Does Not Translate • Hacker News Board

Re: Does Not Translate

#41

Post by 323 » Fri, Jan 14, 2022, 10:34 PM UTC

dr_pardee wrote: post #21

As of writing this, 53 Interesting Words in English That Don't Translate... "pearl-clutching" English speaker and I never heard this. If pearl-clutching counts, there's a million more words on Urban Dictionary I'm sure

I've seen it used quite often by journalists. That would imply that it's relatively well known, since journalists are discouraged from using obscure words/phrases in titles.

> Brianna Keilar Hits Pearl-Clutching Republicans With A Very Long List Of Trump's Insults

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/brianna-keilar-gop-hypocrisy-...

> It’s pearl-clutching Democrats who got massacred by Trump impeachment trial: Goodwin

https://nypost.com/2020/02/08/its-pearl-clutching-democrats-...

Re: Does Not Translate

#42

Post by Hamuko » Fri, Jan 14, 2022, 10:36 PM UTC

323 wrote: post #31

Some non-English languages are importing English words/phrases when the English one represents an idea that it's a bit more complicated to express in the non-English language. I'm not talking about technical terms. Random example: "work/life balance"

I think I've heard (and most likely used) "by the way" in otherwise completely non-English sentences.

Re: Does Not Translate

#43

Post by bee_rider » Fri, Jan 14, 2022, 10:38 PM UTC

hk__2 wrote: post #27

I’m always wary of these lists, because if you search for the languages you know you always see that most of them are actually translatable and/or rare expressions that nobody uses.

Also for any expression/phrase/word there will be a set of languages into which it will easily translate, and a set of languages into which it will not.

Re: Does Not Translate

#44

Post by dekhn » Fri, Jan 14, 2022, 10:39 PM UTC

You may also enjoy, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_as_She_Is_Spoke in which it translates, but not particularly well.

Re: Does Not Translate

#45

Post by School-Cotton » Fri, Jan 14, 2022, 10:40 PM UTC

hk__2 wrote: post #27

I’m always wary of these lists, because if you search for the languages you know you always see that most of them are actually translatable and/or rare expressions that nobody uses.

Also, a lot of the French ones, like “joie de vivre”, have been borrowed into English verbatim. “Joie de vivre” is indeed translatable into English, and the translation is just “joie de vivre”.

To claim otherwise would be like saying that the concept of chile pepper can only be expressed in Nahuatl.

Re: Does Not Translate

#46

Post by xhevahir » Fri, Jan 14, 2022, 10:40 PM UTC

ILMostro7 wrote: post #14

tedunangst wrote: post #8

TIL there's no English word for "to speak among Esperantists in a language besides Esperanto", although I'm not sure one is needed either.

What if you do: s/Esperantists/English-speakers/ and "non-English" AFAIK, the English language is very verbose. If there are so many words, many of which have very similar meaning to others, then many of those words are not needed? Should be removed, even, until everyone forgets them and doesn't miss them at all?

Should be removed by what or by whom? English doesn't have an equivalent of the Icelandic Language Institute or French Academy, and even if it did, there's no reason to believe that institution could control the development of a language that's used all over the world by so many people.

Re: Does Not Translate

#47

Post by jp_sc » Fri, Jan 14, 2022, 10:40 PM UTC

wbsss4412 wrote: post #7

NylaTheWolf wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they meant it doesn't have an exact one word equivalent.

Or they are simply giving the closest possible translation. They list “te quiero” as meaning “I love you but not quite. Which is a mistranslation. It literally translates as “I love you”. But at the same time you have “te amo”, which also translates to “I love you” yet they are two different phrases with different meanings.

The best translation for “te quiero” is “I care about you”

Re: Does Not Translate

#48

Post by School-Cotton » Fri, Jan 14, 2022, 10:48 PM UTC

jp_sc wrote: post #47

wbsss4412 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or they are simply giving the closest possible translation. They list “te quiero” as meaning “I love you but not quite. Which is a mistranslation. It literally translates as “I love you”. But at the same time you have “te amo”, which also translates to “I love you” yet they are two different phrases with different meanings.

The best translation for “te quiero” is “I care about you”

The correct translation depends on the context, but I think the English expression with the most overlap is “I love you”, with the understanding that the overlap is imperfect because the English phrase can, in some but not all contexts, imply a stronger emotion than the Spanish one.

“Te quiero” is an extremely common stock phrase in Spanish, whereas nobody really says “I care about you” in English, so I think that choice of “the best translation” is unsatisfying.

Re: Does Not Translate

#49

Post by onemoresoop » Fri, Jan 14, 2022, 10:49 PM UTC

itdoestranslate wrote: post #2

Interesting, but the premise is nonsense. Obviously these phrases and words do translate. They are translated on the page, into English.

Well, everything can be explained in one way or another but the idea is that there's no direct translation to get the full meaning. My favorite is the German word schadenfreude which clearly has no direct translation into English. It means something like pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune. Notice how many words it takes to explain it...

Re: Does Not Translate

#50

Post by School-Cotton » Fri, Jan 14, 2022, 10:52 PM UTC

jng wrote: post #24

lupire wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"te quiero" = "i adore you"

Not really. "I adore you" is literally "te adoro". "Querer" in Spanish just means "to love", it's a synonym to "amar", also "to love". "Querer" is more common language and applied non-romantically all the time, and "amar" is more poetic and veers more towards romantic love, but they both mean the same. BTW, "querer" means "to want", but when it is used to convey love (easy to tell by context), it doesn't ring of obje…

Indeed.

When I first started dating someone who is natively bilingual in English and (Northern Mexican) Spanish, she didn’t yet feel strongly enough about me to say “I love you” in English, so she always told me “te quiero”, as there was no English phrase other than “I love you” that fit in that niche.