The language gap

[XToDaZ]

Just for fun I wanted to see if foreigners have weird sayings or words that would make absolutely no sense if you'd translate them literally. Might be quite funny.
For instance :

In Dutch :
Airplane = Vliegtuig ... literally vliegtuig is "fly craft"
Santa Claus = de Kerstman ... and literally that would be "the Christ man"
Desktop = Bureaublad ... literally "Deskpaper"
Bulb = Gloeilamp ... literally "Glowlamp"
To turn off = Afzetten ... literally "To set off"
To throw up = Overgeven ... literring "To give over"

Anyone else ?

[sueKay]

Don't know any, but these are highly amusing!

[galaxy]

Just for fun I wanted to see if foreigners have weird sayings or words that would make absolutely no sense if you'd translate them literally. Might be quite funny.
For instance :

In Dutch :
Airplane = Vliegtuig ... literally vliegtuig is "fly craft"
Santa Claus = de Kerstman ... and literally that would be "the Christ man"
Desktop = Bureaublad ... literally "Deskpaper"
Bulb = Gloeilamp ... literally "Glowlamp"
To turn off = Afzetten ... literally "To set off"
To throw up = Overgeven ... literring "To give over"

Anyone else ?

same in german (yeah I know both are Germanic languages..):


Airplane = Flugzeug......literally: "fly thing"
Santa Clause = Weihnachtsmann.......literally: "christmas man"
Desktop....well it's still Desktop....
Bulb = Glühbirne.......literally: "glow pear"
to throw up = (sich) übergeben......literally: "to give (yourself) over"


But I wouldn't say they doesn't make any sense.
An airplane is a "thing that flies"....
and a bulb looks like a "pear that glows"...right?
*LOL*

And when you look at some of the english words, it's the same:
(Airplane, to throw up, etc.)


But it's funny, when you think about it!

Has anyone also examples for a Slavonic, Romance, Baltic, etc. language?

[Kendra]

well I'm french and I have to admit that I don't understand why these words are funny ! Can somebody tell me ?!!!

[Jarnin]

There's a game I like to play; it involves google's translation ability, and it's alot of fun.

Basically, you take a random paragragh, and type it into google's translator into a foreign language, then another, then back into english.

For example, the post above mine...

well I'm french and I have to admit that I don't understand why these words are funny ! Can somebody tell me ?!!!

Translated into French by google...

puits je suis français et je dois admettre que je ne comprends pas pourquoi ces mots sont drôles! Le bidon quelqu'un m'indiquent?!!!

Translated into German by google...

Grube bin ich französisch, und ich muß annehmen, daß ich nicht begreife, weswegen diese Wörter sonderbar sind! Die emandkanne geben mir an?!!!

Translated back into English by google...

Pit am French I, and I must accept that I do not understand, why these words am strange! The emandkanne indicates to me?!!!

Fun fun fun!

[trinity1013]

As a linguistics student, I think the meaning of most of the words mentioned is quite transparent, i.e. you can guess what they mean easily (as galaxy already pointed out...

But I wouldn't say they doesn't make any sense.
An airplane is a "thing that flies"....

"Glow pear" is a good one, though, as I believe that somebody who doesn't know German would have no idea what it means. As I guess is the case with the following:

English - German equivalent - literal translation

elevator/lift - Fahrstuhl - "drive/go-chair"
catchy tune - Ohrwurm - "ear-worm"
eyeball - Augapfel - "eye-apple"

There are lots of others, but it takes quite some time to figure them out.

I know one Latin verb, though, - "interficere", which means "to kill" - that, at first glance, doesn't make any sense if you split it up ("inter" meaning "in-between" and ficere meaning "to make/put" . But our Latin teacher explained to us that often there are just things left out that would explain it. "Interficere" then means "to put (a knife) in-between (somebody's body/heart)". Still a bit iffy, but you get the meaning.

[XToDaZ]

Oh, here's a nice one :

Yelling out loud >>> Hardop roepen >>> Hard on yelling