die Schöpfung - the creation of the world through God; jmd. latte sein - to not care about sth.

Stampf Gitarre und Schreibfüller ein

Du wirst unbesiegbar durch Gleichgültigkeit

Nichts ist mehr schlimm und verwerflich

Nimm dir ein Zimmer mit Meerblick

Während sich unten das Gesindel beerdigt

Gib die Menschheit-, ich bin noch nicht fertig

Gib die Menschheit auf, Kaliba, du verschwendest deine Kunst

Sie wollen Änderung, doch sagen, ihre Hände wär'n gebunden

Da sie dunkle Mächte lenken, blah, sie quengeln wieder rum

Aber die Menschen sind nicht böse, die Menschen sind nur dumm

einstampfen - to destroy; der Schreibfüller - ink pen; unbesiegbar - undefeatable; die Gleichgültigkeit - the apathy; schlimm - bad, terrible; verwerflich - morally corrupt; der Meerblick - view of the ocean; das Gesindel - the common (or low) people; beerdigen - to put to rest/hold a funeral; (etw) aufgeben - to give (sth) up; verschwenden - to waste, not use sth appropriately; die Änderung - the change; gebunden sein - to be tied (up); lenken - to lead/steer; quengeln - to complain (childlike)

#Youtube #alligatoah #music #german #german music #langblr #learning german #language learning #deutsch #german learning #german language #deutsch lernen #german vocabulary #german idiom #german resource

[alittleghostwhoeatsbread]

A published piece by me. Finally. Truly. Read, please.

#absurdism #fiction #funny #humour #literary magazine #short story #surreal #fitzcarraldo editions #original story #story #fatal flaw literary magazine #german idiom #idiom #short fiction #short stories #read #reading #long reads #original poem #not really a poem #linguistic #sentences #pushcart

[chiara-klara-claire]

funny idioms

My personal selection of idioms collected here and there. my posts - resources masterpost | aesthetic idioms | words with cute literal meaning

Icelandic 🇮🇸

Ég borga bara með reiðufé 🐑💰 - I only pay with an angry sheep: Okay, but I don't have to like it

að taka einhvern í bakaríið 🥯 - to take someone to the bakery: used as a threat, often in sports, when your adversary is about to experience a heavy defeat.

Finnish 🇫🇮 @finnish-sayings

kissanristiäiset 🐱 - a cat’s christening: an unimportant event or holiday

nakki ja muusi 🍲 - in the year sausage and mashed potatoes: long ago

Ilma on kuin linnunmaitoa 🥛🐦- The weather is like bird’s milk: The weather is wonderful.

Hänella ei ole kaikki muumit laksossa - he/she doesn’t have all the moomins in the valley: they’re crazy

Norwegian 🇳🇴 @hazel3017

Nappe seg i løken 🧅 - Yank the onion: a man who masturbates

Høy på pæra 🍐- High on pears: someone who is arrogant (head gets so big it looks like a pear)  

Det er helt Texas! : That’s completely Texas! That’s crazy!

Swedish 🇸🇪( @escapenorth-blog )

Den är paj 🥧 - It’s pie. “It doesn’t work.”

du är ute och cyklar! 🚲 - you’re out and riding your bike! “You don’t know what you’re talking about!”

Fårskalle 🐑 💀 - sheep skull ; hissen går inte gela vägen upp- the elevator doesn’t go all the way up: stupid

släng dig i väggen - throw yourself against a wall: take a hike 🌲

Danish 🇩🇰 @vikinglanguage

der er kommunister i lysthuset*- communists are in the funhouse: when someone has their period 🩸🏠

skide grønne grise 🐖 💩 - to shit green pigs: be extremely frightened 😰

gåsevin 🍷🦆– goose wine: Water

pølsetysker 🌭 🇩🇪 – sausage german: a very German German or just a way to call Germans you dislike

ikke helt appelsinfri* 🍊 - not entirely orange-free: drunk 🤠

at tale flydende svensk* 🗣🇸🇪 - to speak Swedish fluently / tale i den store hvide telefon**☎️- talk in the big white telefon / ringe til Ulrik** 📞 : to call Ulrik: to throw up 🤮

at skyde papegøjen 🦜🔫- to shoot the parrot: to have luck

Dutch 🇳🇱

Helaas Pindakaas 🥜 - too bad peanut butter (“peanut cheese”): too bad, which rhymes with pindakaas = 🇩🇪 Schade Marmelade: same as Dutch, but with jam

