this post was submitted on 26 May 2024
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My $10 says there will be variants of this catchy phrase. (Help me win this)

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[–] [email protected] 51 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (3 children)

~~I'm~~ In my country it's "you're barking up the wrong tree".

[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 months ago

Hi my country, I'm dad

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Welcome to Muphry's Law!

[–] [email protected] 20 points 6 months ago

Here it's "barking up the wrong tree"

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

If this was a contest that would be the winner.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 months ago

There's nothing similar, but "you're confused between porridge and gruel" comes closest.

Thats means that you are knowledgeable, but ignorant on the finer details that makes the case different. When you're troubleshooting something, it fits.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago (1 children)

What is helpful is if you say what the saying means.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

it means you are blaming the wrong thing/person for an issue.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

I would also add it could be something more like investigating/searching and not necessarily blaming.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago

“Looking for apples in an orange tree.”

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago

Your princess is in another castle

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

In the UK we use your term also 'You've got your wires crossed'

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Same in Australia, but we also say OPs version just with mate on the end.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

You're fighting windmills.

(A reference to Don Quichotte, of course)

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

You're crying over wrong grave.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

Similar ones would be:
"You're standing on the hose" (you're very close to finding the solution but you just can't)
"You're bridling the horse from behind" (You're looking at the problem the wrong way)
"The other way around it becomes a shoe" (same as above)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

The saying is hard to translate to English:
They can't see the forest behind the tree - that they were stuck on looking at.

An other one:
They can't find the udder between the horns.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Can’t see the forest for the trees?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I believe this is Swedish ("ser inte skogen för alla träd").

An attempt at a alternative translation; "can't see the forest because of all the trees". Which means you're perceiving the wrong part of the situation, and thus missing out on the bigger picture.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

It's also an English expression.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

It doesn't ring the same, at least for me.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

I like how you said it's hard to translate to English, but English has the same saying. The saying must have a common ancestor between our two languages! (Or maybe one is the common ancestor...)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

These aren't the droids you're looking for.

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Thanks, Pipey.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

italian has prendere un granchio, lit. meaning, "to catch a crab".

It indicates a gross mistake, the achievement of a much lower result than hoped for or, more rarely, purchasing something believing it to be of much higher value than it actually is. This expression, among the most common used in Italian to indicate a mistake, has its origins in fishing , particularly sport fishing. If you lower the line into the sea until you reach the seabed and touch the bottom with the hook and the bait, it may happen that a crab bites instead of a fish . As soon as the crustacean is hooked, it immediately begins to struggle violently to free itself from the hook, giving the fisherman the impression that it has instead hooked a large prey. Fishing for a crab with a rod is normally a source of disappointment for the fisherman, since it is a useless prey, which in some cases can even damage the line. The origin of the phrase was born from this disappointment, generated by the expectation of a large fish.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Turkish has Yanlış kapıyı çalmak, meaning "to knock on the wrong door".

Applying to a place where your request cannot be fulfilled.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Portuguese has dar murro em ponta de fac, meaning "to punch the tip of a knife".

  • insisting on something that apparently won't work
  • insisting on doing something that always goes wrong
  • persist without seeing results