I'd like to be able to say a phrase like "no small feat", if Russians ever talk that way. In other words, I want to express that something has a level of difficulty which might be underestimated or underappreciated, but shouldn't be. What are some natural ways to say this?
I would also be interested in knowing the opposite: when something isn't as impressive as it seems.
Спасибо!
"no small feat" can be translated as:
All these expressions are rather informal, and most commonly used in speech, not in writing. However, they are a perfectly idiomatic way of expressing this. All are a bit more generic than "no small feat" — they can refer to almost anything that should not be underestimated, not only "feats".
A bit more formal may be
Examples:
The opposite may be (also informal):
Calvin,
It all depends on whether you're learning written, literary Russian or the actual everyday language spoken by the people. In the latter case, you should choose the adequate translation, which in everyday speech is:
не хуй собачий
You wouldn't use this wording in a talk at a symposium or even in a newspaper article, but it is the one used in everyday speech (not in the company of refined ladies, perhaps).
PS.
This saying evidently originated from the popular Latin phrase “Lingua latina non penis canina”.
Petr's answer is correct, but I could supplement it with the following phrases that also work:
