# English words that are difficult to translate. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 31, 2010, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-that-are-difficult-to-translate/558957 "2010-10-31T05:43:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-that-are-difficult-to-translate/558957/121 "2010-11-05T06:46:49Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Is there a parallel in other nations that refers to a legislative district designed to include certain neighbrohoods and exclude others to benefit the incumbent office holder? Perhaps, but in many countries districting is done by an independent commission rather than by politicians, so the concept itself makes no sense. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-that-are-difficult-to-translate/558957/122 "2010-11-05T08:07:46Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > “Corn” is a perfect example. It means both all grains, and the specific grain domesticated in the New World and that is sometimes called “maize.” And it doesn’t stop there. _Korn_ in Swedish means specifically barley and the word itself, as does the word grain, has the original meaning of something like ‘something small and hard’, giving us such pairs as Eng. ‘grain of sand’ = Swe. ‘sandkorn’ and Eng. ‘grain of salt’ = Swe. ‘saltkorn’. ‘Corned’ as in ‘corned beef’ comes from the corns of salt used when preparing it. ---
**Author:** ![J\_Cubed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@J\_Cubed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J_Cubed)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-that-are-difficult-to-translate/558957/123 "2010-11-05T08:24:31Z")
> [@Floater](#): > > And it doesn’t stop there. _Korn_ in Swedish means specifically barley and the word itself, as does the word grain, has the original meaning of something like ‘something small and hard’, giving us such pairs as Eng. ‘grain of sand’ = Swe. ‘sandkorn’ and Eng. ‘grain of salt’ = Swe. ‘saltkorn’. ‘Corned’ as in ‘corned beef’ comes from the corns of salt used when preparing it. OT: Every word in “granite-ground corn grain kernels” has the same etymological root. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-that-are-difficult-to-translate/558957/124 "2010-11-05T09:01:36Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > Another old example was an episode of _Buffy: the Vampire Slayer_. There was something like a three round exchange between Buffy and the bad guy in the captioning that played on screen as a one-liner from Buffy. Based on an itty-bitty study I did for class last year (grad school in translation and subtitling), I’d bet you money that the original script had a Buffy one-liner. From what the data said and my teachers confirmed, the original-language subtitles are usually taken straight from the script (even if dialogue changes), o-l subs for the hard of hearing are reviewed to match the actual sounds and dialogue, second-language subtitles are translated from the o-l subtitles (or worse, from the English-language subtitles which have been translated from the o-l ones, even if this second translator can see that the previous translation and/or the original subtitles are completely mismatched with the actual original dialogue). **kunilou** , I don’t know when that story is from, but I’ve been seeing _barbacoas_ (it’s a _barbacoa_ if it’s the whole “coal burner + grille” assembly, a _parrilla_ if it’s only the grille that you place over a fire) around for at least 30 years. The style of cooking is called _a la parrilla_ if it doesn’t involve sauce and _barbacoa_ if it involves barbecue sauce. It may have been that the problem wasn’t with the word itself being hard to translate, but with the guests being “big city boys” who’ve never killed anything bigger than a mosquito, hoed a row or cooked a rack of ribs over an open fire. > [@Johnny\_Angel](#): > > There is a bit in Asterix Gallus in Latin where Asterix is shown laughing over a line of dialogue that isn’t particularly funny. On the panel, there is a box as for a footnote, but the box is empty. I got a chance to see an English copy, and the text was something like “He wants us to be more loquacious? We’ll loquace loquaciously like no one’s ever loquaced before!” The footnote is present in the English version and says “This is bad grammar”. So, I got a look at the French version. I don’t know a lick of French, but the footnote seemed to say something like “This is not French”. > > So, near as I can tell, the joke translated from French to English, but not from French to Latin because in Latin there are verbal, adjectival and adverbial forms from the same root (_loquī,_ _loquāx_ and _loquāciter)_. Rendered into Latin, it was no longer bad grammar, therefore no longer a joke. Ah, but it is still a joke to anybody who’s familiar with the Smurfs 😃 - and it doesn’t happen to need any kind of footnote. The footnote was a _second_ joke. ---
