Prague · Czech
Padají trakaře.
“Wheelbarrows are falling.”
Chance of wheelbarrows100%
Idioms from around the world, taken literally.
It's raining cats and wheelbarrows.
Short films about the sayings everybody knows, and what the rest of the world says instead. It's usually stranger.
Today's forecast
Heavy rain across Europe.
What exactly comes down depends on where you are standing. Take an umbrella. In Prague, take a helmet.
London · English
It's raining cats and dogs.
Exactly what it says.
Chance of cats and dogs100%
Amsterdam · Dutch
Het regent pijpenstelen.
“It's raining pipe stems.”
Chance of clay pipes100%
Cardiff · Welsh
Mae hi'n bwrw cyllyll a ffyrc.
“It's raining knives and forks.”
Chance of cutlery100%
Athens · Greek
Βρέχει καρεκλοπόδαρα.
“It's raining chair legs.”
Chance of chair legs100%
Paris · French
Il pleut des cordes.
“It's raining ropes.”
Chance of ropes100%
Swipe for more cities.
The shelf
Every film, kept in a jar.
On the label, the saying you know. Inside, what someone else says instead. Thirty seconds each.
It's raining cats and dogsCzech: Wheelbarrows are falling.
Apples and orangesDanish: Which is highest, the Round Tower or a thunderclap?
Beat around the bushFrench: To call a cat a cat.
Break a legFrench: Merde! (Excuse my French.)
It's all Greek to meChinese: A book from heaven.
A mountain out of a molehillAncient Greek: To make an elephant out of a fly.
When pigs flyRussian: When the crayfish whistles on the mountain.
Out of the frying pan, into the fireSwedish: Out of the ashes, into the fire.
A piece of cakeJapanese: Before breakfast.
Not all thereFrench: To have a spider on the ceiling.
SunshowerDutch: It's a funfair in hell.
It costs an arm and a legDutch: That's a rib out of your body.
The lucky jar
Shake it. Something foreign falls out.
Every saying in here has been checked against a dictionary or another solid source. The ones we couldn't check stay outside.
CZECHPadají trakaře.“Wheelbarrows are falling.”Means: it's pouring.
15 sayings in the jar, so far.
For sleeping
Can't sleep? Let it rain.
Thirty minutes of rain, one idiom per video. The wheelbarrows don't hit anyone. You'll hear a faint chime, then nothing.
Who's talking
The Keeper.
He looks after a lighthouse, kitesurfs when the wind is right, and keeps every saying he finds in a jar. He does the voice. You will never see his face.
If a saying can't be checked, it doesn't go on the shelf. If nobody knows where it comes from, he says so.