Wow, last week's "Idle Questions" got a better reception than I thought... I was wondering if going into the potty was going to turn away people, but no, many people rose to the challenge of figuring how much toilet paper they use! However, it is time to revert back to a slightly more serious topic, well, in comparison!

For quite some time, I hosted a Dutch Idioms contest on my blog, but after a while there wasn't enough interest to keep it going and to continue the prize payouts. Anyway, it was done in part to help me learn the idioms that I keep (and still keep) tripping over in Dutch. However, a comment (by @theironfelix) in the last round of the SBI contest reminded me of how funny they were.

Every language or country has it's own idioms, which make perfect sense to the native speakers of a language (or natives of the country), but when taken literally can be complete nonsense! Being a native English speaker from Australia, I am familiar with most of the slang and idioms of my own country (although, there are state specific ones that I probably wouldn't understand). Since moving to The Netherlands, I've tried (and continue to try) learning Dutch, I guess the best you can say for my language skills in Dutch is that they are functional... mostly. My oldest daughter makes fun of me and my accent, and I'm sure that sometimes I can be just plain embarrassing in front of her friends! Somehow, I find myself in the same position that my father found himself in when he immigrated to Australia without a complete command of the English language, karma sucks!

So, I'm curious about the idioms of your country and your language! Give me three examples (or more!) of idioms that natives speakers in your country would understand, but are likely to be completely misunderstood by others!

Also, there is a steem-bounty on this post, I will upvote decent interactions between commenters so they have a larger share of the bounty! Please don't upvote yourself!

My Examples

Unsplash

I remember this one as a child, hearing my mother telling her friends that she would "give them a ring!".... and I was always left wondering why she would just hand out jewelry to friends and sometimes strangers?

Other Australian Idioms:

"Like a shag on a rock" - Literally, it means like having sex on a rock... it means to be exposed, to stand out (badly).

I feel a need to make a small correction here. A "Shag" is a water bird in the Cormorant family - often seen with their wings extended in the sun, standing on rocks.

Thanks @sparkesy43 for the correction!

"What a Crocker!" - To screw something up, to do it badly. Crocker rhymes with "shocker", a shocker is something that is badly executed.

"Thongs" - Well, I think the Americans screwed this one up for us... these are what you wear on your FEET!

Well, these are just a few examples, I have many, but I don't want to hog all them for the fellow Australians that might enter this contest!

Rules

1. Upvote if you want, it increases the payout and then I can hopefully sponsor more people.
2. Resteem is NOT neccessary, but the more people see this, the more the people will be likely to be sponsored.
3. In the comments, give 3 examples of idioms from your country/language that you don't think others would understand properly!
4. I have added a small Steem-Bounty to the post, so that everyone who replies with a valid entry will get something back. If I give your post a small upvote, it is valid (also, subscribe to @dustsweeper for maximum benefit!).
5. I will be sponsoring as many people as this post pays out in liquid SBD/STEEM. Also I will kick in at least the required amount to round up to the full number. Winner is by random generator after a shortlisting of quality comments!

Steem Basic Income

One of the first communities that I came in contact with at the beginning of my time at Steemit was @steembasicincome. As a beginning author, Steemit can be a daunting place. It feels like you are posting into an abyss with no ability to grow. Steem Basic Income gives you a guaranteed vote on one post a day, thus giving you a small but cumulative over time support to your account.

With this post, I want to help sponsor people who might not even have the spare 1 STEEM that is required for registration. So, when this post pays out, I will sponsor people depending on the payout of this post. Basically, I will round up the SBD payout from this post and then that will be the number of people I will sponsor. (So, if the payout is 2.3 SBD, I will sponsor 3 people).

Last week's winners

Last week paid out 0.823 SBD and 0.460 STEEM, so I will make it 2 shares.

Congratulations to:

@romeskie

@veekeeme4