**Author:** ![BleizDu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@BleizDu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BleizDu)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-that-are-difficult-to-translate/558957/125 "2010-11-05T09:13:37Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Talk show host Jack Paar once had a panel of international entertainers for guests. He decided to play a game of “telephone” (repeating a story until it becomes hopelessly garbled.) Paar told a story to a French-speaking guest, who translated it to a German speaker, who translated it to a Spanish speaker. The word that got consistently mistranslated was “barbecue” – the device you keep outside that uses charcoal or propane to cook food. All of them knew the word in English, but they couldn’t properly translate it. I don’t get it, it’s barbecue too in French, nothing to translate. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-that-are-difficult-to-translate/558957/126 "2010-11-05T11:44:25Z")
> [@BleizDu](#): > > I don’t get it, it’s barbecue too in French, nothing to translate. 😕 It probably depended on the exact order of the guests. Perhaps it was related to the German first, who translated it to the Frenchman as “grill” who then translated it to the Spaniard as “griddle” and was relayed back as “frypan” or something like that. You get this playing Babelfish Bingo too. The word only has to fail to translate correctly once and it then gets increasingly incorrect with every subsequent translation, even if the \*original \*word is identical in all the subsequent languages. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-that-are-difficult-to-translate/558957/127 "2010-11-05T12:56:02Z")
I teach English in Korea. Four words that continually stump my students: \*\*Favorite, glad, become \*\*and **hobby**. I teach at an English village, so I get a new crop of students every week and all of them have had at least some prior English lessons; for some reason, these four words slip through the cracks. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-that-are-difficult-to-translate/558957/128 "2010-11-05T14:10:19Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Ah, but it is still a joke to anybody who’s familiar with the Smurfs 😃 - and it doesn’t happen to need any kind of footnote. The footnote was a _second_ joke. But of course: Noun: smurf smurfis Adjective: smurficus smurfica smurficum Verb: smurfō smurfāre smurfāvī smurfātum Adverb: smurficē, smurfiter [QUOTE=Cerebrus Smurf] Tata Smurf! Alterī smurfēs smurfantēs mē smurfāvērunt quam smurfissimē! Smurfat mē in rēs smurficam, iam diū smurfiper! [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![cckerberos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@cckerberos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cckerberos)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-that-are-difficult-to-translate/558957/129 "2010-11-05T14:50:21Z")
> [@Sleel](#): > > You can’t just say that you’re “busy,” you have to make up some obligation I guess, but the most commonly used obligation is the completely generic 用事があります (“I have something to do”). ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-that-are-difficult-to-translate/558957/130 "2010-11-05T15:55:06Z")
> [@hammos1](#): > > French has no word for ‘nut’. There are words for each type of nut, but no generic term to describe them all. Well, the English word “nut” is too broad, which is why we have to use “tree nut” to exclude peanuts (which are legumes). Even “tree nut” isn’t very good, as “pine nuts” are technically not really nuts _per se_, as they are not from trees of the order Fagales- but they do come from a tree. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-that-are-difficult-to-translate/558957/131 "2010-11-05T19:37:04Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > But I recently had to look up what an “earmark” is to follow a political discussion and, well, I confess I’d have trouble translating any text containing that word - because AFAIK, the US Congress is the only political system in the world that involves earmarks, or any financial attributions handed out from Parliament for that matter. In most other countries, budgeting is wholly in the hands of the executive, not the legislative. So there’s no word or concept to describe a financial provision coming from the legislative. In Norway when funds are distributed to municipalities some of the money is designated for specific purposes. Those funds are said to be “øremerkede” lit. earmarked. And to pick up some other mentions, although taxi is often used for taxis, we also use “drosje” which is a loan from German, but originally Russian meaning light carriage. Take for granted, is “ta for gitt” lit. take as given. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-that-are-difficult-to-translate/558957/132 "2010-11-05T20:58:41Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Based on an itty-bitty study I did for class last year (grad school in translation and subtitling), I’d bet you money that the original script had a Buffy one-liner. > > From what the data said and my teachers confirmed, the original-language subtitles are usually taken straight from the script (even if dialogue changes). I understand and suspect as much, but you’ve got it reversed. The one-liner was what played auditorily on the TV. The captioning displayed the lengthy exchange. I can see how the exchange may have been pared down/altered during filming, and the captioning is done independently/prior to completion of editing. ---
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-that-are-difficult-to-translate/558957/133 "2010-11-06T04:47:55Z")
