🤖 Literally, in English
“To hang noodles on someone's ears.”
Вішати локшину на вуха. Vishaty lokshynu na vukha
🤨 What does it ACTUALLY mean? →
🇬🇧 What you'd actually say
“To feed someone a load of nonsense.”
also: “To spin someone a line.” · “To pull the wool over someone's eyes.”
- 📖 Meaning
- To deceive someone with an elaborate, confident story.
- 💡 Why it's funny
- English pulls wool over your eyes; Ukrainian drapes pasta over your ears. Both describe the same con, but only one of them requires a kitchen.
- 🧭 Closest English idiom
- “To pull the wool over someone's eyes.”
- 📝 Explanation
- Widely used and instantly understood, though it is a calque from Russian rather than a native Ukrainian idiom. Included here with that noted, because pretending it isn't used would be dishonest.
- ⚠ A note on this phrase
- This is a calque of the Russian «вешать лапшу на уши» and is not a native Ukrainian idiom, although it is very widely used in speech. Native Ukrainian alternatives with the same meaning: «замилювати очі», «забивати баки», «заговорювати зуби».
🧠 Learn
- pull the wool over someone's eyes (idiom) — to deceive someone — обвести навколо пальця “They pulled the wool over our eyes for months.”
- spin someone a line (idiom) — to tell someone a convincing false story — заговорювати зуби “He spun me a line about a delayed payment.”
🗣 In context
Не вір йому — він тобі локшину на вуха вішає.
Don't believe him — he's feeding you a load of nonsense.
🎧 Hear the contrast
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