Eli5: Why do some languages get lost in translation?

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I get that ofcourse no languages will be exactly identical but as a bilingual, whenever i watch a show with my native language and the subtitles are set on to my second language, so many of the meanings get lost in translation even when the translation is pretty accurate? How could this be

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15 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Same words, different interpretations.

I once drunk told my girlfriend “you’ll miss me”, bad translation of “tu vas me manquer” in french.

The verb “miss” in french is used towards the person creating the missing feeling. So I meant “I’ll miss you”, but at the moment she thought I was a huge jerk.

(A better translation would be “you will be missed by me”, but I was drunk and went full litteral)

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