'Don't look a gift horse in the mouth' 'Don't look a gift horse in the mouth'This idiomatic expression is what you might say to someone who has received something given to him or her in good faith, bu

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Adrian

'Don't look a gift horse in the mouth'

This idiomatic expression is what you might say to someone who has received something given to him or her in good faith, but about which (s)he appears to be ungrateful, complaining that it is not what (s)he wanted or needed.

'A Caval Donato non si guarda in bocca'

Questa espressione idiomatica è ciò che potresti dire a qualcuno che ha ricevuto qualcosa che gli è stato dato in buona fede, ma su quale sembra ingrato, lamentandosi del fatto che non è ciò che ha voluto o di cui aveva bisogno.

Sheila ha spiegato come è nata questa espressione : www.italki.com/discussion/190187 e spiega anche in altri post discussione molti altri modi di dire in italiano.

This expression is well-known, at least to people of my generation, but not so its derivation. If you are given a horse as a generous diplomatic gesture, it is not 'diplomatic' on your part to try to assess its value by examining the state of its teeth.

Questa espressione è ben nota alla mia generazione ma la sua derivazione non è così. Ricevere un cavallo era un segno di generosità, però come si può stimarne l'età dei suoi denti, guardare nella sua bocca suggerisce una mancanza di gratitudine.

I would not have known what a 'gift horse' was, and neither would I have expected that there is an identical equivalent of this expression in Italian : 'A Caval Donato non si guarda in bocca'. If you speak a language other than English or Italian, is there an equivalent in your language ?

Idioms often don't translate closely in to other languages, and sometimes not at all, possibly due to cultural differences. Do you know of any other idioms that can be translated into other languages ?

Non sapevo che questa espressione esiste anche in italiano ; spesso gli espressioni idiomatiche non si traducono tra le lingue. C'è un'espressione simile nella tua lingua madre ?

Conosci altre espressioni idiomatiche che sono ancora efficaci quando tradotte in un'altra lingua ?

Se c'è qualcuno disposto a correggere il mio italiano, qui, e nella mia voce Notebook https://www.italki.com/notebook/1787061/entry/1035709 sullo stesso argomento, sarei grato.

6 Ara 2019 11:07

Yorumlar · 22

A very useful idiom / proverb for language learners, Adrian!

The expression is common to European languages, not by casual coincidence, but rather the fact that they all share the same deep cultural roots. (There are many such sayings shared in European languages.) From the Free Dictionary (in italics):

This saying, which dates from St. Jerome’s biblical commentary (ca. a.d. 420) on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, is based on the fact that a horse’s age is revealed by its teeth. Looking inside a horse’s mouth therefore will tell you if someone is passing off an old nag for a spry colt. The same expression is found in French, Italian, Portuguese, and other languages.

https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/don%27t+look+a+gift+horse+in+the+mouth

6 Aralık 2019

Fr :

<ul><li> à cheval donné, on ne regarde pas la bride</li></ul>

variants : .... on ne regarde pas la bouche / les dents

De :

<ul><li> Einem geschenkten Gaul schaut man nicht ins Maul</li></ul>

Ru:

<ul><li> Дарёному коню в зубы не смотрят</li></ul>

6 Aralık 2019

@ Max

The Romance languages also refer to teeth.

The German version probably uses "Gaul" (like the English "nag") and "Maul" because of the alliteration.

17 Aralık 2019

This is the same in Irish:

ná breathnaigh capall bronntanais sa bhéal

The word “bhéal” means mouth and is also found in another expression:

“an béal bocht a chur ort"

This means "putting on the poor mouth" and comes from an Irish classic, An t-Oileánach

(The Islandman) in which the author Peig Sayers, a storyteller who lived on the Great Blasket Island off the Kerry coast, relates a series of family disasters in which most of her relatives die of disease or a series of accidents. Putting on the poor mouth means to exaggerate the direness of your situation. So someone, say who had lost part of their harvest might “put on the poor mouth” by saying that they and their family would be threatened by destitution and starvation, when in fact it is only a minor setback.

This was parodied by the satirical writer Flann O’Brien in his book of the same name. There also used to be pub in Dublin named after the book’s Irish title: An Béal Bocht

I don’t know of this expression in any other language. Do you?

23 Aralık 2019