Funny translations of foreign expressions

The Portuguese will laugh at you if you give a donkey sponge cake. In Finland, meanwhile, you need to prevent any frogs escaping from your mouth - and if you're in Spain, beware of giving anyone the pumpkins (even if it is Halloween).

These are just some of the funny translations of common idioms and expressions people use every day around the world.

Of course, the Brits have their own funny idioms - 'it's raining cats and dogs' or 'killing two birds with one stone', for example - which make perfect sense to us. But anyone from further afield would be forgiven for thinking we're slightly crazy.

Hotel Club has compiled a list of common idioms used abroad, including French expression 'avoir le démon de midi' which translates as 'having the midday demon' and means 'having a midlife crisis'.

If you say 'nie mój cyrk, nie moje malpy' in Polish, you are telling someone 'not my circus, not my monkey' which means 'not my problem'.

Add these sayings to your phrase book for your next holiday and check out the infographic below:

Alimentar um burro a pão-de-ló = to feed the donkey sponge cake (Portuguese) - to give good treatment to someone who doesn't deserve it

Dar calabazas a alguien = to give somebody pumpkins (Spanish) - to reject someone

Exatj zajcem = to ride like a hare (Russian) - to travel without a ticket

Päästää sammakko suusta = to let a frog out of your mouth (Finnish) - to say the wrong thing

Katzensprung = a cat's jump (German) - a short distance away

Kao ga hiro i = to have a wide face (Japanese) - to have many friends

At have en pind i øret = to have a stick in your ear (Danish) - to not listen to someone