Listed some more Nordic idioms with berries in this blog post too 🍓 🇳🇴 🇸🇪 🫐🇫🇮
Feel free to add more under this post!!
Choose your fighter:
🇩🇰 Danish “The Butt book” / 🇸🇪 Swedish “hey poop sausage!”
2022-2023, tragedies, a bookmark I bought at Utrecht train station, moomin, Swedish and German novels, book about Dutch cities I got at the King’s day Rommelmarkt
Men svärmodern överraskade Kristina en dag på logen, när hon höll på att åka i en repgunga, som hon i smyg hade satt up åt sig i bjälkarna. […] Kristina var ännu lite barnslig i sinnet och hade leklusten kvar i kroppen. Det var dock underligt att hon ännu ville hållas med att gunga i rep, när hon en gång hade fallit fran en sädan gunga och skadat sig svärt i knäet. Denna yra lek passade inte en gift kvinna, hon borde veta bättre.
- Vilhelm Moberg, Utvandrarna
But her mother-in-law surprised Kristina one day at the lodge when she was riding in a rope swing that she had secretly set up for herself in the beams. [...] Kristina was still a bit childish in her mind and still had the desire to play. It was strange, however, that she still wanted to keep swinging on a rope when she had once fallen from such a swing and badly injured her knee. This dizzying game was not suitable for a married woman; she should know better.
Wrote an article about What learning Icelandic is like if you already speak a Scandinavian language
Feel free to share your experience if you speak a Scandinavian language and have studied Icelandic ! 🇩🇰🇸🇪🇮🇸🇳🇴
November 2021. Weird feelings. Lockdowns coming and going. Last university year. 🇫🇮 weekdays in Finnish; 🇸🇪 Quote from Brothers Lionheart. 🇮🇸 Cover of Sumarljós og svo kemur nóttin by Jón K. Stefánsson (Summerlight… and then Comes the Night) ;🔹Quote in West Frisian
Men jag kan inte döda någon’, sa Jonatan, ’det vet du, Orvar!’ […] ’Om alla vore som du’, sa Orvar, ’då skulle ju ondskan få regera i all evinnerlighet!’ Men då sa jag att om alla vore som Jonatan, så skulle det inte finnas någon ondska.
— Astrid Lindgren, Bröderna Lejonhjärta
But I can’t kill anyone,” said Jonathan. “You know that, Orvar.” […] “If everyone were like you,” said Orvar, “then evil would reign forever.” But then I said that if everyone were like Jonathan, there wouldn’t be any evil.
Aesthetic/cute idioms
My personal selection of idioms collected here and there. Inspired by this post by @rmscarpathia - my posts - resources masterpost | aesthetic idioms | words with cute literal meaning
Japanese 🇯🇵
- 木漏れ日 Komorebi - The sunlight that filters through the leaves of the trees. 🌳 🌞
- 鏡花水月 Kyōka suigetsu - Flower in the mirror & a moon in the water 🌸 🌙 : something which is visible and cannot be touched as well as the profound beauty of poems that cannot be described in words.
- 花笑み Hanaemi - flowering smile/ the smile of flowers 💐: old Japanese, a smile as beautiful as blooming flowers, calling people to feel happy.
- 浮世 Ukiyo - The floating world - depicts a place of fleeting beauty and living in the moment, without worries. It described the urban lifestyle, especially the pleasure-seeking aspects, of the Edo-period Japan (1600–1867)
Chinese 🇨🇳
- 海誓山盟 Hǎi shì shān méng - The promises of mountains and vows of seas 🏔 🌊 : A proverb of eternal love.
- 日三 秋 yí rì sān qiū 🍁🍁🍁- One day, three autumns: when you intensely long for and miss someone, one day feels like three years.
Swedish 🇸🇪
- Mångata - moon road 🌙 🛣The glimmering,roadlile reflection of moonlight on a river. see also Hungarian 🇭🇺 Aranyhíd - The golden bridge 🌞 🌁: A term for the reflection of the sun as it shines on water and can literally be translated to.
