Angloland Learn Serbian - Phrases of the week 7

IZAĆI/IZBITI NA LOŠ GLAS ★literally means to gain notoriety, to have your reputation tarnished, to have bad press or to be famous and infamous in your line of work or in your private life. Izbiti or izaći in this context means to end up, to gain, na means on, loš means bad and glas means voice or in this context reputation

SPAVATI kao TOP ★ literally means to sleep like a cannon, spavati means to sleep and top means a cannon ; it is similar to spavatikaoklada or kaobalvan to sleep like a log, to be fast asleep.

TRAŽITI IGLU U PLASTU SENA ★ this idiom literally translates as ‘to look for a needle in a haystack’ and it refers to a person trying to be only too picky or trying to achieve something almost impossible; tražiti means to look for, to search, igla means a needle, plastsena means a haystack and seno means hay used here in its genitive grammar case.

ZALJUBITI SE PREKO UŠIJU ★ this phrase literally means to fall in love, ‘over’ or ‘above’ your ears . Its translation equivalent is ‘to fall head over heels in love’. Its synonym could be ‘bitiludozaljubljen; which means to be madly in love; zaljubiti se means to fall in love, ljubav means love, preko means over, above or across, uši means ears.

ĆUTATI KAO ZALIVEN ★ literal translation would be to remain silent as if one has been 'watered' like a plant (with a water hose) . Its metaphorical meaning refers to the expression to keep schtum/stumm, to not say a word , not to give away a secret or its perfect equivalent in English ‘mum ‘s the word’; ćutati means to be silent, kao means as or like and zaliven means ‘watered’ as if you were a flower in the garden.

adapted and submitted by Natasha from Angloland

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