Stront aan de knikker

trouble, the shit hits the fan Iconspeaker_3 Knikker
[Dutch phrase of the week]
[stront aan de knik-ker]

"Stront aan de knikker" literally translates to "shit on the marble" 🙂 It is common idiom for referring to a state of trouble. I believe that the synonymous English expression is "the shit hits the fan", native English speakers are kindly invited to confirm or refute this.

Examples:
– "Wat is er aan de hand?" – "Stront aan de knikker…" 
("What's going on?" – "Trouble…")

– "Toen de ME hard optrad tegen de protestanten, wist ik dat er stront aan de knikker was." 
("When the riot police acted forcefully against the protesters, I knew the shit was going to hit the fan.")

– "Waarom fronst Frank zijn wenkbrauwen?" – "Waarschijnlijk is er ergens stront aan de knikker…" 
("Why is Frank frowning?" – "There's probably trouble somewhere…")

Expressions:
– "Wat is er aan de hand?": what's going on?
– "Foute boel": trouble, wrong, bad.

Example:
– "Dit is foute boel…ik ben pleite…"
("This is trouble…I'm out of here…")

Related words:
– Stront: shit, crap, poop [noun] [de stront, <no plural>].
– Knikker: marble [noun] [de knikker, de knikkers].

Example:
– "Kijk mam! Ik heb vandaag hartstikke veel knikkers gewonnen!"
("Look mum! I really won a lot of marbles today!")

– Knikkeren: to play marbles [verb] [knikkeren, knikkerde, h. geknikkerd].
– Probleem: problem [noun] [het probleem, de problemen].