“Have a screw loose”in other languages
Be a bit odd or slightly crazy, said as gentle teasing.
English
Danish
Finnish
French
German
EnglishDanishFinnishFrenchGermanSame idea, different pictures
English and German share the same mechanical picture: a loose screw. The others imagine the head as a house with someone living in it who shouldn't be there: rats in the attic in Danish, a spider on the ceiling in French.
The Finnish one could only be Finnish: not all the Moomins are in the valley. The Moomins are the troll family from Tove Jansson's children's books, and they live in Moominvalley.
All of these are light teasing, not a way to talk about real mental illness.
More sayings in other languages
- Break a leg
- Grin and bear it
- Have your cake and eat it
- It's all Greek to me
- Be a third wheel
- Have a bone to pick with someone
- A bottomless pit
- A day late and a dollar short
- A guilty conscience needs no accuser