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Interestingly, although I speak no Portuguese or French, I can sort of understand some of the sayings, by mentally translating them back in a literal way to Spa
by ggambetta 10y ago
Interestingly, although I speak no Portuguese or French, I can sort of understand some of the sayings, by mentally translating them back in a literal way to Spanish.
For example "Few few the bird make her nest" probably means "Bit by bit a bird builds a nest". "A horse baared don't look him in the tooth" is probably "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth", via the Spanish version "A caballo regalado no se le miran los dientes".
I can probably make sense of half of them. The other half are hilariously mangled beyond recognition :)
- marcosdumay 10y agoI do speak Portuguese, and a bit of French. I still have no idea how "tooth" become singular in that phrase.
- tangus 10y ago“A cavallo dado não se lhe olha para o dente.”
- icebraining 10y agoIt's actually rather common, at least in certain areas: https://ciberduvidas.iscte-iul.pt/consultorio/perguntas/a-cavalo-dado-nao-se-olha-osao-dentes/31406 https://ciberduvidas.iscte-iul.pt/consultorio/perguntas/a-ca... http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/fsp/1994/7/09/brasil/21.html http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/fsp/1994/7/09/brasil/21.html
- microtherion 10y agoSome of the proverbs seem to have French origin, e.g. nothing some money, nothing of Swiss is a bad translation of Point d’argent, point de Suisse (No money, no Swiss [mercenaries]).
- ggambetta 10y agoOoh, interesting. Never heard that one before.