Words that doesn't exist in other languages.. — Forum Archive

13 Sep 2005, 09:28

It's always funny for a non-english native to understand the concept of havings words in english that has simply no meaning in your own language.

Not necessairly synonyms, but still...

Here is two examples between french and english.

English: Customer, Client French: Client

There is a difference in english, but in french, it's the same exact word.

English: River French: Rivière, Fleuve

Difference between a Rivière and Fleuve? A Fleuve is a river that goes into the sea, while a rivière doesn't (so technically, a river goes into a lake or in a fleuve)

The St. Lawrence River is the Fleuve St-Laurent in french.

Ambigous? Nevertheless, it's always funny when you're trying to translate something that has no meaning in the other language, is it?

My 2 cents of worthless thread for today.

13 Sep 2005, 09:42

does beauve fleau mean Beautiful river? I've been told that's the origin of the name of Buffalo, NY.

Your post pretty much cleared that up.

13 Sep 2005, 10:00

An interesting thread, Nic.

Well technically you still can translate these words with other words of the same meaning but of a different context.

What about words that just don't have a one-word meaning in other languages. For example, In German there are words, especially adjectives, that don't have straight equivalents in English.

13 Sep 2005, 10:07

None of Spike's words exist in any language!

13 Sep 2005, 10:28

The swedish word "lagom" can't be translated to another language.

13 Sep 2005, 10:40

Rian wrote: The swedish word "lagom" can't be translated to another language.

What's that? Try to explain.

13 Sep 2005, 10:48

|| | ||| 6217|| 8 || 3 wrote:

Rian wrote: The swedish word "lagom" can't be translated to another language.

What's that? Try to explain.

As I wrote, it can't be translated.

But: enough, sufficient, adequate, just right

But that is not close enough for a translation.

13 Sep 2005, 10:56

What about the german "Kindergarten"? The english language adopted it (though you can translate it to "children's garden").

13 Sep 2005, 10:57

NObabe wrote: None of Spike's words exist in any language!

Derp. :evil4:

13 Sep 2005, 10:57

English - Them

Spanish - Ellos, Ellas

There are no gender modifiers for plural pronouns in English.

13 Sep 2005, 10:58

|| | ||| 6217|| 8 || 3 wrote: For example, In German there are words, especially adjectives, that don't have straight equivalents in English.

Err... Yes? Ummm? :confused2:

13 Sep 2005, 11:09

Spotnick wrote:

English: River French: Rivière, Fleuve

Difference between a Rivière and Fleuve? A Fleuve is a river that goes into the sea, while a rivière doesn't (so technically, a river goes into a lake or in a fleuve)

Funny, although we do have the word 'fluvial' (adjective relating to a river or stream) which derives from the French, you'd think.

:\pimp3:

13 Sep 2005, 11:32

Rian wrote:

|| | ||| 6217|| 8 || 3 wrote:

Rian wrote: The swedish word "lagom" can't be translated to another language.

What's that? Try to explain.

As I wrote, it can't be translated.

But: enough, sufficient, adequate, just right

But that is not close enough for a translation.

Isn't it OKAY in English (in a way)? :laugh:

13 Sep 2005, 11:33

Bere wrote: What about the german "Kindergarten"? The english language adopted it (though you can translate it to "children's garden").

In Russian there's a literate meaning of the word, i.e. children's garden.

13 Sep 2005, 11:36

Just a little quiz whilst your pondering the subject matter...

What word is spelled the same and has the same meaning in the most languages?

13 Sep 2005, 14:57

Old Blue wrote: Just a little quiz whilst your pondering the subject matter...

What word is spelled the same and has the same meaning in the most languages?

mama.

13 Sep 2005, 15:14

AgentWood wrote:

Old Blue wrote: Just a little quiz whilst your pondering the subject matter...

What word is spelled the same and has the same meaning in the most languages?

mama.

well, not exactly. in Spanish "mama" means "breast". you have to accent the last syllable to mean "mother" and it´s "mamá"

i think international words tend to be local stuff that don´t have translation because there´re unique like "llama" or "poncho" or "kirsch" or "samba"

13 Sep 2005, 15:22

Old Blue wrote: Just a little quiz whilst your pondering the subject matter...

