A collection of idiomatic expressions in Slovak with English equivalents and translations.
| Idioms | English versions |
|---|---|
| Ak chceš s vlkmi žiť, musíš s nimi vyť | When in Rome, do as the Romans do (“If you want to live with the wolves, you have to howl with them”) |
| Ako sa do hory volá, tak sa z hory ozýva | What goes around comes around (“Whatever you shout into the mountains, same thing echoes back.”) |
| Božie mlyny melú pomaly, ale isto | God’s mills grind slow but sure (“God's mills grind slow but they surely do”) |
| Ráno múdrejšie večera | Decisions done in the morning
tend to be more productive and easier than those done in the evening (“Morning is wiser than the evening") |
| Byť v koži niekoho iného | To put oneself in someone’s shoes (“To be in someone else's skin”) |
| Čerstvý ako rybička | As fresh as a daisy (“Fresh as fish”) |
| Hodiť flintu do žita | To throw in the towel (“To throw a rifle into the rye”) |
| Hrať sa na slepú babu | To play blind man’s buff (“To play blind crone”) |
| Chodiť okolo horúcej kaše | To beat around the bush (“To walk around hot porridge”) |
| Je mi to platné ako mŕtvemu kabát | As useful as a chocolate teapot (“This is as useful to me as a coat to a dead man”) |
| Je to ako hrach na stenu hádzať | It’s like talking to a brick wall (“It’s like throwing peas to a wall”) |
| Je to pre mňa španielska dedina | It’s all Greek to me (“It’s a Spanish village to me”) |
| Kto do teba kameňom, ty do neho chlebom | To turn the other cheeck (“Who with a stone into you, you with a bread into him”) |
| Kúpiť mačku vo vreci | To buy a pig in a pole (“To buy a cat in a sack”) |
| Liezť na nervy | To get on someones’ nerves (“climb on nerves”) |
| Lož má krátke nohy | A lie has no legs (“The lie has short legs”) |
| Nasadiť chrobáka do hlavy | I can do it with my eyes closed (“Put a bug into someone's head”) |
| Mať chrobáka v hlave | To put a bee in someone’s bonnet (“To have a beetle in one's head”) |
| Mať chrobáka v hlave | To have a bee in one’s bonnet (“To have a beetle in one's head”) |
| Mať z pekla šťastie | To have the devil’s luck (“To have luck from the hell”) |
| Najlepšia obrana je útok | The best defence is offence (“Best defence is offence”) |
| Tam je pes zakopaný | There’s the rub (“The dog is buried there”) |
| Nemaľuj čerta na stenu | Talk of the devil (“Don't paint the devil on the wall”) |
| Padli si do oka | They hit it off (“They fallen into each other's eye”) |
| Pokojný ako Angličan | As cool as a cucumber (“Calm as an Englishman”) |
| Remeslo má zlaté dno | If you have a trade/craft you’ll never go broke (“A craft has a golden bottom”) |
| Ťahať niekoho za nos | To pull someone’s leg (“To pull someone's nose”) |
| Vrana k vrane sadá, rovný rovného si hľadá | Birds of a feather flock together (“A crow sits by a crow, an equal looks for an equal”) |
| Vyšiel na psí tridsiatok | He went broke (“He went out on a dog's thirtieth”) |
Slovak idioms compiled by Martina Spidlova, with corrections and additions by Štefan Gurský
More Slovak idioms
http://www.bratvegas.sk/articles/view/35/slovak_idioms.html
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