he wouldn't hurt a fly

[DearPrudence]

Hello

I was just curious. Do you also have the same image in you language when someone is not violent:

English: he wouldn't hurt a fly
French: il ne ferait pas de mal à une mouche (exactly the same)

(I think it's the same in Spanish but I don't know)

Thanks

 

[sayah]

Hi,

You are right, in Spanish we say: "no hace daño ni a una mosca", which means exactly the same than the English version.

Sayah

 

[Frank06]

Hi,

In Dutch we say: Hij zou geen vlieg (fly) kwaad doen.

Groetjes,

Frank

 

[Outsider]

Portuguese: não faz mal a uma mosca.

 

[Azori]

Slovak: Neublížil by ani muche. The meaning's the same as in English.

 

[Saluton]

Russian: он мухи не обидит (on mukhi ne obidit). Same as above.

 

[Tamar]

In Hebrew:
הוא לא יפגע בזבוב [hu lo ifga bezvuv]
Same as English.

 

[anachevere]

In Spanish we say "No haría daño a una mosca".
Usually in conditional, as in English.

In Catalan, we say "No faria mal a una mosca".
Same as above!

 

[dn88]

Polish: muchy (fly) by nie skrzywdził

 

[User1001]

Er würde keiner Fliege (et)was zuleide tun.
Same meaning.

 

[irene.acler]

In Italian: non farebbe (del) male a una mosca.

 

[Trisia]

Romanian: n-ar face rău nici unei muşte.

Exactly the same as in English and French.

 

[Saluton]

Wow! 13 languages and the wording is exactly the same!

 

[zohre]

Hi all,

In Persian :
آزارش به مورچه هم نميرسه:He wouldn't hurt an ant

 

[Saluton]

And now, the first language that is different

 

[valo__fan]

Turkish is the same also;
O bir sineği bile incit(e)mez.(he wouldnt hurt a fly)

 

[Zsanna]

In Hungarian it is a fly, too: a légynek sem árt.

I was wondering whether it is because Beelzebub was apparently the "god of flies". Flies seemed to be despised by everybody in the old times so not surprising that one of the "supreme bad" figures was connected to them.
In that sense the saying means that the given person would not even hurt the "biggest baddy" (= who would deserve it)!

 

[Encolpius]

interesting topic

German: keiner Fliege was zuleide tun (means the same)

 

[apmoy70]

In Greek we use "ant" instead of "fly":
Δεν πειράζει ούτε μυρμήγκι
ðen pirazi ute mirmiŋgi
lit. "he wouldn't hurt even an ant"

 

[phosphore]

Serbian:

(on) ne bi ni mrava zgazio (literally: he wouldn't hurt even an ant)

 

[bibax]

Czech: Neublížil by ani mouše.

 

[Encolpius]

Hello, do you use the same idiom in your language? We do. Thanks.

Hungarian: A légynek sem tudna ártani. [Couldn't hurt even the fly]

Italian: Non farebbe male a una mosca.

 

[frank Chan]

Chinese
不忍踩死一只蚂蚁= (He) wouldn't step on an ant.
same to Serbian idiom, to descibe a person who are kind and nice person, he is a 好人。

 

[sakvaka]

Finnish: Hän ei satuttaisi kärpästäkään. S/he would not hurt even a fly.
or even more commonly Hän ei tekisi pahaa kärpäsellekään. (wouldn't "do bad" to...)

 

[jazyk]

In Portuguese: Não faria mal a uma mosca.

 

[Natalisha]

In Russian:
Он (даже) мухи не обидит. - He won't hurt/offend (even) a fly.

 

[Rallino]

In Turkish:

Bir sineği/karıncayı bile incitmez = [Never hurts even a fly/ant]

 

[Orlin]

Bulgarian: И на мравката път прави. = He/she makes way even (lit. and) to the ant.

 

[hollabooiers]

Estonian: Ta ei teeks kärbselegi liiga.

Liiga tegema is like to harm or to do unjustice. So it's "s/he would not harm (even) a fly".

It's amazing how so far we've only got flies and ants and no other insects/animals mentioned here!

 

[Encolpius]

So many fly-related idioms, is the origin not from the Bible? Is there a Latin version? Or Greek?

 

[nimak]

Serbian:
(on) ne bi ni mrava zgazio (literally: he wouldn't hurt even an ant)

Chinese
不忍踩死一只蚂蚁= (He) wouldn't step on an ant.
same to Serbian idiom, to descibe a person who are kind and nice person, he is a 好人。

In Macedonian:

Ни на мрава/мравка не гази. (Ní na mráva/mrávka né gazi.) = lit. "Not-even on (an) ant (he/she)-doesn't step."

Ни на мрава/мравка не би згазил. (Ni na mráva/mrávka ne bí zgazil.) = lit. "Not-even on (an) ant (I/you/he/she)-wouldn't step."

 

[Dymn]

You are right, in Spanish we say: "no hace daño ni a una mosca", which means exactly the same than the English version.

In Spanish we say "No haría daño a una mosca".
Usually in conditional, as in English.

"No mataría ni una mosca" seems more common to me, in fact I would say "haría daño" is a calque from English.

 

[Circunflejo]

"No mataría ni una mosca" seems more common to me

Because that's what you say in Catalan. In Spanish, no mataría ni a una mosca but it's about as frequent as no haría daño a una mosca or no haría daño ni a una mosca. I wouldn't use the haría daño version(s) myself but I guess that's just my idiolect.

 

[Dymn]

This whole thing with the "a" for direct objects still puzzles me to this day but I find plenty of results with "no mataría ni una mosca" online (most of them by non-Catalan speakers). Either way the main point was that I find mataría "would kill" to be more common than just hurt.

I wouldn't use the haría daño version(s) myself but I guess that's just my idiolect.

Maybe it's a matter of European vs. Latin American Spanish. But I don't know why the two Spaniards above didn't even bother mentioning "mataría" as an alternative version.

 

[Circunflejo]

Either way the main point was that I find mataría "would kill" to be more common than just hurt.

Yes, I would also say that it's more common but the other one isn't unknown either. Context may make a difference though.

I find plenty of results with "no mataría ni una mosca" online (most of them by non-Catalan speakers)

It's curious. I see many results in Catalan, some results from the Americas and some other results which origin I can't identify (pseudonims, translations of foreign authors made by an unknown translator for me...). Anyway, it's not (that) relevant.