Question about English translation of phrases

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1

Gents, I have a question about how to translate two phrases into English. I cannot find them in the dictionary or with Google.

  • My car sometimes breaks down unexpectly. Here we say it was probably made on Monday morning, so we call it a "Monday morning copy". How would you call this in English?
  • I am not a very handy person when it comes to constructing things. Here we say I have two left hands. How would you call this in English? (I seem to recall it was something with thumbs, but I forgot the phrase.)
Thanks!
2

My version of the first one: assembled on Monday from parts made on Friday.

Second one : I’m all thumbs.

3

Agree with the second one.

 

Regards the first one, I would say its a Friday night car. The idea being, most people finish on Friday for the weekend and just want to get out of work, so don’t care as much about how things are done and if its done right. That’ll do, being a popular attitude at such times

 

Cheers

4

In English we call those phrases whose meaning isn’t easily inferred from the literal translation of the words idioms or idiomatic phrases.

5

Thanks guys. (And by the way, it’s called an idiom in Dutch, too.)

But do I understand it correctly that Americans would translate it as “assembled on Monday from parts made on Friday” and British as “made on Friday”?

This particular situation concerns a kitchen knife (usually not made up from many parts), so I’m still doubting whether this knife was made on Monday or Friday…