- Gökotta - Dawn picnic to hear the first birdsong 🎶 (gök=cuckoo), Swedish tradition which often takes place around Ascension Day in late May or early June.
- Smultronstället - Place of wild strawberries 🍓: a special place discovered, treasured, returned to for solace and relaxation; a personal idyll free from stress or sadness
- Mellan hägg och syrén - the time Between Bird Cherry and Lilac: corresponds to försommar (pre-summer). The expression is said to originate from a cobbler’s sign saying his shop was closed “mellan hägg och syren”.
- Att vara blåögd - to be blue eyed: to be naive =🇩🇪 blauäugig
Norwegian 🇳🇴
- Å leve på luft og kjærlighed - live on air and love: to be so madly in love you don’t think about anything else
- gjensynsglede - see-again-happiness: feeling of joy, anticipation, love you experience when you are about to meet someone you haven’t seen in a long time.
- Det er bare blåbær - It’s just blueberries 🫐: Expression, meaning something is simple, or something is only a minor issue.
Danish 🇩🇰
- det er fest og farver 🎉🟥🟨🟦- it’s party and colors: A lively and festive mood or way of living
Finnish 🇫🇮 @suomipaskea @depressingfinland
- Kaiho - hopeless longing: an involuntary solitude in which one feels incomleteness and yearns for something unattainable or extremely difficult and tedious to attain.
- luonnonlapsi - nature’s child 🌿: a genuine and sincere person who’s carefree and down to earth, a scatterbrained, someone who doesn’t care about the ways of society. Slightly negative but in an endearing way [- @evelhak]
- siirtyä ajasta ikuisuuteen/iäisyyteen / potkaista tyhjää- went from time to eternity / kicked the emptiness: said about someone who has died
- Olla hyvällä tuulella— To be on / To have a good wind 🌬: To have a good mood. To be mildly happy.
- oma maa mansikka, muu maa mustikka 🍓🫐-our land strawberry, other land blueberry: there’s no place like home
German 🇩🇪 This post with additions of @germanenthusiast
- Etwas durch die Blume sagen 🗣️🌼- to say smth thorugh the flower: used when conveying something dramatic in a gentle or roundabout way
- Habseligkeiten: have-holy-things: individual possessions that might be seen as useless/of little value, but regarded as valuable treasures
- Fingerspitzengefühl - fingertips-feeling: good skill in handling things/ sensitivity and empathy
- Sehnsucht - longing-search: intense inner longing for somebody, something or a place
- Weltschmerz - world pain: gratuitous melancholia / kind of feeling experienced by someone who believes that physical reality can never satisfy the demands of the mind / the feeling of anxiety caused by the ills of the world
- Zeitgeist - spirit of the time: the dominant set of ideals and beliefs that motivate the actions of the members of a society in a particular period in time
- Engelsgeduld 👼- angel’s patience: a lot of patience
- Schokoladenseite - chocolate side 🍫: refers to your better side (e.g. when taking a photo) sich von seiner Schokoladenseite zeigen (to show oneself from one’s chocolate side) = to show oneself at one’s best
- Sich aufbrezeln - to bretzel oneself up 🥨: get all dressed up
- Friede, Freude, Eierkuchen - freedom, joy and omelette 🥞: everything’s hunky-dory
- sich freuen wie ein Schneekönig 🤴❄️ /Honigkuchenpferd 🍯🍰 🐴 - to be happy like a snow king/honey cake horse: to be very very happy
Dutch 🇳🇱 @docnederlands
- uitwaaien 🌬️ 🌳 - to go out in windy weather, particularly into nature or a park, as a means of refreshing oneself and clearing one's mind
- over koetjes en kalfjes praten - talking about cows and calves 🐄: smalltalk
- kalverliefde - calf love 🐮: A word for the temporary affection and infatuation usually experienced by two young people in love.
