By Augustin
Idioms enrich everyday language by adding colour and depth to communication, making expressions more vivid and memorable. They reflect cultural nuances and shared experiences, fostering a more profound understanding among speakers of different languages.
Mastering idioms not only enhances fluency but also bridges gaps between diverse linguistic communities, making conversations more engaging and meaningful.
ရွက်ကြမ်းရေကျို
/rwakkram:re-kyui/
• ရုပ်ရည်အသင့်အတင့်ရှိသူ။
တယ်မလှသော်လည်း ရွက်ကြမ်းရေကျိုရှိပါ၏…..
• သူ့ရုပ်ရည်က သိပ်အချောကြီးမဟုတ်သော်လည်း
ရွက်ကြမ်းရေကျိုထက်တော့ သာသည်ဟုထင်သည်။
• ရွက်ကြမ်းရေကျိုရုပ်ရည်လောက်ပဲရှိတဲ့ ကေသီဟာ မိုးလို ချစ်စရာကောင်းတဲ့ ကောင်မလေး ဖြစ်ချင်မိတယ်…
• Tough leaves offer value in broth, like unconventional beauty in women
• Tough leaves enrich broth, much like unconventional beauty adds worth.
• Unattractive leaves can still enhance broth, just as women can.
• Valuable attributes exist in tough leaves, paralleling unique female beauty.
A Rough Leaf Still Good for a Broth
When the leaf of an edible plant becomes tough and loses its tenderness, it is no longer suitable for eating on its own.
However, it can still be used as an ingredient in a broth to extract the nourishing essence it retains. Similarly, a girl or young woman who may not be conventionally beautiful but is not unattractive either is described as a “rough leaf still good for a broth”.
When a leaf of an edible plant becomes tough, it’s no longer ideal for eating fresh but can still impart valuable flavour to a broth.
Similarly, a girl or young woman who might not fit conventional beauty standards but has her own appeal can be likened to a “rough leaf still good for a broth”. This Myanmar idiom suggests that while she may not be perfect by usual measures, she still has significant worth and value. Her qualities, like the tough leaf, contribute uniquely to a greater purpose or role, embodying the idea that true value often lies beyond surface appearances.
USAGES:
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
• Definition: What one person finds beautiful, another may not, suggesting that beauty is subjective.
• Example: “I think my sister is gorgeous, but I know some people don’t appreciate her style. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
Don’t judge a book by its cover.
• Definition: One should not judge someone or something based solely on appearance.
• Example: “Even though he looks scruffy, don’t judge a book by its cover; he’s one of the smartest people I know.”
There’s more than meets the eye.
• Definition: People or things often have hidden qualities or deeper significance than their appearance suggests.
• Example: “She may seem quiet, but there’s more than meets the eye; she’s a brilliant artist.”
Every cloud has a silver lining.
• Definition: Even in difficult or unattractive situations, there is always a positive aspect.
• Example: “After losing my job, I felt hopeless, but I’ve started my own business—every cloud has a silver lining.”
Hidden gems.
• Definition: People or things that are not immediately recognized as valuable or beautiful but possess great worth.
• Example: “This small café may not look like much, but it’s a hidden gem with the best pastries in town.”
Still waters run deep.
• Definition: A quiet or reserved person may have a rich inner world or complex thoughts and feelings.
• Example: “At first, I thought he was shy and boring, but I’ve realized that still waters run deep; he has fascinating stories to share.”
An old shoe is better than a new one.
• Definition: Familiarity and reliability can outweigh superficial beauty or newness.
• Example: “I know my old car isn’t flashy, but it gets me where I need to go. An old shoe is better than a new one.”
အဆန်ချောင်
/a.hcanhkyaung/
• ထိုအသီးအတွင်း၌ အခွံသော အဆန်ချောင် အစေ့သီးရှိသည်။
မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတွင် ထိုအဆန်ချောင် အစေ့သီး ကို သစ်ကျားသီးဟု ခေါ်ဝေါ်ကြသည်။
• အဆန်မတည်တော့ဘဲ အဆန်ချောင်၊ ဖြူဖြူဖွေးဖွေး အနှံတွေဖြစ်လာမယ်…..
• ကြက်ဥစသည်တို့တွင်အရည်အနှစ် မအောင်မမြင် မပြည့်မဝ ဖြစ်သည်။
• ကြက်ဥအဆန်ချောင်သည်။
• Be loose in the shell.
• “A pod with a loose seed” symbolizes mental weakness.
• A deficiency or inadequacy in one’s mental faculties.
• Individuals who exhibit a lack of mental strength or capability.
Loose Seed Symbolizes Untapped Potential and Instability
In this Myanmar idiom, the seed represents untapped potential and vitality, embodying the possibility for growth and development. The pod, on the other hand, symbolizes the individual who possesses this potential but may not have fully harnessed it.