> [@Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](#): > > I’m not Japanese and never been there, but in their fiction you see variations of “going to the crummy parties because they couldn’t say no” quite a lot. Lots of peer pressure, trying to save face and keep up appearances and stuff. Yep. I’ve literally lost count of the number of parties that I’ve been obligated to attend. _Everyone_ has had this experience. On the other hand, you can sometimes get away with saying that you’ll attend, and then just not show up. Japanese are sometimes not as offended as we would be in those circumstances. > [@cckerberos](#): > > I guess, but the most commonly used obligation is the completely generic 用事があります (“I have something to do”). I’ve never, in nearly ten years living here, had that suffice. Your experiences are different than mine. Doesn’t mean I’m universally right, just that we’ve had a very different time here. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2010, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-that-are-difficult-to-translate/558957/134 "2010-11-07T17:28:53Z")
> [@Johnny\_Angel](#): > > Just another point on the issue of it being not the word but the entire cultural entanglement of the word that is untranslatable: > > “We’re boned!” - Bender… Nous sommes ‘fuqued’! ---
**Author:** ![Poor\_College\_Student](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d78d45/32.png) [@Poor\_College\_Student](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poor_College_Student)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2010, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-that-are-difficult-to-translate/558957/135 "2010-11-07T22:47:45Z")
The other students and I have yet to find a good Arabic word (or even phrase really) to communicate “already”. If you want to say “I have already done that.”, you just say “I did that.” which isn’t quite the same flavor. Plus, when you want to respond with surprise to someone getting something done early, we would say “Already?!” but the best we’ve found in Arabic is “Really?” Fun is a hard one to translate into Arabic as well, add that to the tally. Not to hijack, but the other way around, قد “qud” is untranslatable on its own into English. With a past tense verb it affirms, like “indeed”, but with a present tense verb it means more “may have” or “might”. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-that-are-difficult-to-translate/558957/136 "2010-11-08T07:19:45Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > I understand and suspect as much, but you’ve got it reversed. The one-liner was what played auditorily on the TV. The captioning displayed the lengthy exchange. I can see how the exchange may have been pared down/altered during filming, and the captioning is done independently/prior to completion of editing. Ah, sorry, I’d understood the original post as “several spoken paragraphs were subbed as one line”. In any case, the “‘standard’ subtitles often follow the script instead of the spoken dialogue” stands. They prepare them in advance and the only touch-ups are for the timing, while the DHH subs do get matched to the actual spoken dialogue (and sometimes to music and noise). ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-that-are-difficult-to-translate/558957/137 "2010-11-08T07:47:26Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Well, _cowboy_ was a word that arose simply to replace _vaquero_ (borrowed from Spanish) to indicate that the referent is an anglo man:The first written record of _cowboy_, a couple of decades later:So you could probably translate it as _vaquero gringo_, to get the idea across. I just completed some subtitles for an episode of King of the Hill, and the script included lots and lots of explanations for the words and phrases used. It included this: Okay, next caller is Bill From Texas. Howdy, cowboy! (Howdy: slang for ‘Hello’) (cowboy: an informal term for ‘one who is reckless or careless’) 😕 Bizarre! ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-that-are-difficult-to-translate/558957/138 "2010-11-08T08:29:25Z")
BTW, I found it bizarre because, in context, he was using the word only because Bill’s from Texas. ---
**Author:** ![Yonose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/c67d28/32.png) [@Yonose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yonose)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-that-are-difficult-to-translate/558957/139 "2010-11-08T08:38:36Z")
I don’t think there’s a word in Spanish for “ever” We use _nunca_ for “never” and _siempre_ for “always” but I personally have problems translating ever. ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-that-are-difficult-to-translate/558957/140 "2010-11-08T09:16:30Z")
> [@Waffle\_Decider](#): > > You repeat the main verb. It goes something like this: > > Q: 你吃了飯沒有？(Have you eaten yet?) > A: 吃過了． (Have eaten.) or > A: 還沒有吃. (Have not eaten) > > I believe Latin is similar as well. To continue on this… You could ask ni yao bu yao (you want or not?) which one could reply either “yao” (yes I want) or “bu yao” no I don’t want. or of course… ni dong bu dong - do you understand? (or more literally, do you understand or not?) to which I invariably always replied “bu dong” because my Chinese was totally atrocious [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-that-are-difficult-to-translate/558957.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-that-are-difficult-to-translate/558957.md?page=8)