"Titta, en flygande ko!"
Translation:Look, a flying cow!
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I believe this refers to the song Ko över Sarek by Norrlåtar.
Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9VO8sRGPBI
Lyrics: http://www.gugalyrics.com/lyrics-26559/norrl%C3%A5tar-ko-%C3%B6ver-sarek.html
In French: when chickens have/grow teeth (Quand les poules auront des dents)
Birds descended from dinosaurs (they’re technically considered dinosaurs), so I suppose it should be ‘when chickens grow teeth again’…
1274
It's called an adynaton. An (older) example, with another animal: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God".
In dutch we say when sparrows grow teeth :p (wanneer de mussen tanden krijgen)
- 1408
Ik ken deze uitdrukking niet en ik ken heel veel spreekwoorden en gezegden. Uit welke streek kom je?
In russian we say "когда рак на горе свистнет" — "when the cancer on the mountain whistles"
a lot of slavic languages use the same word (rak) for the animal (crab), and the horoscope sign and disease (cancer)
It actually should be crayfish (similar to a lobster, but lives in the river), not a crab, nor cancer
Wow, this explains why the symbol of the cancer (horoscope sign) is a crab, how interesting :D
Actually, the Finnish equivalent of 'when pigs fly' is Ja lehmät lentävät ('And cows fly')! :)
Croatian: "kad na vrbi rodi grožđe" - "when grape(vine)s sprout on a willow". Though, it might be possible nowadays with horticultural grafting?
- 1478
This sentence is very Chinese lol. In Chinese, when somebody is boasting, people would say "a cow is flying in the sky", the second half sentence follows like "there must be a blowing guy on the ground (who blows the cow into the sky), and that's you!"
And since we're talking bovine idioms - is there any good Swedish equivalent for "till the cows come home"?
The version in Portuguese for "when pigs fly" is "no dia de São Nunca" ("in Saint-Never's day")... And some people joke in response that All Saints Day (November 1st) would be also devoted to "Saint-Never"! :D
In German it's "Am St. Nimmerleinstag" - "on St. Never(ever)s-day"
In Dutch we have "wanneer Pasen en Pinksteren op een dag vallen". When Easter and Pentecost are on the same day.
- 1497
I was thinking of "met Sint Juttemis" but that would be a lot harder to translate. I also found "als de kalveren op het ijs dansen" (when the calves are dancing on ice), which I've never heard anyone say, but we should totally start using that again because it sounds awesome.
We also say: "met st. Juttemus." On the day of a saint that doesn't exist.
likewise in German wenn Weihnachten auf Ostern fällt and variants thereof
- 309
In Polish: Prędzej mi kaktus na dłoni wyrośnie ("Sooner the cactus grows on my palm.").
When pigs fly = when pattens bloom (in Bulgarian), or when you see your nose w/o a mirror or via crooked macaroni or in a cuckoo's day/summer :)
- 1520
I can quite easily see my nose without a mirror. I may have found a new thing to be self conscious about. (-:
... or perhaps it should be (c:
Ett apkoppel med tre halsband!
I'm not sure trehövdad is a great word for the course, though. :)
I think this user refers to "Look, a three-headed monkey", a famous sentence from The Curse Of Monkey Island :D
Should that be translated as "Ett apkoppel med tre halsband"? It would be so curious, hahaha
Oh, I know - I was translating another line from the first game in the series, The Secret of Monkey Island. :)
A monkey leash with three collars!
Google translated it to "monkey leash with three necklaces". More proof that Google Translate is far, Far, from ideal. It is often entertaining though. :-) P.S. I too love these cross culture exchanges!