# In honor of Star Wars Day: Foreign language equivalents of "May the force be with you." **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 4, 2015, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-honor-of-star-wars-day-foreign-language-equivalents-of-may-the-force-be-with-you/719238 "2015-05-04T13:27:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JoseB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/joseb/32/1530_2.png) [@JoseB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoseB)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-honor-of-star-wars-day-foreign-language-equivalents-of-may-the-force-be-with-you/719238/21 "2015-05-05T12:14:20Z")
> [@Frodo](#): > > In Latin American spanish is “Que la fuerza te acompañe”. I don’t know how they mangled it in Spain spanish, I’m 90% sure they mangled it though, their translation of “Wolverine” as “Lobezno” (Wolf Cub) is all the precedent I need. The translation used in the Spain Spanish movies is the same – “que la Fuerza te acompañe”. Source: I am Spanish and watched the movie when it went out in the theaters in 1977 (I was a wee kid but I remember the whole thing as if it had happened yesterday. That movie was the MOST AWESOME thing I had EVER seen! But I digress…) Regarding the “Wolverine” thing, the problem is that, once they decided that they wanted to translate the name of the character into Spanish, they met with a rather bad situation: the Spanish name for the wolverine (the animal) is “glotón”… That most emphatically does NOT work as a superhero code name 😛 So they probably went for something that would sound suitably cool in Spanish and might conceivably have some tangential connection with the original. Hence “Lobezno”, “wolf cub”. Of course, it might have been better to leave the names as in the original – but a decision was made to translate them, and them were the breaks… (For our English-speaking friends: “glotón” means wolverine, but the far more common meaning of the word is “glutton”. Apparently the animal was given that name for its voracious appetite - after all its Latin name is _Gulo Gulo_, the “Gulo” meaning “Glutton” in Latin). Edited to add: an alternative name for the wolverine in Spanish is “carcayú”, but… Honestly, as a code name it just sounds silly 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-honor-of-star-wars-day-foreign-language-equivalents-of-may-the-force-be-with-you/719238/22 "2015-05-05T12:35:41Z")
> [@JoseB](#): > > The translation used in the Spain Spanish movies is the same – “que la Fuerza te acompañe”. Source: I am Spanish and watched the movie when it went out in the theaters in 1977 (I was a wee kid but I remember the whole thing as if it had happened yesterday. That movie was the MOST AWESOME thing I had EVER seen! But I digress…) > > Regarding the “Wolverine” thing, the problem is that, once they decided that they wanted to translate the name of the character into Spanish, they met with a rather bad situation: the Spanish name for the wolverine (the animal) is “glotón”… That most emphatically does NOT work as a superhero code name 😛 > > So they probably went for something that would sound suitably cool in Spanish and might conceivably have some tangential connection with the original. Hence “Lobezno”, “wolf cub”. > > Of course, it might have been better to leave the names as in the original – but a decision was made to translate them, and them were the breaks… > > (For our English-speaking friends: “glotón” means wolverine, but the far more common meaning of the word is “glutton”. Apparently the animal was given that name for its voracious appetite - after all its Latin name is _Gulo Gulo_, the “Gulo” meaning “Glutton” in Latin). > > Edited to add: an alternative name for the wolverine in Spanish is “carcayú”, but… Honestly, as a code name it just sounds silly 😛 That’s why I said 90% and not 100% 🙂 I know all the excuses for the “Lobezno” atrocity, but they are just that, excuses, it’s a stain that can never be washed ;). ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-honor-of-star-wars-day-foreign-language-equivalents-of-may-the-force-be-with-you/719238/23 "2015-05-05T14:27:57Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > How does that translate into English? It is “May the force be with you” but it uses old church Russian that is not in common use. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-honor-of-star-wars-day-foreign-language-equivalents-of-may-the-force-be-with-you/719238/24 "2015-05-05T17:00:17Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > How does that translate into English? Assuming you mean “transliterate,” it’s Пусть сила будет с тобой Pust’ sila budet s toboj Or, for a general sense, Poost seelah bood-yet stoboy. Welsh would be: Boed gennyt y grym! (That’s to a single person in a reasonably formal register.) ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-honor-of-star-wars-day-foreign-language-equivalents-of-may-the-force-be-with-you/719238/25 "2015-05-05T17:14:09Z")
