“Moenie jou eier lê nie.” Literally – Dont lay your egg. “Sy/hy is in warm water.” Literally – she/he is in hot water. Meaning its very hot (refering to weather only) “Dt is so warm die kraaie gaap.” Literally – Its so hot the crows are yawning. (mostly when something bad has happened and theres no way of undoing or fixing it) Thanks for sharing, its a nice bit of nostalgia for me.Īlmost like yours, but we say : “Die koël is deur die kerk.” Literally – The bullet is/went through the church meaning its to late. One of my long remembered phrases, “Sit ‘n bietjie handjie by?”(put a little hand in?) aka Stumbling DrunkĪ lot of times these were said about folks who thought a bit much of themselves and it was a way for older people to pull the mask off, so to speak…Īntie would say about a young person who is a bit of a charmer, Sjoe! Hy is met heuning om die mond gesmeer! a bit of a “watch out for that one!”Īnother like that is one my Ouma used to say when we would brag about something we did “Jyt die ou bul se stert, ne’?” which to us meant… “Aren’t You too clever one!” So Twee Rye spore literally means, Two rows of tracks. I am sure some of these have changed a little over time, and perhaps are known differently in different areas of the country…Īfrikaans is also a very basic language. Moenie die Bobbejaan Agter die Bult gaan Uithaal, meant, Don’t go Looking for Trouble.Īnd the correct version of the sausage in the dog kennel expression is –Īs Scarce as Wors… Sausage is for Engelse, en Rooinekke. ‘n Aap is a Monkey, and a Bobbejaan is a Baboon. Its been 24 years since I left my homeland, but I still remember the idioms I learned growing up. Like what you see? Subscribe using the form below to have all of my posts delivered directly to your email. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this post. Let me know using the comments section below or join me on social media to start a conversation. Which one of these Afrikaans idioms is your favourite? Do you know any funny Afrikaans to English translations?
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