Questions tagged [translation]
Determining English equivalents for words or phrases in other languages (that is, translation into English). We don't actually do translations: we can try and help you with your own translation. Please see the detailed tag info for guidance on what to ask.
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Do most languages need more space than English?
I saw the following statement on User Experience:
Supporting multiple languages can break the user interface, because most languages need more space than english
This seems to be a gross ...
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votes
17
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Is there any English/American equivalent for the Hungarian phrase "beating the nettle with someone else's penis"?
I am trying to translate this comically vulgar Hungarian phrase, often (but not exclusively) used in a political context:
Beating the nettle with someone else's penis
It describes making someone ...
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13
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Is there English counterpart(s) to Japanese old saying, “Present salt to your enemy.”?
We have a popular Japanese saying, “敵に塩を送る” — literally, “present (supply) salt to one's enemy”, meaning ‘play fair and square, not taking advantage of the weak point of your rival.’ It’s different ...
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Why Third 'Reich'? Why is 'reich' not translated when 'third' is? What is the English synonym of reich?
Why is Nazi-Germany commonly referred to as "The Third Reich" in English? Why is reich not translated when Dritten ("third") is?
And what is the English synonym of reich? Realm?
Austria (Republik ...
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votes
21
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English equivalent of the Persian proverb "When there's fire, wet and dry burn together"
There's a well-known proverb in Persian, which, translated literally, goes like this:
Where there's fire, wet and dry burn together.
The original being ".وقتی آتش موجود باشد) تر و خشک با هم می ...
- 1,017
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votes
10
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Captain America said "if you get killed, walk it off!" How to understand "walk it off"?
The Avengers 2 just hit China yesterday. The official translation of the line "If you get killed, walk it off!" is "Someone is trying to kill you, run, run for your life" (This is the English version ...
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11
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You "show" someone a picture. You "---" someone a song?
In Maltese, we have a verb meaning "to show" corresponding to "to see/to look", and we have a different verb corresponding to "to hear/to listen":
inti tara stampa (you ...
- 1,058
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votes
10
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"To shoot out of cannon into sparrows"
In Russian we have idiom/saying "To shoot out of cannon into sparrows" (literal translation) which is used to convey an idea of applying too drastic measures to small problems. I believe there should ...
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13
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What is the most common English term for a person who attempts a coup d'état?
In Latin America, we have the Portuguese/Spanish word golpista (from the word golpe = coup d'état). In the British media, I've read coup monger and also putschist (from German word putsch = coup d'...
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Is there a similar English phrase for this Tamil proverb - "Lavish outside home yet starving inside of it"?
In Tamil, a south Indian language, there is a saying which roughly translates into English as:
Lavish outside home, starving inside of it.
Background :
This proverb has a mocking tone and indicates ...
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45
votes
14
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22k
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Is there a common saying in English that means "It's just business, I don't feel any shame"
In Gujarati language there is a saying which literally means "no shame in business".
It is used in a context where one has to do something unpleasant (or immoral) for the sake of their business (...
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votes
15
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Are there English equivalents for “as beautiful as butt inside out”?
There is an old saying in Ukrainian folklore, which literally sounds like “[someone is] as beautiful as ass inside out” (“Гарна як срака навиворіт”). It is used when one wants to point a person's ...
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15
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A word for a joke so poorly told and so unfunny that one cannot help but laugh
There is a word for this in Indonesian language: jayus.
(Maybe, it is used in Filipino and Malaysian language also.)
It is a joke that is so bad, it's funny. It is often mentioned as untranslatable....
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13
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Is there an English equivalent for "Les carottes sont cuites", while keeping the vegetable reference?
In French, we have this saying "Les carottes sont cuites", meaning "It's too late we can't do anything anymore" or "It's over for him" (He's dead) depending on the context.
The literal translation ...
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What is the equivalent in English of the French "pipotron", which refers to meaningless filler content that looks like it was written by a bot?
I cannot find a good translation in English of the French word "pipotron". Could you help me?
In French, it refers originally to an automated process to randomly generate sentences. Now it ...
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29
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Derogatory term for a corporate employee
I’m looking for a derogatory term for a person who works in a big, international business.
