Idiomatic expressions

An idiom cannot be worked out from its parts, so the only way in is to meet it often enough. The entries here are the ones that turn up in newspapers, meetings and ordinary complaints, not the picturesque ones kept alive by phrase books. One of them shows how a German image can do more work than its English partner. Ins Fettnäpfchen treten means what « to put your foot in it » means: to say exactly the wrong thing to exactly the wrong person. English stops at the foot. German names what the foot lands in, a little pot of grease, and because the pot is a thing it can be counted and lined up. Somebody who never misses a chance to offend lässt kein Fettnäpfchen aus; a bad evening goes von einem Fettnäpfchen ins nächste. English would need a new sentence for either, while German simply moves the pot around.