A sandwich short of a picnic

Hast du 'nen Vogel?! (Have you gotta bird [in your head]?!)
Tickst du noch richtig? (Are you still ticking on time?)
Hast du noch alle Tassen im Schrank? (Do you still have all cups in the cupboard?)
Hast Du 'nen Schuß?

Greek

Τοὔστριψε ἡ βίδα (Toústripse i vída)

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Hebrew

(hu nafal barosh) הוא נפל בראש
he fell on his head

(hu khay beseret) הוא חי בסרט
he lives in a movie - his whole life are like a movie

(khaser lo boreg) חסר לו בורג
he's missing a screw

Hungarian

Nincs ki mind a négy kereke
he hasn't got all four wheels out

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Irish (Gaelic)

Tá sé chomh mear le míol Márta
He's as lively as an animal in March

Italian

Avere le rotelle fuori posto
to have one's wheels out of place = to be nutty, to be a loony

Mancare una rotella
to be lacking a wheel = to be nutty, to be a loony

Non avere tutti i venerdì
to be lacking some Fridays = to be nutty, to be a loony

Essere svitato
to be unscrewed = to be nutty, to be a loony, to have a screw loose

Essersi bevuto il cervello
to have drunk up one's own brain = to be crazy

Essere di legno di coccio
to be made of wood / of earthenware = to be unable to understand (also: stubborn, not willing to understand). Often in pronouncing this expression the speaker raps on a hard surface, to remark the idea of 'hardness' with the noise.

Essere duro di comprendonio
to have hard brains = to be slow in understanding

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Latvian

Putniņs bēniņos
to have birds in the attic

Lithuanian

Jam stogas važiuoja

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Polish

Brak mu/jej piątej klepki
he's/she's missing the fifth stave

Ma nierówno pod sufitem
he's got a jerky surface under the ceiling

Portuguese

Cabeça d'alho chocho
rotten garlic head

Tem um parafuso a menos
He's missing a screw

Tem macaquinhos no sotão
(He) has little monkeys in the attic

É poucochinho
He's little (opposite of much)

Punjabi

ਓਦ ਦਮਘ ਖ੍ਰਾਬ ਹੋਯ (oda damagh khrāb hoya)
his brain's not working

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Russian

У него крыша поехала (U nego kryša poexala)
His roof has gone

Serbian

Фали му даска у глави (Fali mu daska u glavi)
He's missing a plank in his head

Фали му шраф у глави (Fali mu šraf u glavi)
He's missing a screw in his head

Ударен мокром чарапом (Udaren mokrom čarapom)
Hit with a wet sock

Луд ко струя (Lud ko struja)
Crazy as electricity

Скренуо с колосека (Skrenuo s koloseka)
He's gone off his rails

Slovenian

Eno kolesce mu manjka
He's missing a wheel

Nima vseh kolesc v glavi
He doesn't have all wheels in his head

Spanish

Más loco que una cabra / un plumero
Crazier than a goat / feather duster

Le falta un tornillo
He's missing a screw

Swedish

Att ha tomtar på loftet
To have brownies in the attic

Flängd i roten
Flurry in the root

Han har otur när han tänker
He is unlucky when he thinks

Hear these phrases

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Turkish

Kafadan kontak
The contacts in his brain are cut

Keçileri kaçırmıs,
His goats fled

Kafayı yemiş
He has eaten his own brain

Tırlatmış
Hhe purred

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Ukrainian

Немає клепки (Namaje klepky)
a screw is missing

Не всі вдома (Ne vsi vdoma)
not everyone is at home

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Books of idioms, proverbs and sayings in many languages

People who have contributed to this section

If you would like to make any corrections or additions to this page, please contact me. If you can provide audio recordings of any of these phrases, please send them to

You can send me audio files in any format. If you don't know how to make recordings on a computer, you can send me recordings on audio cassette. Let me know if you want to do this and I'll send you my snailmail address. Or you can call me on Skype (omniglot) and I'll do the recording.

Links

English idioms
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A711190
http://www.geocities.com/denimania/den/sayings.html

French idioms
http://www.one.under.btinternet.co.uk/list.html

German idioms
http://german.about.com/library/blidioms_start.htm

Spanish idioms
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Thebes/6177/idioms.htm
http://spanish.about.com/od/idiomsandphrases/

Idiomau Cymraeg / Welsh idioms
http://www.madog.org/dysgwyr/gramadeg/gramadeg3.html

Dictionary of idioms in Japanese, English and Russian
http://www.yamtro.sitehotel.ru

Other idioms

Other phrases