105 Comments
Some other fishy sayings:
"To be at a loss" in the sense of not knowing what to do is "non sapere che pesci pigliare" which is like saying you don't know what fish to get hold of.
"A fish out of water" is "un pesce fuor d'acqua"
"A boring person" is "un pesce lesso" (Hope I'm not being that :)
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Grazie Chris123456! by the way, un pesce lesso is also literally, a boiled fish.
Another one: "il pesce puzza dalla testa" - "the fish stinks from the head". The fish starts to stink from the head is way to say that an organization's problems alway begin from the top (who gives orders). Organization or firm or everything of that type.
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In American English, it's "A/the fish rots from the head down". Same idea, different expression.
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Another one! To say you're "right as rain", as in very healthy, or you're very healthy again after being sick, you can say "sano come un pesce". It means you're lively and well, like a fish: always moving about when in water (or out of water!)
Lol, what's up with all the fish talk? Why is fish used to describe a person who is boring?
I assume it's like our "Casper milktoast" sort of bland and pale. Just like someone is like a "wet noodle"...meh, no oomph to their personality.
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> "A boring person" is "un pesce lesso"
Sort of like “a cold fish” in English? And a fish out of water is a perfectly acceptable idiom in English, too.
"A fish out of water" refers to someone out of their element. He arrived at the bar hoping to connect with a luscious babe, but he was a like a fish out of water.(unable to fit in, in this enviornment)
Nice expression, and the history behind it (read below). For beginners though, DL should stay clear of these expressions - either expand the idioms section or offer the solution as a hint... I have encountered a couple of expressions without hints which you can't possibly know what they mean and word for word translation won't do.
I fully agree with staying clear of the idioms for beginners. This is really frustrating!
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No way - idioms are where you start to learn how Italians tick as opposed to just translating everything literally. I am amazed at how many idioms are the same in English and Italian. That means that Italians and English often think the same way / have the same sense of humour.
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I agree that idiomatic expressions are important when learning a language. But, the DL system encourages learning the pieces and building up and breaking down the language. That process doesn't work with idiomatic expressions. We can't really apply what we know because it doesn't make sense--which is what makes it an idiomatic expression.
Me too. Idioms never can be translated to their real meaning. Same in every language
I sort of agree. Not because I don't think springing idioms at us isn't a good idea - it is, it's an essential part of the language we've set out to learn. But it's confusing because Duolingo also has a very strong penchant for being annoyingly literal. I answered in the sense of April fool's joke, but felt it was a crapshoot, there being a 50/50 chance it was about a fish in April
M8 it directly translates to aprils fish. Not april fools. Thats what is being discussed: how its interesting that other languages call it aprils fish
the trouble with these vernacular phrases is the duolingo's software does not really support multiple answers
it does up to 2 from what i've seen. I guess it's at the programmer's/linguist's whim how many answers to add.
It's an expression because in April you stick a fish to people's back and wait for them to notice ! Nowadays we use papers fishes
I'd assumed so after seeing the solution, but seeing the sentence without knowing any backstory might be a little confusing.
when i came across this sentence, I did not know what it meant because they never taught me any of this material.
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Do Italians really use this term? "pesce d`aprile" in Spanish "dia de los inocentes" no reference to any fish in Spanish :)
Well, this one is a gem! Must be an common idiom in Italian. A fish of April is an April Fool joke? I'll remember that one.
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Ok, that's annoying. When you hover over the term, it says April's fool, but marked me wrong saying it should be April fool's.
I can never remember this, has anyone found a way to remember this easily?
Well in French and Italian speaking countries, there is a tradition is to stick paper fishes behind people's back without them knowing as a prank on April Fool's day. That's why it is called "pesce d'aprile", literally "April Fish".
How are we expected to know this idiom? Sometimes duolingo is so frustrating!
You're not expected to get it the first time. The hope is that you get it every time after that. It's important to remember that you're probably not here to collect hearts, but to learn Italian. In their system, sometimes you lose a heart through no fault of your own, but you do end up learning.
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Isn't *cos'è" a kind of all-purpose expression which serves as a kind of attention getter, like saying, "Hey!"
Does this saying refer to the joke or April fool's prank or the person who has been pranked, the April Fool,
This really shouldn't be in the lesson. Idioms are not clear translations. The Italian could mean almost anything, in this context. Plus it is of little use to the beginner and only serves to confuse.
In portuguese they have "piada de primeiro de Abril" ...that means: April 1st, joke.
For me, under the "è" in cos'è, it shows that it can be "(you) are." Could this translate to "What are you, a fish of April?" That would make more sense to me seeing as that a person can be the fool or "fish." Or perhaps it is referring to the prank itself, such as the fish on someone's back?
In Italian the formal form is you is to use the 'she' tense. So "Lei è un pesce" is the formal of "you are a fish".
Weird. I translated this correctly, but had NO idea it was an idiom....it made no sense at all, haha
Does the "d'" derive from "di" or "da"? ... and why would that be? thx in advance :)
The translation into English put the pronoun "it" directly before the direct object. A pronoun may replace a direct object but not accompany it.
This gets more confusing!! What does a fish have to do with April Fool's!!!
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Back when the Gregorian calendar replaced the Julian calendar, the start of the new year was also changed from the end of March to the start of January. People who were reluctant or otherwise slow to accept this change were mocked with fish. Why fish? Possibly because of how the old (fool's) new year coincided with Lent.
http://libguides.ctstatelibrary.org/hg/colonialresearch/calendar
https://frenchmoments.eu/april-fools-day-traditions-in-france-le-1er-avril/
seems to be a wrong hover hint, isn't it? "April's fool" - as you type it, it won't be accepted. So it's only "April fool" or "April fool's" right?
hm, obviously even "April fool's" isn't accepted, though the dictionary says it is correct.
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I read this as "What is a fish of April?" like someone asking about the meaning of this phrase. (I know that Pesce d'aprile means April fool's joke like poisson d'avril in french) Now that I've seen the answer is "What is IT" I want to know how would I ask "What is ----" without the pronoun?
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I only knew this because my high school French teacher was Italian, and when he'd sneakily fool us, he'd say, "Aha, you got fished!"
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WTF???? How could i not get that it is as clear as day now, I totaly missed the part about the joke
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Why is April Fool's not accepted? Even the help from Duolingo displays joke in brackets, thus optional? Or am I missing something? To be honest: I am not a native English speaker.
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The 's at the end of April Fool's is the possessive. You can't just have a possessive adjective without the noun. It's an April Fool's what? It's an April Fool's joke or prank.
Without the possessive -- April Fool -- Fool is the noun and April is the adjective.
When I did it, this had been in Idioms. But I started the translation as 'What is..' I see this makes sense in English if you imagine someone has dine something they mean to be funny and the person says "What is this? An April Fool's joke?" But I would put in a first question mark not comma.
The translation is not literal. It's confusing at this point. I get it as an expression but we are still learning words. I agree it should be in another category.
I've read the comments. I'm still confused. What does a fish have to do with April Fool's?
- 1944
You must have missed this comment:
https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/april-fools-day
Duolingo should not teach us English which they do only too often. When they do this, they slow up the process.
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Idioms should not appear on this level of the course, especially as difficult as this one ...
