olla koira haudattuna

Finnish

Etymology

Derived from a calque of Swedish här ligger en hund begraven, which is related to German da liegt der Hund begraben.

This idiomatic expression is almost never used in the infinitive, but also in those rare cases the verb olla means "to be" in the sense of "exist", which is normally expressed using the expression "there is" in English. Normally the Finnish expression is used in the form siinä/siihen on koira haudattuna, whose literal translation would be there is a dog buried there.

Verb

olla koira haudattuna

1. (idiomatic, impersonal + illative) to smell fishy, to seem fishy, to be a catch (used when something, such as a deal, seems suspicious)

   Tähän on varmasti jokin koira haudattuna.

   There is surely a catch here. / This sure seems fishy.

Usage notes

Depending on the context, an appropriate English translation could also be (to) smell a rat. However, the subject of this English expression is the person noticing that something is suspicious, which must be expressed through other means in Finnish (e.g. through the elative case to express "in someone's opinion").

Conjugation

See olla; koira haudattuna is not inflected.