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Funny Hungarian – English saying pairs
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Szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu posted an article not long ago about Hungarian sayings that foreigners find funny because they mean something completely different in English. Matadornetwork.com compared these sayings with their English equivalents and the collection turned out to be very humorous. We were inspired by these saying pairs and collected even more to brighten up your day.
Seemingly, you might not find logic in most of these sayings but they have been told and handed over in these forms for many-many years and they form a part of our traditions.
- Curiosity killed the cat = “Aki kíváncsi, hamar megöregszik”
The Hungarian equivalent of ‘curiosity killed the cat’ means that ‘if you are too curious, you’ll get old quickly’ in metaphrase which could be a rare pairing since curiosity is not a bad feature by all means.
- Enough is enough = “Jóból is megárt a sok”
It means that ‘one can have too much of a good thing as well’. You might be wondering how you can have too much of good things? Well, this is the beauty of sayings. However, the message is clear.
- Far, far away = “Az Isten háta mögött”
When we want to express how far something is, we say it is ‘behind God’s back’.
- She’s jumping for joy = “Örül, mint majom a farkának”
When somebody is very happy about something we say that the person is ‘as happy as a monkey about his tail’. We realize that this sounds utterly strange in English but it is a totally normal thing to say in Hungarian.
- Much cry, little wool = “Sok hűhó semmiért”
This means ‘a lot of whoop-de-doo for nothing’ and it essentially gives back the meaning of the saying in Hungarian as well. (Although the title of the Shakespeare play Much ado about nothing connects these sayings – bm)
- Don’t put all your eggs in one basket = “Ne tegyél fel mindent egy lapra”
In a figurative sense the sayings have the same meaning but the Hungarian version literally means ‘don’t put everything onto one card’ which is a bit harder to visualise than putting eggs into a basket.
“Don’t put everything onto one sheet” is totally wrong translation. “Lap” is playcard in this context: “don’t bet all your money to one card” or similar would be correct.
Thank you for your observation, we’ll modify it!
“Ne tegyél fel mindent egy lapra” would be more precise like this: don’t put everything on one card – I am sure it is a card game reference.
The English phrase raining cats & dogs has an element of truth. In the old days when most houses had loose thatch roofs and people lived in essentially one room with all their animals. It was quite normal for cats and even dogs to climb up into the roof from the inside as it was warmer. This was also the case with rodents and anything else that shared the house.
So when something happened like heavy rain or roof repairs etc they all fled the roof hence the expression raining cats and dogs.
Interesting ! I want more similar articles …