- De bloemetjes buiten zetten, to put the flowers outside 💐: to have lots of fun
Italian 🇮🇹 this by @sectioavrea
- Se son rose fioriranno, If it’s roses, they will bloom 🌹 : if something is bound to happen, it will
- all’acqua di rose - blanded with rose water: used when something is very moderate
- Non è tutto rose e fiori - it’s not all roses and flowers 🌹💐 : it’s not all nice and perfect (as you think it is)
- il sole bacia i belli - The sun kisses the beautiful 🌞: said to someone who complains about sitting in the sun
- baciato dalla fortuna - kissed by luck 🍀💋: to be very lucky
- Ragazza acqua e sapone - soap&water girl 🧼 the girl next door, with a natural look
- Avere l’argento vivo addosso - to have quicksilver on your body: to be energetic, active, lively. Often used for kids
- Spaesato(m)/spaesata(f) -out of (one’s) country/native place “mis-country-ed”: to be bewildered, disoriented, confused
- Sognare ad occhi aperti 👁️ - To dream with open eyes: to daydream
- essere al settimo cielo ☁️ - to be at the seventh Heaven: to be over the moon, see 🇫🇷 below
French 🇫🇷
- Être aux anges 👼👼- be where angels are
- Être fleure bleue 🌼🔷- to be a blue flower: be sentimental to the point of naivety [apparently from an expression by the German author Novalis]
English
- Serendipity: an unplanned fortunate discovery
- Apple of my eye 🍎👁️ - 🇮🇹 Luce dei miei occhi (light of my eyes) 🇩🇪 Licht meines Lebens (light of my life)
Greek 🇬🇷
- petrichor: the earthly scent produced when rain falls on dry soil 🌧️ . from πέτρος pétros (stone) + ἰχώρ īchṓr (the fluid that flows in the veins of gods in Greek mythology)
- Phosphene - light-appear: a sensation of a ring, stars or spot of light caused by rubbing your eyes ⭐️ 👁️
🇻🇳 In Vietnamese, “to miss someone is the same as “to remember someone“. So to ask “do you miss me?” You’ll say Do you remember me?
🇮🇷 in Farsi, to answer to a compliment you say “it’s your eyes that are beautiful”
Idioms found among others through: @mylanguagesblogger, @wonderful-language-sounds @thenoaidi
🌼 started: spring ‘20, posted: march ‘23, last updated: 20.4.2023
Words with a cute literal meaning
- 🇮🇸 ástfanginn - love-captured: in love 💘
- 🇳🇴 🇸🇪 🇩🇪 øyeblikket/ögonblick/Augenblick 👁 - eyeblink: moment
- 🇩🇪🇩🇰 Kindergarten, børnehavet - children garden
- 🇸🇪 påsklilja - Easter lily: daffodil
- 🇸🇪 färgglad - color-happy: colorful
- 🇳🇴 🇩🇰 kjæreste/kæreste - dearest - partner (gender neutral)
- 🇳🇴 kjærlighet på pinne - love on a stick: lollipop 🍭
- 🇳🇴 å være glad i noen/noe - to be happy in sb/smthing: to love
- 🇮🇹 🇳🇱 🇩🇰 pulcinella di mare, papegaaiduiker, søpapegøj* 🦜🌊 - sea pulcinella (black&white carnival character), diver parrot, sea parrot*: puffin
- 🇮🇹 🇩🇪 stelle filanti, Luftschlangen 🌟 🐍 - stringy stars, air snakes - streamers 🎊
- 🇮🇹 solare ☀️- solar: adjective for a happy, positive person
- 🇮🇹 occhi della madonna** - Virgin Mary eyes: forget-me-nots
- 🇮🇹 Viola del pensiero - viola of the thought: pansy
- 🇮🇹 🇪🇸, Catalan - Principe azzurro/ príncipe azul/Príncep blau 🫅🔷: (light) blue Prince: Prince charming
- 🇮🇹 avere il sangue blu 🩸🔹- to have blue blood: to be of noble birth
- 🇬🇧 Sunny side up 🍳☀️ - 🇮🇹 occhio di bue - bull’s eye 👁🐮
- 🇩🇪 Edelweiß - Noble white
- 🇩🇪 Götterspeise - dish/fare of the gods: a gelatine pudding