What word is spelled the same and has the same meaning in the most languages?

Zero.

13 Sep 2005, 16:17

There's an expresion exported from a Polinesian language: to run amok. It's such a thing that even English was not able to convert it with a straight meaning - and if you happen not to know what amok is - you just don't have a clue. And there's no translation for it in other languages either.

13 Sep 2005, 16:26

almansoglasnost wrote:

AgentWood wrote:

Old Blue wrote: Just a little quiz whilst your pondering the subject matter...

What word is spelled the same and has the same meaning in the most languages?

mama.

well, not exactly. in Spanish "mama" means "breast". you have to accent the last syllable to mean "mother" and it´s "mamá"

In Indo-European languages, the word mama-- however it's prononced in that language-- is derived from the old Indo-European word for breast.

13 Sep 2005, 18:15

almansoglasnost wrote:

AgentWood wrote:

Old Blue wrote: Just a little quiz whilst your pondering the subject matter...

What word is spelled the same and has the same meaning in the most languages?

mama.

well, not exactly. in Spanish "mama" means "breast". you have to accent the last syllable to mean "mother" and it´s "mamá"

but mama (regardless of where the accent is) is the most widely understood word in the world, used by the most languages. it's the only word shared by both english and mandarin chinese, for example.

14 Sep 2005, 00:07

Mama - wrong!

Zero - wrong!

You both got the correct number of letters, though...

14 Sep 2005, 01:49

Bere wrote: What about the german "Kindergarten"? The english language adopted it (though you can translate it to "children's garden").

"Jardin d'enfants" exists in French too.

14 Sep 2005, 03:32

Ben wrote:

Bere wrote: What about the german "Kindergarten"? The english language adopted it (though you can translate it to "children's garden").

"Jardin d'enfants" exists in French too.

But what was first?

14 Sep 2005, 03:37

Old Blue wrote: Mama - wrong!

Zero - wrong!

You both got the correct number of letters, though...

I though about a (the!) 3 letter word... :evil4:

14 Sep 2005, 05:12

AgentWood wrote:

Old Blue wrote: Just a little quiz whilst your pondering the subject matter...

What word is spelled the same and has the same meaning in the most languages?

mama.

mamma, in swedish ( 2 m's). close enough.

well, actually there are 4 m's in mamma. :crazy:

14 Sep 2005, 05:42

Spotnick wrote: English: River French: Rivière, Fleuve

Difference between a Rivière and Fleuve? A Fleuve is a river that goes into the sea, while a rivière doesn't (so technically, a river goes into a lake or in a fleuve)

Speaking about water bodies, we have a word down here that I don't know tranlates directly into anything else.

Billabong

Some native Australian for you.

:\pimp3:

14 Sep 2005, 06:59

Old Blue wrote: Just a little quiz whilst your pondering the subject matter...

What word is spelled the same and has the same meaning in the most languages?

do you mean spelled in the latin alphabet? this would narrow it down to several language families, making it easier.

14 Sep 2005, 08:29

Ben wrote:

Bere wrote: What about the german "Kindergarten"? The english language adopted it (though you can translate it to "children's garden").

"Jardin d'enfants" exists in French too.

Although in Québec we use the term "Maternelle" instead... but Jardin d'enfants is also used on some occasions.

14 Sep 2005, 08:31

AgentWood wrote:

Old Blue wrote: Just a little quiz whilst your pondering the subject matter...

What word is spelled the same and has the same meaning in the most languages?

do you mean spelled in the latin alphabet? this would narrow it down to several language families, making it easier.

I'm pretty sure Bere got it right...

Sex... although it's Sexe in french ;)

Obviously one of the biggest issues with learning french for english native is the gender of THINGS... they just don't get it (neither do I, but we have to deal with it hehe)

A chair is a SHE, a desk is a HE... don't ask me why!