In Polish we have a few informal words for that, like korpoludek (“corpo little guy”) and korpoczłowiek (“...
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22
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Is there an English equivalent for the Persian proverb "to play with the tail of a lion"?
The Persian proverb to play with the tail of a lion is used informally to say that a certain situation is very dangerous. By saying it, we alert the listener that the act which they are about to do is ...
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12
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How can the Chinglish expression "you can you up" be translated?
The Chinese phrase 你行你上 (literally "you good you up", usually expressed in Chinglish as "you can you up") is used against people who criticize the incompetence of others, yet are not competent ...
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14
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Is there a verb for remaining silent?
Dutch has the verb zwijgen, which means remaining silent. Ik zwijg means I remain silent or I say nothing. It is also often used as an imperative, similar to shut up.
I have been discussing this ...
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12
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English equivalent of the Portuguese phrase: "this person's mood changes according to the moon"
In Portuguese there is an expression that says:
"Essa pessoa é de lua."
Literally "this person's mood changes according to the moon", which means that nobody can predict that person's mood.
Is ...
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10
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What is an English equivalent of the Chinese noun 心眼?
Looking for an English equivalent of the Chinese noun 心眼 if there is any, or the best way to describe it.
If someones has 心眼, then you can say they are sly.
But, what do they have if they are sly?
...
29
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5
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You have no, but can try for yes
In Dutch there is the expression "Nee heb je, ja kan je krijgen." This roughly means that being told "no" after asking for something is only as bad as never asking in the first place.
Is there a more ...
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5
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English equivalent of the Farsi expression "if it is decided to get the drunks, they will have to get everyone who is in the city"
I'm looking for an English equivalent of this beautiful, succinct Farsi saying, گر حکم شود که مست گیرند, which roughly means:
If it is decided to get the drunks, they will have to get everyone who is ...
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9
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"Saving on the parrot's chocolate is futile"
In Catalan there is an expression "ser la xocolata del lloro" that can be translated as "saving by not giving chocolate to the parrot is futile", conveying the meaning that when a household wants to ...
- 4,449
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7
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English equivalent of the Malayalam saying "don't stab/poke the dead body"?
ശവത്തിൽ കുത്തരുത് (śavattil kuttarut)
is a Malayalam saying that in literal translation means "Don't stab/poke the dead body". The meaning would be something like: don't humiliate a person when he is ...
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18
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Term describing the practice of anticipating dangers while driving
When one is driving a car (or any other vehicle for that matter) there is a German term that describes the practice trying to predict situations that might occur. When attempting to translate it I can ...
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7
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Is 'I f*cked the dog' an actual idiom and are there alternatives
I am a non-native speaker from Germany. In German there's one idiom that goes:
Sich die Eier schaukeln
Literally translated, this means "to rock the eggs", where "the eggs" are testicles. This is ...
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26
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7
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Does 'moonlighting' mean 'illegal work'?
I was looking for the translation of the German word 'Schwarzarbeit' (black work) that means working illegally, without written contract, in order to avoid labour laws and taxation.
The Google ...
- 1,442
26
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10
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Idiom for "the first attempt (of something) is never right"
In Russian there's a saying that 'the first crepe always comes out wrong' (literally 'stuck together into a ball'), meaning that you'll have to try more than once to succeed at something - because ...
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2
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Are there terms for the Dutch 'meewind' and 'tegenwind'?
In the Netherlands we have a term for when for example you're biking on the streets and you have the wind in the back. We call that wind meewind, and we say we have meewind (translated as wind with).
...
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10
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English equivalent of komorebi (木漏れ日) — "sunshine filtering through leaves"
Is there an English equivalent of komorebi (木漏れ日), which means the sunshine filtering through the leaves of a tree (or trees)?
It is made up of three kanji and the hiragana particle れ. The first ...
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13
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Translation of a German word: "Gutmensch"
The word "Gutmensch" consists of
gut = good
Mensch = human
Sounds like a compliment but actually the word is very insulting.
It describes someone who (for example)
is not able to take criticism, ...
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4
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What do you call it when your unit does physical exercise as punishment because one soldier did something wrong?
I served in the Russian military and we weren't allowed to use our phones when we were on duty. So whenever someone was noticed using their phone, the whole unit had to do push-ups, squats, etc.
