# Are There Foreign-Language Equivalents to These English Idioms? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 10, 2010, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-foreign-language-equivalents-to-these-english-idioms/563686 "2010-12-10T18:36:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2010, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-foreign-language-equivalents-to-these-english-idioms/563686/21 "2010-12-13T17:09:51Z")
Gotta say, I love some of the foreign versions better than ours: “Has the cat eaten your tongue?” and “…the mice dance” are more evocative, I think. (And the former, more akin to how I see cats behaving.) ---
**Author:** ![bushindo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a698b9/32.png) [@bushindo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bushindo)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2010, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-foreign-language-equivalents-to-these-english-idioms/563686/22 "2010-12-13T18:39:37Z")
> [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](#): > > Vietnamese: > > Cat out of the bag - no original idiom; they borrow this from us as far as I can tell. > Cat got your tongue - đi guốc trong bụng (the words are stuck in your stomach) > When the cat’s away… - chủ vắng nhà gà mọc đuôi tôm (when the boss is away, the workers will do anything but work) > > None of these mention cats, although the last one involves shrimp and a chicken without its tail. Don’t ask me why. I’ve asked several native speakers and they can’t explain it to me either, except to say that the phrase came from Chinese originally. I’d like to correct the record with regards to vietnamese here Cat out of the bag has no literal equivalent, but there’s a phrase that has a similar effect “lòi đuôi chuột”, which means literally ‘showing the [hidden] rat’s tail’. “đi guốc trong bụng” is not the equivalent expression for 'Cat got your tongue". It literally means “walking in one’s stomach [mind]”. Traditionally the vietnamese thought of the stomach as the center of thought, so this phrase means roughly 'knowing [someone else’s] mind". When the cat is away: the correct vietnamese equivalent is ‘chủ vắng nhà, gà vọc niêu tôm’, which means [“when the owner is away from home, the chicken will peck the earthenware pot of shrimp”](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ch%E1%BB%A7_v%E1%BA%AFng_nh%C3%A0,_g%C3%A0_v%E1%BB%8Dc_ni%C3%AAu_t%C3%B4m). The version quoted above is ’ chủ vắng nhà gà mọc đuôi tôm’, which means “when the owner is away, the chicken grow shrimp tails”. Quite funny, actually =) ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2010, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-foreign-language-equivalents-to-these-english-idioms/563686/23 "2010-12-13T19:24:39Z")
> [@toadspittle](#): > > Gotta say, I love some of the foreign versions better than ours: “Has the cat eaten your tongue?” and “…the mice dance” are more evocative, I think. (And the former, more akin to how I see cats behaving.) Obviously the English words were chosen for the rhyme. When the cat’s away, The mice will play. ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2010, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-foreign-language-equivalents-to-these-english-idioms/563686/24 "2010-12-13T20:13:13Z")
> [@footballisplayedwithyourfeet](#): > > And the first one would be: _De aap komt uit de mouw_, which means the monkey is comming out of the sleeve…yeah… I thought of that, **football** , but they’re not really the same I think. Still, monkey comes out of the sleeve is a good one! ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-foreign-language-equivalents-to-these-english-idioms/563686/25 "2010-12-15T15:08:11Z")
In french > [@HeyHomie](#): > > _The cat is out of the bag_. Don’t know an equivalent to this one > [@](#): > > _Cat got your tongue?_ - In this case, you’d ask “Did you swallow your tongue?”. However, if you can’t find the answer to a question (especially a riddle), you can “give your tongue to the cat”, so admitting defeat and asking for the answer. > [@](#): > > _When the cat’s away, the mice will play_ Same in french, except that french mice dance instead of playing whan the cat is away. However, I think this one comes from Aesop, hence isn’t specific to a language. Involving cats there are some others “Good cat, good rat” or “At night, all cats are grey”. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-foreign-language-equivalents-to-these-english-idioms/563686/26 "2010-12-15T17:42:17Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > “At night, all cats are grey”. Unless they’re Spanish cats, which are all brown (de noche, todos los gatos son pardos). ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-foreign-language-equivalents-to-these-english-idioms/563686/27 "2010-12-15T18:30:28Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Unless they’re Spanish cats, which are all brown (de noche, todos los gatos son pardos). Or Israeli cats – which are black… 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-foreign-language-equivalents-to-these-english-idioms/563686.md?page=1)