German 🇩🇪 this post by @for-the-love-of-wolves-studies and this @moami

einen Clown zum Frühstück essen/frühstücken 🤡 🍽️- eating a clown for breakfast: not behaving decently/having bad humor

bekannt wie ein bunter Hund 🐶 🌈 - known as a colorful dog: someone known all over town

fuchsteufelswild 🦊 - fox devil wild: super mad

einen Vogel haben 🐦 - to have a bird: to be crazy

Ich glaub mein Schwein pfeift 🐷 - I think my pig whistles: I think I’m dreaming  

die Gurkentruppe 🥒 - cucumber brigade: bunch of bunglers  

Durch den Kakao ziehen 🍫-  throw someone into chocolate: to make fun of somebody or something, to roast someone

die beleidigte Leberwurst spielen 🌭 - to play the offended liver sausage: being very resentful

Hans Wurst 🌭 - Hans Sausage: name to call a stupid person (both m/f)

jetzt haben wir den Salat 🥗 - now we have the salad: look at this disaster that we now have 

jemanden hinwünschen, wo der Pfeffer wächst 🧂 - wish somebody would be where pepper grows: to want somebody to be as far away as possible

nah am Wasser gebaut 💧- built close to the water: someone that is easily moved to tears

italian 🇮🇹

Cascare dal pero 🍐 🌳  - fall from the pear tree - find out about something when you were supposed to know it

Far venire il latte alle ginocchia 🥛- make milk come from one’s knees: being a pain/ annoying,

Andare a rane** 🐸 - go (as) frogs: something like online connection is lagging

fare la figura del cioccolataio 🍫 - make a chocolatier’s impression: to make a fool of yourself, be responsible for embarrassing cockups

Che pizza! 🍕 - What a pizza!: “Nuts!”/ used Wien you are bored or annoyed at something

Essere alla frutta 🍎 🍌 - to be at [the moment of] fruit: when the situation is very bad (meals usually end with eating fruit), to emphasize this some people might say al caffè, al dolce ☕️ 🍰(coffee, dessert time)

Un limone 🍋- a lemon: a make out session

French 🇫🇷 this

Chanter en yaourt - sing in yogurt: singing in gibberish, random sounds pretending to sing in [English]

Poser un lapin 🐇 - to put a rabbit: To stand someone up

Avoir le cafard 🪳 - to have the cockroach: To be depressed

Tomber dans les pommes 🍎🍏 - To fall in the apples: To faint

Donner sa langue au chat 👅 🐈- to give one’s tongue to the cat: I have no idea/I give up. used to say you don’t know about something and are unable to give an answer.

Polish 🇵🇱 @pol-ski this post

można z konie kraść 🐎- you can steal horses with him: a trustworthy person

co ma piernik do wiatracka - what does gingerbread have to do with a windmill: it’s irrelevant

*: apparently not used much but wanted to include them cause they’re hilarious; **: maybe regional/use limited to an area

Thanks for contributions: @dasloddl (de), @tetsunabouquet (nl)

#idioms #funny idioms #food idioms #langblr #language blog #foreign languages #danish #Italian #German #Norwegian #Icelandic #finnish #mine #my lists #most are either animal or food

[adarkrainbow]

A reaction to TV Tropes’ “Dead Unicorn Tropes”

TV Tropes and Idioms is a great site, and a bad website.

For dissecting fiction, identifying tropes, throwing little tidbits of cool info and fun trivia, it is a great site.

For actually teaching people real things about the world, or when it comes to its generalizations of genres and styles... it can be very bad. 

I have this love-dislike relationship (not hate though) with TV Tropes because this site was so useful for me so many times I can’t imagine not living without it ; BUT I also noticed so much wrong things posted or written in pages because TV Tropes is not kept by actual experts and anyone can actually write anything in there - hopefully people double-check and hold the website together, but a lot of false, incomplete or biased information just slips by as it lacks Wikipedia’s stern neutral position. 

And as I was scrolling through the pages I found the “Dead Unicorn Tropes” page. A page listing tropes that are basically “dead horse tropes” (that is to say over-used, over-parodied, over-played with, over-referenced tropes to the point they are seen as painfully cliche, greatly unfunny or dreadfully doll and boring owadays) - but with the twist that they are “unicorns”. Aka... while everyone treat these tropes as ancient, worn-out, over-used cliches, they never actually existed as “tropes” in the first place. They never were as popular and widespread as people believed - it is basically the Mandela Effect, but for popular culture. 

