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Angloland Learn Serbian - Phrases of the week 5

Natasha

Updated: May 6, 2021


VUĆI SE K’O GLADNA GODINA

Literally means to drag your feet like ‘a hungry year ’i.e. a year of famine, to be tired and hungry and because of that to shuffle your feet listless with no energy in the way ‘a year of famine’ does as if it would never end, vuĆi se means to drag ‘yourself’, gladna means hungry, godina means a year.

BITI BEZ KROVA NAD GLAVOM

This phrase literally means ‘to be with no roof above your head’ to indicate not to have where to live or even to be homeless ( krov- means roof , glava - means head , nad means above).

BITI KRATKOG FITILJA

This phrase literally translates as ‘to have a short fuse’ , which means to have a short temper , to get upset or ( krov- means roof , glava - means head , nad means above)offended, to get embroiled in a row or an argument only too quickly or easily. (biti means to be, fitilj means fuse and kratak means short).

TRČATI KAO MUVA BEZ GLAVE

Literal translation is ‘to run around like a headless fly’ ( i.e. with no head ; trČati means to run, kaomeans like or as, muva- means a fly , bez means without and glava means a head. Its equivalent would be to run around like a headless chicken, ‘TRČATI NAVRAT NANOS’ to run around helter skelter or TRČATI KAO LUD – to run around like mad).

STO BABICA, KILAVA BEBA or STO BABICA KILAVO DETE

Literal translation would be …’one hundred midwives, the weak bodied baby’ or ‘the more the midwives , the weaker the baby will be’ but its metaphorical meaning is the equivalent of the proverb in English ‘Too many cooks spoil the broth’ to refer to situations if too many people interfere or meddle in each other’s affairs,they will not be helping but hindering the situation and will not resolve the issue at hand. Sto means one hundred, babica means a midwife, kilavo means weak bodied, beba means a baby and dete means a child.

adapted and submitted by Natasha from Angloland

www.angloland.rs

angloland.skola@gmail.com


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