Russian

Speaker 1: “Ни пуха, ни пера!”
Speaker 2: “К чёрт!”
Literal meaning: Speaker 1“Neither fur nor feather”
Literal meaning: Speaker 2“To hell!”
Meaning in conversation: Speaker 1: ‘Good luck!’
Meaning in conversation: Speaker 2: ‘Thanks!’
Example:“I hear you’re going to be taking your certification test tomorrow. Neither fur nor feather!” “To hell!” (Here, ‘to hell’ is actually the response to being wished good luck)


“Yezdit’ b Tulu s svoim samovarom”
Literal meaning: “He’s going to Tula, taking his own samovar”
Meaning in conversation: Comment referring to a remarkable display of skill or salesmanship, usually when odds of success appear to be very low (In English, ‘He could sell ice to Eskimos’)
Example:“How did you manage to sell the candy store your homemade chocolate?” “I’m going to Tula and taking my own samovar. What can I say? I’m a natural salesman.”


“Vešat' lapšu na ušy”
Literal meaning: “To hang noodle’s on one’s ears”
Meaning in conversation: To tell lies, to talk nonsense
Example:“He gave me a long excuse about a dog eating his homework, space aliens abducting him, and an earthquake consuming his home, but I knew that he was just hanging noodles on his ears”


“Očki vtiratʼ”
Literal meaning: “To smear eyeglasses”
Meaning in conversation: To tell lies, to try to hoodwink someone (In English, “to pull the wool over someone’s eyes”)
Example:“The car salesman told me that this an old lady had owned this car, and that she only drove it to stores on Sundays. I didn’t believe him—I bet he was smearing eyeglasses the whole time.”

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