For example many people think that James Bond wears a tuxedo all the time - when in truth he always just wore tuxedos for a few crucial scenes. But given they were among the most iconic and well-known scenes, popular culture developped the belief that James Bond was ALWAYS in a tuxedo. Or a lot of people parody romance animes by having the main protagonist running late for school with a toast in their mouth only to bump into someone... despite this scenario never being widespread or really used in the first place in animes of this genre. 

Anyway... What caught my eye was a specific section of this page. A section dedicated to fairytales. And this being a fairytale blog... let’s react! 

Fairy tales' supposed idealism and inevitable happy endings are commonly mocked and "deconstructed", most people being unaware that the real stories were often violent, cynical, and depressing. It's something of a Cyclic Trope, since the original stories had such a grim tone, before being bowdlerized and Disneyfied because Children Are Innocent (which is in itself an example of this trope), causing the stories to end up in an Animation Age Ghetto, which left them filled with Fridge Logic and other ripe fodder for deconstruction. On the other end of the spectrum, the belief that all fairy tales were originally gory grimdark horror stories before their Disneyfication is similarly exaggerated; the most common gratuitously violent passages that modern adaptations tend to leave out involve the deaths of the villains at the story's end. Grimmification as a trope is a rather ironic appellation, as The Brothers Grimm were in fact the Ur-Example of Disneyfication, with many of their stories being even darker before the Grimms retold them (but still not the nightmare gorefest people like to think).

I don’t have much to add to this section. The complicated thing with TV Tropes is that it mixes all fairytales together, not separating their origins, genres, cultural context - but what you can be sure about is that when they generalize “fairytales”, they actually talk of the “Western fairytales”, the specific chain of fairytales that went Italian-French-German. 

It is true that the original Italian fairytales (well... they weren’t fairytales because the term fairytale was invented by the French, but these were proto-fairytales) were filled with sex, violence and grotesque elements - but that was because they were farcical humoristic stories, part of a long tradition of surreal bawdy slapstick tales inherited from medieval times, and they were entirely destined to adults. 

The French fairytales were a “Disneyification” as TV Tropes says : because they became courtly tales told by nobles, aristocrats and intellectuals - it was the introduction of traditional fairytale princesses, of virtues and beauty winning over vice and ugliness, of delicate dialogues and scenes out of pastoral romances, etc... Perrault was the one who removed from Little Red Riding Hood the most gruesome details (such as how the wolf, according to some versions, leaves a bit of the blood and flesh of the grandmother for Little Red to eat). BUT on the flipside, French fairytales were FAR away from being Disney fairytales. They were “dark” as while they removed obvious sexuality they kept all the violence, from Bluebeard killing his wives in a chamber of blood to ogres eating their own children while being drunk one night. And while happy endings were very common, they weren’t a standard of fairytales: Charles Perrault’s Little Red Riding Hood ends with the girl being eaten by the Wolf, and that’s it - because it is a warning tale ; while Madame d’Aulnoy’s The Yellow Dwarf ends with the two lovers dying and becoming a couple of trees - due to the story being inspired by ancient myths. 

As for the German fairytales, the work of the Brothers Grimm... On one side they do seem “darker” than the French fairytales due to trying to imitate/stay more faithful to the original folktales, and thus they include much less refinment, much less clear virtues and vices, much more bizarre, disturbing or murky elements... But nothing is too simple, as the Brothers Grimm also HEAVILY “Disneyified” fairytales - they cut down many tales from their book they deemed too “immoral” ; they added many happy endings (they invented the Woodsman saving Little Red Riding Hood) and they changed many dark elements (Snow-White’s stepmother was originally the girl’s mother). 

Overall it is impossible to pin-point a specific “culprit” for making fairytales “lighter” or “darker” because each new incarnation of them has its own part of darkness and lightness... But TV Tropes might also evoke “fairytales” as in “literary fairytales VS folkloric fairytales” - opposing the fairytales written down by authors who actually tried to create a work of literature (all the fairytales talked about above are part of this category) to the actual “fairytales” told by common people, part of folklore and which inspired the literary fairytales. That is another often overlooked simplification: the fairytales we know are all literary works - inspired by folktales yes, but the same way you can have television shows, movies or podcasts inspired by folktales. And under this angle - yes, definitively, all the literary works put a “lighter” twist on the original tales of the common folk. 

