Greek idioms that use body parts

Greek idioms that use body parts

Today we will learn some idioms that use the parts of body and the parts of face.

Το μάτι the eye and in Plural τα μάτια.

Άνοιξε τα μάτια σου./ Open your eyes. A phrase we use when we talk to a friend or to a member of our family and we advice him to “see the truth”, to realize that something is different from the way he thinks that it is.  

Γυαλίζει το μάτι μου./ My eye shines. If we talk about another person we can just change the possessive. Γυαλίζει το μάτι σου/your eye shines, Γυαλίζει το μάτι του/his eye shines. We use this phrase when someone is very angry that he looks as if he was crazy.

Μην πας κοντά του. Γυαλίζει το μάτι του./ Don’t go next to him. He looks like he is crazy.

Γύρισε το μάτι μου. / My eye turned upside down. Another phrase we use when we are very angry, when we learn something and we suddenly get angry.

Όταν έμαθε ότι τον απατούσε, γύρισε το μάτι του και τη σκότωσε./ When he learned that she was cheating on him, he got angry and he killed her.

Έκανα μαύρα μάτια να σε δω./ I did black eyes to see you. A phrase we use when we meet someone after a long time we didn’t see him.

Of course we can conjugate the verb. Κάναμε μαύρα μάτια να σε δούμε./ We didn’t see you for a long time.

Δε γεμίζω το μάτι κάποιου./ I am not filling someone’s eye. Γιατί με κοιτάζεις έτσι; Δε σου γεμίζω το μάτι;/why are you looking at me this way? Am i not good enough for you? So a phtrase we use when we think that someone in not sufficient, capable, trustworthy. If we change the verb’s person and the weak form of the personal pronoun which is preceeded, we can use the phrase to express our opinion about someone else.

Δε μου γεμίζεις το μάτι./ You are not filling my eye. I think you are not very good (we mean not very good to do something, for a work for example).

Kάνω τα γλυκά μάτια σε κάποιον./ I do the sweet eyes to someone.

I ogle, I look at somebody amorously. We say that someone κάνει τα γλυκά μάτια to someone else when he tries  to persuade him to do something.

Μην μου κάνεις τα γλυκά μάτια. Δεν μπορώ να έρθω μαζί σου αύριο. / Don’t look at me amorously. I cannot come with you tomorrow.

Με μισό μάτι. / With half an eye. We use this phrase with the verb κοιτάζω/I look.

Κοιτάζω κάποιον με μισό μάτι means that I look at someone with a way that it is obvious  that I don’t like him.

Κάθε φορά που συναντάω τη μάνα του, με κοιτάζει με μισό μάτι./ Every time I meet his mother, she looks at me with half an eye, it is obvious that she doesn’t like me.

Κάνω τα στραβά μάτια. / To turn a blind eye.

Εννοείται πως ξέρει την αλήθεια, αλλά κάνει τα στραβά μάτια για να μη χαλάσει το σπίτι της./ Of course she knows the truth but she turns a blind eye to not pull down her home. χαλάω το σπίτι μου is a phrase we use instead of διαλύω την οικογένειά μου/ to break up my family, to get divorced.

Μου άνοιξε τα μάτια. / He or she opened my eyes. We mean that he or she told me the truth or that he or she told me something very important.

Έχεις δίκιο. Δικαιούμαι υψηλότερο μισθό. Σε ευχαριστώ που μου άνοιξες τα μάτια. / You are right. I deserve a higher salary. Thank you to open my eyes.

Let’s go now to the ears. Το αφτί and in plural τα αφτιά.

Στήνω αφτί. / I set an ear means κρυφακούω/I eavesdrop, I listen at the door.

Εμείς πάμε μέσα να μιλήσουμε. Εσύ μη στήσεις αφτί όπως κάνεις συνήθως. / We go inside to talk. Don’t listen at the door as you usually do.

Δεν ιδρώνει το αφτί μου. / My ear doesn’t sweat.

A phrase we use when we don’t care about something, when we are indifferent. We can change the person by changing the possessive. So δεν ιδρώνει το αφτί του/ he doesn’t care, δεν ιδρώνει το αφτί της/she doesn’t care.

Εγώ του είπα ότι αν δε διαβάζει δε θα περάσει τις εξετάσεις, αλλά δεν ιδρώνει το αφτί του./I told him that if he doesn’t study he will not pass the exams but he doesn’t care.

Μπαίνουν ψύλλοι στα αφτιά μου. / Fleas enter my ears. It means “I have an inkling, I have doubts about someone/I suspect someone of doing a bad action.

Και οι τοίχοι έχουν αφτιά. / walls have ears. A phrase we use when we talk about something very important and we are afraid that someone can listen to us and learn our secret. Μίλα πιο σιγά. Και οι τοίχοι έχουν αφτιά. / Speak more quietly. Walls have ears.

Είμαι όλος αφτια. / I am all ears. When we want to say to someone that we listen to what he is telling to us with pleasure, we listen carefully.

- Έχεις λίγα λεπτά; θέλω να σου μιλήσω./do you have some minutes? I want to talk to you.

- Είμαι όλος αφτιά./ I am all ears.

Let’s go to the teeth. Το δόντι/the tooth and in plural τα δόντια.

Τα λέω έξω από τα δόντια. / I tell them out of the teeth. I make no bones about something. To talk about something unpleasant or awkward without hesitating.

Κάνω καιρό υπομονή, αλλά εχθές δεν άντεξα και του τα είπα έξω από τα δόντια./I stick it out for a long time but yesterday I couldn’t bear it and I made no bones about it.

Τρίζω τα δόντια. / I grind the teeth. We use it metaphorically as well and it means “I frighten someone/I intimidate someone”.

Ο Γιώργος έχει έναν μήνα να πατήσει στο πανεπιστήμιο. Να του τρίξεις τα δόντια! Since one month George didn’t go to the university. Frighten him.

Let’s go to the mouth. Το στόμα.

Ανοίγω το στόμα μου./ I open my mouth. We use it metaphorically too to say that “I will pen my mouth and I will talk about something about which I don’t have to talk. Maybe about a secret.

Θα σου πω κάτι, αλλά ορκίσου ότι δε θα ανοίξεις το στόμα σου. I will tell you something but swear that you will not tell it.

Μένω με το στόμα ανοιχτό. / I keep my mouth open. It means μένω άναυδος/I am speechless.

Όταν έμαθα για ποιον λόγο χώρισαν, έμεινα με το στόμα ανοιχτό./ when I learned why they got divorced, I was speechless.

Από το στόμα μου το πήρες. / you took it from my mouth. It means that you said something before me, when I was going to say exactly the same thing. My words/ my thoughts exactly.

Βάζω κάτι στο στόμα μου. / I put something inside my mouth. It means “I eat something”. Βάλε κάτι στο στόμα σου. Έχουμε δρόμο μπροστά μας./ Eat something. Έχουμε δρόμο μπροστά μας literally means “we have street in front of us” but we use this phrase to say that we will travel for a long time.