- 🇩🇪 Abendland - Evening land: the West
- 🇩🇪 Liebesknochen 🦴💕 - love bone: éclair
- 🇩🇪 Gänsefüßchen 🦆 - tiny goose feet: quotation marks ‘‘’’
- 🇩🇪 🇫🇮 Das All, maailmankaikkeus- ”the all” “the world’s all”: the Universe (kiitos @pclysemia)
- 🇮🇹 🇸🇪 🇳🇱 chiocciola, kanelbulle, apenstaartje 🐌 🐒- snail, cinnamon bun, monkey tail: @ (at)
- 🇯🇵 花火【はなび】 🔥 🌺- fire flower: firework 🎆
- 🇫🇷arc-en-ciel - arch-in-the-sky: rainbow 🌈
- 🇪🇸 🇫🇷 cometa/cerf-volant/воздушный змей (Russian)/ بادبادک (farsi) 💫 🦌 🐍 - shooting star, flying deer, air snake, wind-little-wind: kite 🪁
- 🇵🇱 malinka - little raspberry: hickey💋
- 🇫🇮 🇳🇱 🇿🇦 hattara, suikerspin, spook asem - little cloud, sugar spider, ghost breath ☁️ 🕷️ 👻 : Cotton candy
- 물고기 - water meat: fish
- not really cute: Faroese 🇫🇴 hvalspýggja - whale puke: jellyfish 🐳
will keep this updated when i find/remember new ones! Also next up: aesthetic idioms
*also called Lunde**not sure if it is a regional thing to call them like that
Diary entries 2019-2023, lyrics and quotes 🇩🇪🇸🇪🇩🇰
Fact: 🌙 is m and ☀️ is f in germanic languages, while in romance languages it is the opposite! I can tell why :)
Books ive been reading and studying on 🇸🇪 🇯🇵 🇮🇸 march 2022 - ig @chiara.klara.claire
So I am really obsessed with having a good accent. I posted a video in which I talk in all germanic languages and a Italian or half Italian guy living in Stockholm replied I sound a bit Danish? Oookay. Honestly I am more fine with sounding Danish than sounding Italian. But I’ve been studying Swedish for far longer..?? Idk with Swedish I feel like I’m always doing smth wrong while Danish is just … speaking Danish naturally, stød guides me through. Danes would probably have plenty to comment about pronunciation mistakes I make but that’s how it feels. i am about as weird as a human being as Danish is as a language so it makes sense. I do enjoy speaking Danish so much
(Maybe the Italian accent was given for granted and he just didn’t mention it🥴)
Just my personal method to study languages while I am reading! currently reading Utvandrarna by Moberg in Swedish, Die rotschool met die fijne klas in Dutch, and although it’s not quite the same short stories in icelandic, I’ve read Astrid Lindgren books in Swedish and Mumin books in German. Wanna read something in Danish or Norwegian too...
read much more on my blog article (I haven’t included loanwords to and from Dutch and Swedish in these pictures, might make a new post for that!)
Might make more comparisons between Scandinavian languages !! In this other article you can learn how to tell them all apart
Let me know if it’s interesting! my main source was Wikipedia and things i learned through the years
Books by Astrid Lindgren I own: one in Swedish (Boken om Pippi Långstrump) and an edition form the 70s owned by my mother (Kati).
Fact: The one on the left is Saltkråkan (ita: Vacanze all’Isola dei gabbiani “holidays on the Seagull Island”). My mum bought it when I was like 11-13 because I liked her books and had to pick a book to read I think? But I never read it because the idea of reading of a Swedish island when I was suffering here in summer made me depressed …..
for a post on my instagram 🇸🇪 🇸🇪 the illustrations are mine!I still have a list of asthetic idioms in my drafts, one day or another I’ll post it !!