It’s a piece of cake. You can’t put lipstick on a pig. Why add fuel to the fire? Idioms are those phrases that mean more than the sum of their words. As our Open Translation Project volunteers translate TED Talks into 105 languages, they’re often challenged to translate English idioms into their language. Which made us wonder: what are their favorite idioms in their own tongue?

Below, we asked translators to share their favorite idioms and how they would translate literally. The results are laugh-out-loud funny.

From Dutch translator Valerie Boor
The idiom: Iets met de Franse slag doen
Literal translation: “Doing something with the French whiplash.”
What it means: “This apparently comes from riding terminology. It means doing something hastily.”

The idiom: Iets voor een appel en een ei kopen
Literal translation: “Buying something for an apple and an egg.”
What it means: “It means you bought it very cheaply.”

Other language connections: Spanish translator Camille Martínez points out out that when something is expensive in English, you pay two body parts for it (“it cost me an arm and a leg”), whereas in Spanish you only pay one — either a kidney (“me costó un riñón”) or an eye (“me costó un ojo de la cara”).

Enjoy: http://blog.ted.com/40-idioms-that-cant-be-translated-literally/