Japanese Idiom 赤子の手をひねるよう taking candy from a baby
Japanese Idiom with Video:
赤子の手をひねるよう – something very easy; taking candy from a baby
赤子の手をひねるよう
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akago no te o hineru you
- something very easy; taking candy from a baby
- This is used when someone from a position of strength does as he pleases with someone weaker. This is probably most often used with bad guys doing something bad to the weak and defenseless.
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Literally, “like twisting a child’s arm.” This idiom seems to have an obvious origin: twisting a small child’s arm is not difficult.
- こんな計算問題を解くのは、赤子の手をひねるようだ。
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konna keisan-mondai o toku nowa, akago no te o hineru you da.
- Solving a math problem like this is child’s play.
Vocabulary
- こんな konna — such a; …like this
- 計算問題 keisan mondai — numerical calculation [計算 = calculation; count + 問題 = problem; question]
- を wo — (direct object marker)
- 解く toku — to solve; to answer
- のは no wa — it is ~ that… [this, ending with the copula, indicates some important information is coming. The “no” is an indefinite pronoun that replaces a person, place, or thing. In this case you can think of it as: as for this THING of solving this math problem…]
- 赤子 akago — baby
- の ~no — (possessive)
- 手 te — hand
- ひねる hineru — to twist; to turn
- よう you — just like; like
- だ da — plain form of desu
