English equivalence of saying "the water is too deep"

Question

Dear Experts,How to say this in English, we have a saying in Chines, something like "the water is too deep", it means for example, I want to learn something, a new research topic, and then later I found it is far difficult than I have thought preveiously, then I would exclaim and say to my friends, "the water is too deep, I dont want to learn that anymore". We will also use it when for example, there is a certain corrupted official, and an investigator during his investigating found that the corruption network is far extensive than he has imagined, and he would say to his friends that "the water is so deep, blahblah..."ThanksDaniel Wei

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi,

I'm getting out of my depth
This means literally that I m wading out into water that will soon be deep enough to be over my head.
This means figuratively that I am getting into a situation that I can't cope with.

Clive

Lakshwadeep · Answer

For the first example, you could use the phrase "bite of something more than he/she could chew," which means trying to do something unmanageable. Another phrase is "in over his/her head," which usually means the same thing.

For the second example of the corrupt official, the phrase "[just the] tip of the iceberg" is often used to show something that is bigger than it seems (most of an iceberg's mass is below the water's surface). "Tip of the iceberg" does not mean something is too difficult. Here is an example:

The man bought his car in to repair the headlights, but the auto mechanic said the headlights were just the tip of the iceberg.

English equivalence of saying "the water is too deep"

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions