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The untranslatable words that you love | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Carisma Diglot Senior Member Argentina Joined 5434 days ago 104 posts - 161 votes  Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC1 Studies: Italian, Mandarin | Message 49 of 61 28 December 2011 at 1:06am | IP Logged | |||||
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Ganas in Spanish. No, it's not a conjuction to the verb ganar (although it could be).
It's part of the somewhat fixed expression "No tengo ganas", which roughly translates as "I don't feel like it". I don't know how English speakers live without an equivalent to it! You can also use it as "Tengo ganas de..." (I feel like...), "Me gustaría ser médico pero no tengo las ganas para estudiar tanto" (I'd like to be a doctor but I don't feel like studying so much), and Ricardo Arjona used it in a song he wrote for Ricky Martin "Tengo ganas de no tener ganas". 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Leurre Bilingual Pentaglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5237 days ago 219 posts - 372 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Korean, Haitian Creole, SpanishC2 Studies: Japanese | Message 50 of 61 28 December 2011 at 2:48am | IP Logged | |||||
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Here's a really popular Korean one nowadays
쫄다 (Jjol-da) It's a slang verb meaning roughly to be intimidated, or to shrink before authority, to be castrated of power, or to back down in a face-off. So you have a lot of anti-government types shouting '쫄지마!' [don't 'Jjol-da'!] at rallies for the past six months or so. It's not entirely untranslatable, but you get varying English translations depending on context. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kartof Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4878 days ago 391 posts - 550 votes Speaks: English*, Bulgarian*, Spanish Studies: Danish | Message 51 of 61 28 December 2011 at 3:37am | IP Logged | |||||
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A word in Bulgarian that I find is untranslatable is няма which means "he/she/it doesn't have" or "there isn't".
Certainly in English or Spanish there isn't one word to express a state of dispossession but there're probably other languages that do. Does anyone know of any? Edited by Kartof on 28 December 2011 at 3:37am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kevin Hsu Triglot Groupie Canada Joined 4550 days ago 60 posts - 94 votes Speaks: English, Mandarin*, Korean Studies: German | Message 52 of 61 28 December 2011 at 5:15am | IP Logged | |||||
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活該(活=live, 該=should/deserves to) in Chinese. It's a sarcastic expression that we use
when something bad happens to someone. It's usually a joke, but it can be used when you're angry too. Some people find it offensive though. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| vilas Pentaglot Senior Member Italy Joined 6772 days ago 531 posts - 722 votes Speaks: Spanish, Italian*, English, French, Portuguese | Message 53 of 61 28 December 2011 at 1:00pm | IP Logged | |||||
"Gana" in sicilian means "desire" It is used a lot in the books of the famous writer Andrea Camilleri that writes in a mixed italia-sicilian language . "Avere gana di qualcosa " means "To feel like something" 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Leurre Bilingual Pentaglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5237 days ago 219 posts - 372 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Korean, Haitian Creole, SpanishC2 Studies: Japanese | Message 54 of 61 28 December 2011 at 2:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
Korean has 없다, which means pretty much what you described. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kevin Hsu Triglot Groupie Canada Joined 4550 days ago 60 posts - 94 votes Speaks: English, Mandarin*, Korean Studies: German | Message 55 of 61 28 December 2011 at 10:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
Chinese has 沒有 which is the negative form of 有 which means to have/exist. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6394 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 56 of 61 29 December 2011 at 7:07am | IP Logged | |||||
Cantonese has 冇, and Classical Chinese has 無, which are even more terse (since 沒有 can be considered two words). 1 person has voted this message useful |
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