True Love's Kiss is not an original element to most fairy tales, but is rather a Disneyfication element. Many fairy tales' protagonists did indeed have The Big Damn Kiss, but it's not meant to be something especially powerful or magical, like a Deus ex Machina. Taking a survey of the most popular such kisses: in the Grimms' version of "Sleeping Beauty", the prince does awake the title character with a kiss, but that's just coincidence because he happened to be there when her hundred-year curse expired;note and in "Snow White", the prince never kisses Snow White, but instead drops her coffin and dislodged the chunk of poisoned apple stuck in her throat. The Ur-Example of the trope was in Norse Mythology, of the Valkyrie Brunhilda who was punished by Odin to sleep on a couch surrounded by fire and was awakened with a kiss from the hero Siegfried.

True! Well, almost... “true love kiss” was present in some French fairytales (as part of the “courtly love” angle - later taken back by the Grimms who wanted to make some tales “cleaner”), and fairytales do have magical kisses of various kinds, but 1) the term “true love kiss” was invented by Disney for its Snow-White movie and 2) the concept of a magical kiss has been taken out of proportions in fairytales. As the text points out: no versions of Snow-White, from the Grimms or from others, have the princess being woken up with a kiss - it was a Disney invention. But given Disney’s two most prominent and famous fairy-tale adaptations (Snow-White and Sleeping Beauty) used the “true love kiss” resolution, people learning of fairytales through Disney thought it was a traditional ending - and Disney’s capitalizing on it did ot help. 

I will also add that while the Grimms’ use of the “magical love kiss” might have been influenced by the Germanic myth of Siegfried (after all the Grimms heavily studied and reconstructed Germanic mythology) ; the “magical love kiss” of French fairytales was obviously taken rather from Greco-Roman sources, more precisely from the tale of “Psyche and Cupid”, THE first proto-fairytale. 

The Knight in Shining Armor rescuing the Damsel in Distress from a dragon is commonly associated with fairy tales, but this is rather rare; The Brothers Grimm only used it twice.

Kind-of-true too. Dragons are NOT typical or traditional fairytale villains - except maybe in folktales and rural legends. Similarly, male heroes in fairytales are rarely knights - they are mostly princes/nobles or peasants of some sort - sometimes a soldier, but that’s all. In fact, beyond the rare Brothers Grimm example cited above, the only other manifestations of this scenario appear in French fairytales, which loved to have a noble male hero save a damsel from some sort of monster - but dragons weren’t more popular than giants or wicked sorcerers, and the male hero rarely was a “knight” and rather a warrior-prince or fighting king. 

The Unicorn (natch) is even more rare. If you do catch one, it won't be the delicate and pure creature like the modern trope, but the fierce and dangerous version of actual medieval legend.

True, because unicorns do not belong to the world of fairytales, but to the world of legends! I never saw one “original” fairytale, literary or otherwise, using a unicorn. Unicorns were part of medieval bestiaries and legends, and as thus were then reused in works of the “fantasy” genre in modern days - and then fantasy “bled” and got a bit confused with fairytales, and unicorns hoped into the “modern fairytale” conception... But yeah, unicorns in fairytales are basically completely unseen.

The Fairy Godmother is extremely rare and appears to have been introduced from literary variants. Sleeping Beauty is often just the victim of a prophesied fate. Cinderella is generally helped by her dead mother in some way, or by some magical beings whose good will she's earned. Even when she appears, it's not that "fairy godmother" is a type of supernatural being akin to a "guardian angel", but rather that a character's godmother, someone everyone in medieval Christendom would have and would already know as a close family friend, is unexpectedly revealed to be a fairy in disguise.

Ah... “Literary variants”. Now that’s a very interesting thing. You know, for a very long time the critics, the teachers, the ones studying fairytales, had this approach: look for folklore, rural legends, the “folktales” first, then look at the literary fairytales later and compare the two, seeing literary fairytales as “reimaginations” of the “original” tales. Nowaday, people in universities, and experts of literature, and critics, recognize that this approach is false and outdated - thanks to the research proving that most of the “folktales” we claim were the “original” sources... actually are just rural twins or doubles of the literary fairytales, which became so popular they spread to the lower classes. And fairytale history nowadays begins with the literary fairytales first - heck, the very term “fairy tale” was invented to designate the literary tales. Fairytales was originally a literary genre - and the term was only later broadened to include “folktales” in it (resulting in many mythological legends or religious tales being often incoherently called “fairytales”). 

