call a spade a spade

Once, four friends were playing poker. Their fifth friend, Jimmy, asked to join them, so they said "Sure! Ante up." A few rounds later, they realized that Jimmy was very, very bad at poker. It seemed like he didn't know how to play at all! He kept mixing up all the suits of the cards, calling hearts 'petals' and clubs 'clovers' and diamonds 'stars' and spades 'shovels'. Finally, they got fed up with Jimmy saying everything wrong, so Bob, the oldest, said "Wouldja stop already, Jimmy! You're confusing everyone. Just call a spade a spade!"

?

to call it as it is

&

if it walks and talks like a duck… / as plain as day

+

french

appeler un chat un chat / to call a cat a cat

spanish

Llamar al pan, pan y al vino, vino / to call bread bread and wine wine.

german

das kind beim namen nennen / to call the kid by its name

italian

non ha peli sulla lingua. / to not have hair on his/her tongue

arabic

سمى الأشياء بأسمائها؛ قال للأعور أعور بعينه / to call the one-eyed man one-eyed

japanese

no translation