> [@rowrrbazzle](#): > > In Latin: Sit vis vobiscum. Wouldn’t that be tecum ? IIRC “Vobis” is plural you. Youse. Y’all. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-honor-of-star-wars-day-foreign-language-equivalents-of-may-the-force-be-with-you/719238/26 "2015-05-05T17:22:03Z")
[QUOTE=JoseB] (For our English-speaking friends: “glotón” means wolverine, but the far more common meaning of the word is “glutton”. Apparently the animal was given that name for its voracious appetite - after all its Latin name is _Gulo Gulo_, the “Gulo” meaning “Glutton” in Latin). Edited to add: an alternative name for the wolverine in Spanish is “carcayú”, but… Honestly, as a code name it just sounds silly 😛 [/QUOTE] A propos of nothing, we French faced the exact same problem : the French word for wolverine is also “glouton” (or “carcajou”, but I think that’s Quebec French ?). Which is silly. So in France, Wolverine is called… Wolverine. Because sometimes, you just can’t be arsed :p. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-honor-of-star-wars-day-foreign-language-equivalents-of-may-the-force-be-with-you/719238/27 "2015-05-05T19:27:53Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > Russian: Пусть сила будет с тобой. - although I think the “official” one is: “Да пребудет с тобой сила.”. Which is a bit weird but I guess it fits with the ambiance. I’m not a native speaker, but I do know Russian very well. While grammatically correct, the first one sounds rather sterile to me, like you’re putting it up in your apartment or something. The second is much more intimate, as though it both permeates and surrounds you (like God). It thus has an old-timey, semi-religious feeling about it. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2015, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-honor-of-star-wars-day-foreign-language-equivalents-of-may-the-force-be-with-you/719238/28 "2015-05-05T19:35:50Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I’m not a native speaker, but I do know Russian very well. While grammatically correct, the first one sounds rather sterile to me, like you’re putting it up in your apartment or something. The second is much more intimate, as though it both permeates and surrounds you (like God). It thus has an old-timey, semi-religious feeling about it. True, but it is not Russian, it is Old Slavonic. If you do a “пребудет” google search, you will find that almost every return has something to do with the “may the force be with you” thing. The word is just not used in modern Russian. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2015, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-honor-of-star-wars-day-foreign-language-equivalents-of-may-the-force-be-with-you/719238/29 "2015-05-06T01:21:10Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > Assuming you mean “transliterate,” No, I meant translate. Terr said the ‘official’ translation was ‘odd’ and I was wondering why. (I was able to (slowly) transliterate it…I can’t actually read Russian (or any other language written in it), but I’ve gotten pretty good at _pronouncing_ written Cyrillic.) The later discussion of it has cleared that up, though. ---
**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:** [May 6, 2015, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-honor-of-star-wars-day-foreign-language-equivalents-of-may-the-force-be-with-you/719238/30 "2015-05-06T02:09:30Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Wouldn’t that be tecum ? IIRC “Vobis” is plural you. Youse. Y’all. Yes, so you’d need to change it depending on your audience. If I recall, it is always said to a particular person in the movies. ---
**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:** [May 6, 2015, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-honor-of-star-wars-day-foreign-language-equivalents-of-may-the-force-be-with-you/719238/31 "2015-05-06T09:14:33Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Anyone want to take a stab at Klingon? > Or would that open a paradox? My understanding is, Klingon has no equivalent of “be.” They made one up for The Undiscovered Country" but the language was written by E-Prime admirers. Probably has no “may” either. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-honor-of-star-wars-day-foreign-language-equivalents-of-may-the-force-be-with-you/719238.md?page=1)