I don’t agree. A quiz show should have a short, punchy name. This list shows most American game shows throughout history have had a name that is three words or less.
Absolutely right. If you look at post #11 I gave a name fitting that criteria, and far more likely to be the name of an American game show than others posted here. I checked your list because I was wondering if it had already been used.
Agreed, but Half Wits might not actually fit the show. Neither might Word Wars, which was my less literal suggestion, though actually War of the Words is punnier. None of us except the OP have seen the show, after all, making it hard to know what actually works. Well Said is Half Won the punchiest you can get in a literal translation.
The German title isn’t terribly short or catchy either. As long as it doesn’t sound like a foreigner’s English “Well said is half won” is definately the best translation.
If the contestants have to do something like identify (the source of) a witty comment, how about “Name that Quip”?
If they have to come up with witty statements, how about “Make Me Laugh”?
Along the lines of SciFiSam’s comment, knowing how the game is played may help a lot with coming up with a good translation.
I agree that “Half Wits” is a perfect game show name, but it doesn’t sound like it necessarily has anything to do with the show.
See, to me that sounds terribly stilted. While grammatically correct, it sounds like something translated.
I agree, but for American game shows that doesn’t matter much.* Jeopardy *doesn’t tell you much about the game, but it’s been successful. Now for other purposes, I have no idea what would be suitable.
Ah, I mistook your post. When you said “the full sentence” I thought you were referring the complete sentence translation given in the OP (“if you said it well, you are halfway to victory”)
How about Say to Stay? or WordPlay?
Yes … it was a joke. I should have used the Big Cheesy Grin guy to show that I was joking.
And how is that for “It’s all in how you say it”?
As for the other suggestions, not bad but I’m trying to stay somewhat literal. In this case, too much creativity is not an option.
Half the battle is a silver tongue.
Perhaps too poetic to match the original.
So is “well said is half won” stilted or not?
That’s because it is a play on the well known proverb Frisch gewagt ist halb gewonnen (boldly dared is half won), which is said to derive itself from Horace’s dimidium facti qui coepit habet. Absent that allusion it isn’t catchy of course.
“It’s all in how you say it” sounds much more natural, but kinda weak for a game show title. I prefer it to “well said is half won” which just makes me go 
Sort of. It is perfectly structured for an English proverb, but it doesn’t happen to be a proverb. It’s stilted for ordinary speech. Compare the proverb, “Well begun is half done.” The only real difference is that the latter rhymes. Perhaps “Well worded is half won,” to add alliteration… or maybe not.
This is becoming more difficult…
- “Well said is half won” sounds like a proverb but isn’t, but so is the original. It’s more literal but some people don’t understand its meaning
- “It’s all in how you say it” is a bit long, but so is the original
If it’s not necessary to spell out the “halfway there” aspect, perhaps “Say it Right to Win!” would work.
For the name of a game show, “Well Said” would be perfectly adequate. You don’t have to spell out the rules or even the entire premise in the title.