鬼に金棒 (oni ni kanabō: making a strong person even stronger; as strong as can be) horned monsters + metal + rod
君が英語ができれば鬼に金棒なんだが。
Kimi ga eigo ga dekireba oni ni kanabō nan daga.
If only you could speak English, you would be perfect.I like to say this to my language partners as a motivator, though I’m not sure whether it’s a carrot or stick.
君 (kimi: you)
英語 (eigo: English) English + language
だが (daga: but, nevertheless)It may seem strange that a word for “but” appears in the Japanese version of the sentence and not in the English translation. The sentence we’re seeing has an implied ending. Fully fleshed out, the sentence would be as follows:
君が英語ができれば鬼に金棒なんだが実際にはそうじゃない。
Kimi ga eigo ga dekireba oni ni kanabō nan daga jissai ni wa sō ja nai.
If only you could speak English, you would be perfect, but that isn’t the case.実際 (jissai: reality) reality + time
