What does it mean when people say there’s no proper translation from a non-English word to English?

966 views

You see it quite often when someone will say ‘there’s a word for that…there’s no direct translation but it’s loosely like…’ then proceeds to give it a translation.

I saw one recently of kummerspeck, I think the commenter said it was ‘food you eat when you’re sad’ or ‘grief bacon’.

I would also like to preemptively apologise for my ignorance.

In: 37

43 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Every language has its own words, phrases, idioms, expressions, or whatever that don’t translate as well or simply across languages. For example, in English, we say “bullshit” to describe something that is untrue or false. If I were to literally translate that directly to say Chinese, for example, it wouldn’t make sense (牛大便), I’d just be saying literally “bull excrement.” Just reverse this situation, and you’d get the idea.

Not to mention, “bullshit” can mean different things depending on the context. If I read a fake news article and say, “This is bullshit,” it’s different from when I’m dying repeatedly in a video game or whatever and exclaim in frustration, “This level is bullshit!”

You are viewing 1 out of 43 answers, click here to view all answers.