In ...
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Closest equivalent to the Chinese jocular use of 职业病 (occupational disease): job creates habits that manifest inappropriately outside work
The Chinese expression 职业病 (zhi ye bing, occupational disease), when used seriously, just means occupational disease, e.g. lung problems caused by working in a chemical factory.
But there is also a ...
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How can I translate the words for the two types of bathrooms found in Russia into English?
I work in real estate, and sometimes I have to translate respective inscriptions from my native Russian into English. I get stuck in some cases where not only linguistic, but cultural differences have ...
user14972
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What's the English idiom/phrase for insisting on/talking about/bringing up the same subject (equivalent of "drilling one's head")?
In Arabic (Specifically, north-western Levantine), there's a saying that goes like
He drilled my head about/with that lunch meeting (بخشلي راسي باجتماع الغدا)
Which means something along the lines ...
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10
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Would there be a way to make the joke "Ella es mi amiga vieja, disculpe, mi vieja amiga" work in English?
There is a Spanish joke,
Ella es mi amiga vieja, disculpe, mi vieja amiga.
The joke basically says, "She is my friend that is old, excuse me, my old friend", making fun of the person's age....
user485424
22
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9
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Equivalent of the Dutch phrase "take it down a notch"
In Dutch, we have a saying 'Een toontje lager zingen' which basically means that the person should sing a bit lower, a.k.a "take it down a notch" or "put someone in his place".
Sing a bit lower is an ...
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Are there sentences in languages which use grammatical gender that lose meaning when translated into English?
English nouns which don't denote people or animals with natural gender do not (apart from a few rare examples) use grammatical gender. So for example, "table" is always an "it" in English, whereas it ...
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What do we call a price that is chosen by a customer?
I'm a native French speaker.
In recent years, there has been a new concept of price in French that is "prix libre". A literal translation of "prix libre" is "free price".
...
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22
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4
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Word for "distance in time"
I need the correct English word for the German expression (zeitlicher) Abstand. Abstand means "distance", and zeitlich means "in time".
The "distance" between building maintenance dates is about ...
- 1,189
22
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2
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When did we stop translating proper names?
It used to be that one would just translate a proper name that was in another language into English when referring to that entity. For example, William the Conqueror, Christopher Columbus, King ...
- 136k
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11
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A term for a woman complaining about things/begging in a cute/childish way
I'm trying to find a fitting translation for a Chinese term, which means that a woman is trying to be cute in front of her man in order to get what she wants. While she does this, her voice will ...
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10
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Describe that someone’s explanation matches your knowledge level
In German, in the context of knowledge transfer from one person to another (or to a group) you can say
Du hast mich gut abgeholt. (literally translated You picked me up well)
This sentence means ...
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8
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How can I say I can't guarantee information I'm about to give is correct?
In German, there's an idiom that goes like "Nagel mich nicht darauf fest" (literally, "don't nail me down on that!") usually followed my some kind of information that is given without complete ...
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13
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Is there a word for "antro" in English?
I'm looking for a word equivalent to the Spanish word antro. Its definitions are "building frequented by delinquents and people of bad reputation" and
"dirty dwelling of bad appearance".
Maybe the ...
- 309
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5
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Why are the same words translated differently into English depending on their meaning?
I've seen it several times before, but only have one example at hand right now. This Forbes article mentions Russia as country's name, but Rossiya as the bank's name, despite that these words are ...
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Do the English have an ancient (obsolete) verb for the action of the book opening? [closed]
Do the English have an ancient (obsolete) verb for the action of the book opening?
For example, in Russian we say otkrit' (open the book), but in the Old slavonic the verb razognuti (to unbend the ...
user350381
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8
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What’s the English for “democrature”, a dictatorship pretending to be a democracy through fraudulent elections?
The French term democrature (from
democratie + dictature) is defined as:
Dictature déguisée en démocratie par l’organisation d’élections non libres, contrôlées et/ou frauduleuses. Par extension, tout ...
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21
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Idiom for doing something intentionally despite knowing the outcome might be bad
Is there any idiom for doing something intentionally despite knowing the outcome might be bad, or an expression for a person who does such a thing?
For example, I know that if I ask someone a ...
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