Slovenian Idioms

»Tih kot miška« (as silent as a mouse), »priden kot čebela« (as busy as a bee) – sound familiar to you? These are called idioms, idiomi or frazemi in Slovenian. Idioms are phrases that usually consist of more words which have figurative meaning. They appear in all languages and using them helps us enrich our vocabulary.

Slovenian has some interesting and comic idioms, some of them are very similar to English ones, too. I like in particular that ones with animals. Slovenian is not so »rich« regarding vocabulary in comparison to English and other languages which are spoken by millions of people, but has an impressive amount of idioms, which are surprisingly very often used in everyday conversation.

The language immediately sounds better and enriched when speaking by using idioms. If you are learning Slovenian, try to learn some idioms, too, you’ll definitely impress your Slovenian friends. I prepared a list of Slovenian idioms which are commonly used, and in the table below you will also find a literal translation from Slovenian into English and a real meaning of an idiom. Read just Slovenian idioms and literal translations in English, and try to guess a real meaning then. It can be funny, and maybe you will be astonished.

SLOVENIAN IDIOM	LITERAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION	MEANING
našpičiti ušesa	to prick up one’s ears	to start to listen carefully
skočiti si v lase	to jump in each other’s hair	to fight (to argue), to contradict
iskati dlako v jajcu	to search for a hair in the egg	to exaggerate in demands
iti po gobe	to go to pick mushrooms	to decay, to fall through, to go awry
krasti bogu čas	to steal a god’s time	to laze
iti rakom žvižgat	to go whistling to the crab	to die, to fall through, to decay
kot slon v trgovini s porcelanom	like an elepfant in a china shop	to be clumsy
španska vas	a Spanish village	unknown field
vedeti kam pes taco moli	to know where a dog puts its paw in	to know what a purpose of speaking is
lagati kot pes teče	to lie as a dog runs	to lie often, without any restraints
režati se kot pečen maček	to grin like a roast cat	to laugh very much
delati iz muhe slona	to make an elephant out of a fly	to exaggerate a lot because of a trifle
hoditi spat s kurami	to go to sleep with chickens	to go to bed early
počutiti se kot riba na suhem	to feel like a fish out of water	to feel uncomfortable, badly
iskati iglo v senu	to look for a needle in a haysteak	to do something with a little hope for results
živeti kot ptiček na veji	to live like a birdie on a branch	to live freely, carefree
spati kot zajec	to sleep like a rabbit	to sleep lightly
biti kot pes in mačka	to be like a dog and cat	to hate each other, to argue
kupiti mačka v žaklju	to buy a cat in a sack	to deal for something with unconfirmed origin
hoditi kakor mačka okoli vrele kaše	to walk like a cat around a boiling pulp	not to tell the fact
ubiti dve muhi na en mah	to kill two flies at one go	to solve two problems with one act
zamižati na eno oko	to close one eye	to overlook somebody’s unacceptable act
biti na konju	to be on a horse	to succeed, to achieve a goal
črno na belem	in black and white	written on a paper, clearly, with a proof