Italian Idiomatic Expressions: Gender of Angels

I love Italian idiomatic expressions – those sayings you just can’t translate directly but which make the Italian language the colorful and charming language it is.

Today’s saying is another example of a colorful Italian saying taking the place of what would ordinarily be a boring sentence:

Stanno discutendo sul sesso degli angeli

While the meaning of this is, “They’re discussing futile or unimportant matters,” the literal translation is, “They’re discussing the gender of the angels.” I swear, no matter how unimportant the gender of angels might be, if it were being discussed in Italian and the talk was littered with sayings like this, I wouldn’t care.

I’ll keep sharing Italian idiomatic expressions with you periodically; and if you’ve got a favorite saying, let me know!

If you like this one, check out some of the other Italian idiomatic expressions I’ve posted about, too.