AS A FRENCH speaker who uses English in her professional and personal lives, I am very familiar with untranslatable idioms. Just a few days ago, I was telling my English-speaking partner that trying to change his mind was like “pissing in a violin”, i.e. “useless”. Obviously, he had no idea of what I was attempting to say and I can’t blame him.

Below is a list of idioms from around the world and their hilarious English literal translations put together by CityBase apartments. Check them out if you don’t have “other cats to whip”.

More like this: 10 idioms only the French understand
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