That being said... “The Fairy Godmother is very rare”. Oh boy... you feel whoever wrote this only knows of German fairytales, aka the Grimms’ work. Fairy godmothers are EVERYWHERE in the French fairytales. Why do you think the genre was called “fairy tale”? BECAUSE THERE WERE FRIGGIN FAIRIES EVERYWHERE!!! What’s even funnier is that the whole idea of “The Fairy Godmother protects the heroine” was invented by Grimms and Disney. A lot of fairytales in Madame d’Aulnoy’s books are actually persecuted by the fairy godmothers of the story’s villains, or of their rivals! Sometimes you even have battles of fairy godmothers! 

Fairies themselves. Almost any conversation involving them will bring up that in the original tales fairies weren't good or helpful but were supposedly all represented by the most sinister interpretations of The Fair Folk. In reality fairies in the old tales and mythology tend to run the whole gamut from being good and/or helpful to being downright vicious. In many tales the behaviour of the same fairy type or fairy character can vary wildly depending on how a human interacts with them (usually courteous and virtuous behaviour will be rewarded, while vanity and other character flaws will be punished)

On top of what I said above, the article of TV Tropes here also keeps practicing a big confusion between several types of fairytales. 

Fairies are actually pretty much absent from the fairytales of the Brother Grimms, who rather leave place for either magical dwarfs and imps, either witches, and sometimes supernatural ladies such as Frau Höle. The fairies REALLY come from the French fairytales - again, I have to insist, the very term “fairy tale” (conte de fées) was invented to talk about the works of Perrault and d’Aulnoy. And fairies in French fairytales were far from the “all good, kind and cute” fairies - again, this is Disney’s work (and actually it is also the work of Victorian literature, but that’s another subject). In French fairytales you have both good fairies and wicked fairies - though most of the time they are clearly divided by a manicheism of “good, kind, beautiful, benevolent fairies” VS “ugly, monstrous, old evil fairy”. However, some fairytales (such as those of Aulnoy) still blurred the line between the two as good fairies could be easily offended and thus do wicked things. 

But here TV Tropes again refers mostly to “folktales” VS “literary tales” - and of course in “folktales” fairies are wildly different from their literary counterpart... Though even there is yet again another layer of confusion (so many...), because the French “fées” are NOT the English “fairies” even though they do translate by the same word. In English “fairies” originally designates a lot of inhabitants of the Otherworld ranging from pixies to monsters: in French “une fée” is originally a supernatural lady of the Otherworld, a cross between a goddess and a druidess/priestess, halfway between a nymph and sorceress. 

#fairytales #fairy tales #french fairytales #german fairytales #charles perrault #brothers grimm #tv tropes and idioms #reaction post #madame d'aulnoy #fairy godmother #fairy godmothers #italian fairytales #true love kiss

[65wordsnotes]

Lang-8.com alternative: Discover 65words.com

👋 Hey Amigos, it’s zakokor. I’m the solo developer of 65words.com, a challenge for writing 65+ words daily in the language you’re learning.

Recently, I stumbled upon Lang-8.com, a platform that has been serving language learners since 2007, recently announced the termination of its services by the end of February 2024. This news may leave many language enthusiasts searching for a new and effective way to continue their language learning journey.

I, personally, have never participated in Lang-8, but I believe that 65 Words can provide a welcoming space for language enthusiasts to continue their daily writing practice.

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Next, you'll need to complete 65 words or more to be able to send your writing, and it's one writing per day, no more.

Why 65 words? Well, I've noticed that it's the perfect formula for you to achieve it every day. It doesn't require much time, and you can do it anytime, anywhere. In return, you'll benefit from being exposed to the language every day.

I think writing daily is a great exercise to keep your language skills on point, learn new vocab, and truly think in the language you're learning.

Regarding feedback, yep, we've got feedback too. But here's the real deal – when I cooked up 65words.com, my goal was to create a space where you can write fearlessly. Feedback is cool, but the main gig is embracing the language without the fear of making mistakes. Let's keep it real.

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Best, zakokor 🌟

#learnenglish #learnlanguages #idioms #writing #learn spanish #learn italian #learning swedish #learning languages #learn french #learn german

[peptalkradio]

#pep talk radio #learn languages #german idioms #german pronunciation #german language #learn german #learning german #language learning

[ruotsalainen-kettu]

I just realized my English speaking friends don't know half of the fun expressions I use in German that don't translate well.

Currently well used is "Man wundert sich" (lit. "One wonders", the detached phrasing makes it humorous)

Related to a proverb that I've never heard outside my family: "Da staunt der Fachmann und der Laie wundert sich" (The expert marvels and the layman is confused/wonders)

#german #deutsch #langblr #idioms