“Six of one, half a dozen of the other”in other languages

Same idea, different pictures

English and Chinese do the arithmetic. Six and half a dozen are equal, and in the old Chinese system a jin had sixteen liang, so half a jin and eight liang, 半斤八两, weigh the same. The Chinese phrase usually means equally bad.

Hungarian uses its two words for dog, egyik kutya, másik eb: one is a dog, the other a hound. German says hopped or jumped, gehüpft wie gesprungen. French c'est kif-kif comes from Arabic, kif kif, “like for like”.