Igbo Idioms (Ilu)

just go and taste the mediterranean sea and see how awfully salty it is

you are an Aro Girl i guess?
Amu Siri gi ike!

Oh boy! Nonny u are good! Damn! It's interesting to see this post.
Well, I don't have them on top of my mind now because I'm in school and English is wiring in my brain at the moment but once I get home my English stops right at the door and igbo takes over.
Sometimes after thinking about how years it will take to finish my major I said to myself,

nwayo nwayo ka eji alacha ofe di oku,
Ebe ejije eteka mana  ka ana aga n'ubi ka ji na aka.

Sometimes I just don't feel comfortable listening to my friends discuss some topics that I'm yet to take,  anyways abeg make I no worry myself "maka ebe onye oso ruru ka onye ije ga eru".

this is the title that really trips me the most - ''ohia-ana-wara-ego"

chai! Idekeson, so na this be the only idom u know. And why did u kowaciate the thing in oyibo? Nna nawa for u ooooo.

Egwu ona atu ike okpere azu (is the ass scared for it to come last?)

O dikwa risky

Thanks Kajad for the title. i am just trying to represent iboland.

I have an entire book of these, but let me drop a few that I can remember right away:

First, the one I consider the most important Igbo idiom (if any of you did igbo in School, like we that schooled in the East, you must know what I mean. This one was always the first idiom you learn in igbo class) :

Atuo ilu, kowara nwata, i mara na ego eji luo nne ya furu efu (If a proverb is said and explained to a child, then the money used to marry his/her mother was a waste)

Others:

Agadi nwanyi da ada ugboro abuo, agu a ihe obu n'ísi onu (If an old woman falls twice, the number of things things she is carrying on her head must be rechecked)

Onye akwo n'azu, ike ya ho onu (A person who is being carried, his yansh is exposed- this means ''there is always a downside to being helped")

Onye akwo n'azu anaghi akwo nmadu? ( a person who is being carried on someon's back, does not carry someone else)

Oke soro ngwere ma mmiri, ahu kocha ngwere, o ga akocha oke? ( if a rat follows the lizard to play in the rain, when the lizard's body dries, will the rat's also)

Anaghi agwa ochinti na ahia esu (No one tells the stubborn/deaf person that the market is on fire)

Onye mkpumkpu dara n'ala, si na ya eru go ulo ( A short person fell down and said "i have reached home")

Mgbe onye ji tete, bu ututu ya (Whenever any one wakes up, is his/her own morning)

Ukpana ukpoko gburu, nti chiri ya (A grasshopper that was killed by a train must have been deaf)


So, as you can see, my mom's bride price was not a waste. Though, as my kids barely know Igbo, I don't know about my wife's Now I just need to find time and I put up more. However, I am sure its already been done by someone on this internet.

from my dad,
Beta anu, beta anu bukwonu n'aru efi.

Ana eji anya eke azu di n'ime ofe (the eyes are used to divide the meat in the soup, when eating communually)

Wepu aka enwe n'ofe tupu o ho aka mmadu (Remove the hand of the monkey from the pot, before it becomes the hand of a human being)

Etuo dike na nke omere, o me kwa ozo ( If a man is praised for what he did, he will do more)

Egbuo dike na mgba núlo, ubochi aga aga agha, acho ya acho (IF a great warrior is killed in a mere wrestling match at home, in the day of war he will be missed)

Onye ulo ya na agba oku, a dighi achu oke (A person whom his house is burning does not chase rats and ohter vermin)

Mana nwata n'ata akara na-ata ego ya (A child demanding akara, is eating her future pocket money)

ukwa ru oge ya, o daa!

means : Everything happens at it's own time/pace (i think)

Nnwa agu anahu ata ahihia(a Lion's child dosen't feed on grass)

@wendylocks:kwezuonu!!!!

Another of my favourites:

Egbe bere, ugo bere, nke si ibe ya ebena, nku kwa ya. (Let the hawk perch, let the eagle perch. Whichever says the other should not perch, may its wing break)

Nwanza si na onye gbara ya agbaka mana yanwa zere eze ezeka kwa ( The wren praised the person who shot at it, but remarked that it equally dodged the bullets expertly)

And one of the funniest i ever heard:

Enwe si na o bu onye iro ya na-kpo ya monkey, na ezigbo aha ya bu Mike (The monkey said that it is his enemies that used to call him Monkey, that his actual name is Mike) 

@t4cash, I've received worse than that. When I was very young but likes to put on eyeliner, my mom would say Ukpaka gba na ibe ya gba, o gba na akaraka.