When the seed is loose within the pod, it suggests instability or a lack of secure grounding, reflecting a deficiency or inadequacy in one’s mental faculties. This looseness implies that the individual may not be fully utilizing or cultivating their inherent potential, resulting in an incomplete or underdeveloped capacity for growth.
Thus, the image of the loose seed highlights the need for greater focus or support to realize one’s abilities and achieve personal development fully.
USAGES:
All bark and no bite
• Definition: Someone who seems threatening or aggressive but cannot back up their threats.
• Example: “He talks a big game in meetings, but he’s all bark and no bite when it comes to making tough decisions.”
All hat and no cattle
• Definition: A person who pretends to be essential or capable but lacks the necessary skills or resources.
• Example: “She claims to be an expert, but it’s clear she’s all hat and no cattle when you see her work.”
A wolf in sheep’s clothing
• Definition: Someone who seems harmless but is actually dangerous or deceitful.
• Example: “The new manager seems friendly, but I suspect he’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
Empty vessels make the most noise.
• Definition: People who lack knowledge or substance often make the most commotion or talk the most.
• Example: “He often dominates the conversation, but remember, empty vessels make the most noise.”
Putting on a front
• Definition: Hiding one’s true feelings or intentions behind a false appearance.
• Example: “She seems happy at work, but she’s just putting on a front to hide her stress.”
The proof of the pudding is in the eating.
• Definition: The actual value or quality of something is revealed only through practical experience or testing.
• Example: “We can discuss plans all day, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating; we’ll see how it performs once the project starts.”
A facade
• Definition: A deceptive outward appearance that does not reflect one’s true nature or feelings.
• Example: “Although he appears confident, it’s just a facade; he’s anxious about the presentation.”
မျက်နှာလွှဲခဲပစ်
/mje´ hnahlwe ge: pji´/
• ရောက်ချင်ရာရောက်ဟူသော သဘောဖြင့် မျက်နှာလွှဲ၍ ခဲကိုပစ်သကဲ့သို့ အလုပ် ကိစ္စကို ကိုယ်ဖိ ရင်ဖိ ကြပ်မတ်ခြင်းမရှိဘဲ လုပ်သည်။
• ဖြစ်လိုရာဖြစ်စေဟုတာဝန်မဲ့သဘောထားသည်။
• မျက်နှာလွှဲခဲပစ် လျစ်လျူရှုကာ ဥပေက္ခာပြုလာခဲ့ကြ၏။
• ကံတရားက ကိုယ့်ကိုဆိုအမြဲ မျက်နှာလွှဲခဲပစ်လုပ်တတ်တယ်….
• အိပ်ယာထက်လှဲနေရသည့် ဂျော်နီ့ကိုကြည့်ပြီး ချစ်သမီး ဆန်ပြုတ်ပန်းကန်ကို ယူလာခဲ့သည်။ ရန်ဖြစ်ထားပေမယ့် ကိုယ့်လင်ဖြစ်နေတော့လဲ မျက်နှာလွှဲခဲပစ်နေဖို့က ခက်သည်….
Throwing A Stone Without Facing the Target
Throwing a stone without facing the target ensures it will miss its mark, highlighting the importance of clear direction. Success requires not just effort but also a precise aim and focus on your goals.
Ignoring your target can seriously hinder your success. If you don’t focus on your goals, you are likely to struggle to achieve the desired outcome.
Carelessness and a lack of attention to detail can lead to unintended consequences, complicating or even derailing your efforts. Precision and careful actions are essential for completing tasks effectively. When distractions and imprecision influence your work, you’re less likely to meet your objectives efficiently.
For success, it is crucial to maintain a clear focus, pay attention to details, and stay committed to your goals. This approach ensures that your efforts are purposeful and aligned with your desired results.
Don’t disregard your target; failing to do so will impede your success. Careless actions will not prevent unintended consequences, so don’t overlook the importance of paying attention. Imprecision and distraction are not conducive to accomplishing tasks effectively.
USAGES:
“Miss the mark”
Definition: Failing to achieve a goal or target.
Example: His lack of preparation led him to miss the mark during the presentation.
“Barking up the wrong tree”
Definition: Pursuing a mistaken or misguided course of action.
Example: By blaming the marketing team, he was barking up the wrong tree; the issue was with the product itself.
“Haste makes waste”
Definition: Acting too quickly can result in mistakes and poor outcomes.
Example: She rushed through her report, leading to errors—a clear case of haste makes waste.
“Look before you leap”
Definition: Consider the consequences before taking action.
Example: Before signing that contract, make sure to look before you leap; it could be a costly mistake.
“Fool’s errand”
Definition: A task that is pointless or unlikely to succeed.
Example: Trying to change her mind was a fool’s errand; she was firm in her decision.
“Put all your eggs in one basket”
Definition: Risking everything on a single venture without alternatives.
Example: Investing all his savings in that start-up was risky; he shouldn’t put all his eggs in one basket.
“Cut corners”
Definition: Doing something in the quickest way, often compromising quality.
Example: They cut corners on the construction project, leading to safety issues later.
