🤖 Literally, in English
“Underwater stones.”
Підводні камені. Pidvodni kameni
🤨 What does it ACTUALLY mean? →
🇬🇧 What you'd actually say
“Hidden problems you don't see coming.”
also: “There's a catch.” · “Watch out for the pitfalls.”
- 📖 Meaning
- The difficulties in a plan or contract that are not visible at first.
- 💡 Why it's funny
- It is one of the rare cases where the literal translation is almost usable English but still slightly off: an English speaker would say 'pitfalls' and never picture a boat.
- 🧭 Closest English idiom
- “Hidden pitfalls.”
- 📝 Explanation
- Used constantly in business and legal conversation — the small print, the clause nobody read, the technical debt nobody mentioned.
🧠 Learn
- pitfall (noun) — a hidden danger or difficulty — підводний камінь, пастка “The plan has a few pitfalls.”
- catch (noun) — a hidden disadvantage in something that looks good — підступ, підвох “It's free? What's the catch?”
🗣 In context
Договір гарний, але треба перевірити підводні камені.
The contract looks good, but we need to check for hidden pitfalls.
🎧 Hear the contrast
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