Asking non-native English speakers.
In Spanish.
Sobremesa, the period you stay at the table after lunch or dinner having a coffee or some drinks while chatting.Aprovechar, is basically the opposite of to waste. So depending on the context is to take advantage of something, to make the most of, make a good use, give a second use or reuse leftovers for something else.
Estrenar: to use/wear something brand new for the very first time. Sometimes when you are estrenando white shoes your classmates in school would try to step on them so they no longer look new.
The old-school English word for aprovechar was “thrift” or being thrifty. These days I hear it used mostly in the specific sense of saving cash. I don’t often hear it much anymore in terms of conserving resources, but that is where it came from, and if you use it in that sense people will understand you.
As for sobremesa, that’s not something I’ve enjoyed enough for it to have its own word, unfortunately.
Kindergarten
This is proof that Germans do have humour!
That is correct, but we spell it without the second “u”.
And capitalized
That’s how you get kids:
Sow the seed, wait a few years until they are sprouting. Then you pick them up and keep them at home until mature.
“Kombinować” very Polish word for a very Polish a activity/philosophy. To make things work / get something done / take care of something in way that work for us, but are not the expected way to do things (though, ‘kombinowanie’ is often actually expected). It might be doing a job using the tools that are available and not thise that should be used, it might be a genuine invention, It might be using your contacts for favour (like getting a doctor appointment), it might be plain cheating.
A little bit like ‘hacking’ and also can be a good thing or a bad thing.
“Wykombinuję coś” = “don’t worry I will take care of that” “Co za kombinator” = “what a cheaty bastard”
Gezellig in Dutch. Used to describe a situation that’s cosy and fun togetherness. Can also be used to describe a place that looks inviting (to have that good time in). I guess 😃
GezelligGesellig
Guten Appetit! (German term equivalent to “cheers” for drinking - but for eating.)
That one is really interesting, because a lot of languages has it, from guten apetit, through dobrou chuť to itadakimasu. But english was out of school that day I suppose.
English stole 'Bon Apetit" from French fair and square!
As English often does - if it makes sense in another language and is easy for English speakers to understand the context it’s used, they’re quite happy stealing it. Especially French.
Loanwords are a thing in every language, especially English loanwords.
Good appetite?Oh, looked it up, it’s not used in the same manner as German, i never knew 😃
Head isu!
It always felt weird to me that English has no distinct phrase to express non-romantic affection.
English speakers use “I love you”, but in Italian (and many other languages) you’d make a distinction between a romantic partner and a friend/relative/whatever.
Ti amo = I love you, said for example to your partner, signifies a deep emotional bond, not something you usually say lightly.
Ti voglio bene = I love you, but less charges, more in a “I feel good about you” way
I always appreciated Spanish’s Te quiero vs te amo to express to friends my feelings for them, much better than “I love you, no homo”.
I recently came across a word that I couldn’t find a translation for. In Swedish, the word “skallgång” refers to the act of walking in a line formation in a search party.
お疲れ様 (good job+“you look tired”+“I an acknowledging this and presenting recognition of your effort”)
Keigo modifiers. ご覧 vs 見る. They both mean “look”. One is, somehow, more polite.
Kansai dialect. しばいたろか (“wanna get smacked?” but it’s playful) or まいど (“thanks” but also “nice to see you again” and “hello” but only in specific contexts between specific people. Mess it up and you’ll probably hear the other Kansai term previously described.)
Kinda a reversal, but I’m curious if other languages have a word as versatile as English’s “fuck”. Like obviously other languages have words for the verb of making sex, but is it common for it to also be a noun, adjective, or adverb to the point where you could have it as every other word and it still be grammatically correct?
Fuck the fucking fuckers.
In Dutch, the word “kanker” can be used as verb, noun or adjective. Example: Die kanker hoer kan opkankeren met die kanker van haar. Which best translates to something like: That fucking whore can fuck off with that shit of hers. Except that the Dutch version is wayyyyy more rude and inappropriate.
Chez
It’s a preposition meaning “at the home/house/place” but can also be use figuratively. Really super cool.
My first room share ‘Chez Penez’ makes so much more sense now.
Similar thread long ago, there was a word Somewhere in northern Europe that meant something like “aimlessly hitting your penis on things”. .
Do you mean the Dutch word “swaffelen” or “zwaffelen”?
Sounds like it yeah! I’m a big fan of the concept.
Apparently its from Netherlands?
It at the very least got popular in the Netherlands. This was due to a youtube upload from 2008 of a Dutch student who was proud to be the first person to swaffel the Taj Mahal. This resulted in more people swinging their dicks against various monuments.
So if you see a popular monument, remember that it is likely a Dutch person filmed themselves while wacking their dick against it and put it on youtube somewhere.
Żal
In Polish it means a feeling of sadness, regret, being unable to accept the reality. It’s often compared to grief, but it’s not confined to losing someone. When you look at the past, regretting your life choices, you feel żal.Way too many for Chinese (think every Chinese dish you know), but the one world I think about the most in this context these days is 老百姓 (lao3 bai3 xing4) (Also see a somewhat related Wikipedia article). Direct translation is “ol’ hundred surnames”
It’s… a non-formal word for the “commoners” or the “average person”. This is a concept I don’t hear in mainstream media that much nowadays. I don’t think most news or mainstream media even refers to say the entirety of the lower to middle social class in one word… (Note that it is different from “Average Joe”, which does have a Chinese counterpart which translates to “Zhang three Li four”)
On top of it, the whole concept of “a hundred surnames” representing most of society is kind of absurd in English-speaking countries. Societies with historical Chinese influences tend to have lots of ppl share the same surnames
Bukkake.
I’m having real trouble thinking of any in Estonian that truly don’t have a good translation, there’s only one I can think of on the spot like this.
Midagi läbi ussimunni ajama - Literally translated: to drive* something through a worm’s dick. Commonly used in car repairs and other similar contexts: Some space is super narrow and you need to put something it through exactly at the correct angle. Can be used with “goes through” as well (käib läbi ussimunni), but even then it’s generally still describing some sort of activity, not someone literally walking through a tight spot. I can’t think of an English expression that’s truly equivalent, though I could just be missing something.
* ajama itself means to drive as in “drive insane” or “steer a herd of cattle”, not “drive a car”. But also “sitta ajama” = “to bullshit”.
