I know French has some phrases without an English equivalent, although I cannot think of an example now. Anyhow, are there English expressions that have no equivalent in some other language (not just limited to French)? If so, what is the phrase, and in what language would it have no equivalent? - Jinx
How about “domino effect?” How would that translate to an Eskimo (just as an example), whose language(s) probably don’t contain a native word for it.
How about “creepy.” I know what it means. You know what it means. But I’d venture a lot of languages don’t have a solitary analagous word.
Just two off the top of my head.
“Okay” is one that has no direct equivalent in Chinese and Japanese. There are words that encompass parts of the meaning, but not an all inclusive single word that covers all the bases that “Okay” covers.
Haecceity 
Watch, now someone will provide a Latinised version in French or Italian or something.
Considering that English has more words than any other human language, there are bound to be English words, much less whole phrases, which don’t translate exactly into any language that you care to name. But if you’re looking for phrases specifically, one example that my 9th grade Latin teacher used was “make out”. Those two words together can have at least a dozen different meanings, and I doubt that there’s a phrase in any language which carries all of those meanings.
In general there are very few words that have a direct translation that means exactly the same thing in a different language.
There are almost always some senses of the word that are not reproduced identically.
To illustrate: Let’s take a very simple English word: House.
In English this is a building, most commonly a single failly dwelling.
The corresponding French word Maison does indeed mean this, but it does also have slightly other connotations; á la maison for example doesn’t mean at the house, but at home. Thus the two words are not interchangeable.
The German Hause is closer to the French Maison, in so much as zu Hause means á la maison, although (but here I’m on thin ice) I think it can also mean larger buildings, not necessarilly intended as s single familly dwelling.
In Swedish it is Hus, which yet again has slightly different usage patterns; it can for example mean a latrine, as well as living quarters.
To summarise: There are (to my knowledge) very few words that can be directly taken out of context and translated independantly of the context. For a good illustration, try babelfish! And they do indeed try to estimate the context.
Weekend has no translation in French, since fin de semaine means the instant that the week ends, not the period from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning. So the French say “le weekend”. (Except in Quebec, where “fin de semaine” has acquired the English meaning.) There are thousands of such words I am sure but that is the only one I can think of at 5:45 in the morning.
How about serendipity ?
Well, it could, but only very jokingly and uncommonly and IIRC it’s a loan from Danish.
Not necessarily jokingly, although I agree that it would only rarely crop up in polite conversation. SAOB have exerpts from the 18th century, which don’t look jocular in their limited context.
I agree that it was maybe not the best example, because the Swedish Hus and English House are very close, both etymologically and when it comes to meaning. It was, however the first example I could come up with.
SAOB don’t list any Danish connection, but instead list similiar formations in Dutch and German.
And anyway, the very fact that it can be used jokingly in Swedish to mean ‘toilet’, but not in English strenghtens my point:
There are very few (if any) words that can be translated one-by-one.
The first place you’d look at is slang, both new and old, especially cuss words. Those don’t tend to translate nicely between languages, since you are left with a literal translation that would make no sense in the native language other than as a translation, or a rough approximation. “Son of a b*tch” is one that causes problems in other languages who take the definition of “bitch” (funny how I * the i in the curse but don’t in the word) as “female dog,” as well as the various English references of sexual relations, which can be translated and understood as offers, literally taken. “Sukin si’n” doesn’t carry the same meaning as a literal translation.
Similarly, curse phrases in other languages make absolutely no sense in English, but this is generally cultural, not linguistic.
So, do you count phrases that are translated to another language and understood as having an English meaning?
What about technical words? Computer and internet words? Most languages just convert the English words (like the lovely Russian kompyuter).
As for your French words without English equiv, they are generally just adopted into English wholesale. I assume you mean words like lassez-faire…
I have, though, heard a pun in English that could be translated one-by-one into Swedish. In A Hard Days Night The Beatles are told “It’s busted with broads outside” and Ringo Starr replies “Are there any broads with busts?” (“Det är byst med brudar utanför” - “Finns det några brudar med byst?”).
never heard that one, and I’m not entirely sure that the word “byst” in the first phrase has that kind of a meaning… I’ve never heard it used in that way before, that’s for sure.
Anyways… the swedish word “Lagom” is pretty odd… all my english/french/german teachers said that there were no equivalent of the word. The meaning of it is more or less “not too much, not too little… just … lagom.” Bah! it’s hard to translate that word… any other swedes out there willing to help me?
It seems to me that there should be some kind of distinction between words that don’t exist one-for-one and words that simply cannot be expressed in another language with any satisfaction.
For an example of non-problematic mismatches, Portuguese (and probably many other languages) uses different words for the inner and outer ear: an earache would be described using a different word than a pain caused by a recent piercing; English gets by with one word, but the concepts are communicated equally nevertheless.
As for phrases without any accurate counterpart in another language, one that has always troubled me is “to take for granted.” It seems that many have to resort to saying something is “not appreciated” rather than get the full flavor of the phrase.
Sorry, but the Sweedish phrase att ta för givet corresponds pretty well. This is one case where the individual words can be translated more or less noe-by-one, retaining the sense.
I know that that can be seen as me acknowledging that there are words (and phrases) that can be translated one-by-one, but in fact I think that the two phrases still are not interchangeable, even though they are very close in meaning.
It’s old Stockholm slang. Not used much nowadays.
I’d say “not too much, not too little” is an accurate translation. The thing with “lagom” is that you cannot translate it into just one word. You have to describe it that way.
And now for something completely different: “uppehållsväder”, which means the dry period betwen two rainfalls.
Those five minutes are in English called ‘summer’.
I once got a sun tan in Scotland. 
Sounds like the Swedish wored “lagom” would often be translated in English as “a little”.
“Going postal” has no equivalent in any language. The expression and the act.
Try explaining “it really hit the fan.”