Many English words don’t have neat, single-word equivalents in other languages. Translating “serendipity,” for instance, often requires some explanation to fully express the concept. Learn which English words are surprisingly tough to translate.
Text version
-ish
Is the adjective you’re using too strong? Soften its precision with this handy suffix.
Auto-tuned
If a singer is auto-tuned, some people might not call them a singer—all their off-key wailing has been digitally corrected.
Bromance
A bromance is a close but non-sexual relationship between men. Although men have friends in other cultures too, few have coined a term for it.
Cheesy
The awkwardness of a cheesy situation is known around the world, but no foreign word captures it as well as English’s «cheesy.»
Facepalm
Show your exasperation in English by facepalming—slapping your palm to your face.
Fair / Fairness
This concept is not unique—it’s common to all cultures. But non-English words just don’t seem to convey the same nuance.
Free
«Free» is too versatile to be easily translatable. From «at no cost» to «available» to «lacking» (when a suffix), it is highly contextual.
Gobbledygook
If you’re confronted with a text convoluted to the point of incomprehensibility, this wacky-looking word is perfect to describe it.
Kitsch
Only English speakers and Germans, from whom the word originated, can so concisely describe pretentious, outdated, tacky, or inferior art.
Multitasking
Though this word may not seem special, most languages just translate it as «doing multiple things at once.»
Pimp
Need a handy slang verb to describe decorating something or prettying yourself up? English has you covered.
Serendipity
A lucky find, a happy accident, a fortunate coincidence—there are many ways to express this idea, but «serendipity» covers it all in one simple word.
Spam
Unwanted, unsolicited emails are spam. The word has even evolved to describe repeatedly posting the same text to an online forum.
Tough
Since «tough» incorporates the meaning of both «difficult» and «physically hard,» finding an equivalent in another language is, well, tough.
Trade-off
If you have to give something up to receive something, it’s a trade-off. You’ve weighed the pros and cons and have made this decision. Other languages can’t describe this so precisely.
Y’all’d’ve
In casual English, the four-word phrase «you all would have» can be shortened to the two syllable «y’all’d’ve.» «You all would have» is translatable, but «y’all’d’ve» is special.
English words that cannot be translated
- Untranslatable words can be found in many languages. They are a nightmare for even the most professional translators. Where do such words come from?
- Such words are called realias (objects, historical facts that have no equivalent in other cultures). For instance, dishes (hamburger, okroshka), names (Pushkin, Shakespeare), objects that simply don’t exist in other cultures — such words are untranslatable.
- There are words in some languages that describe phenomena that are present in all cultures, but don’t have a name for that. The Japanese language has a word karoshi that means «die, because you work too hard». Other languages don’t have a similar word, but the phenomenon itself is present in many cultures.
- What is a translator supposed to do with such words? There are a few options:
- give a definition, to explain what the word means (pretty much what we did with karoshi);
- transliteration (spelling the words using the alphabet of the language one is translating into);
- give a rough translation, which describes the object partially (drugstore can be an example, because it’s not just a place where they sell medicine, but also food, drinks and newspapers).
- The English language is quite rich in terms of words that can’t be translated into other languages. We’ll talk about the most interesting of them:
- Football widow A woman, whose husband is too interested in football, is called like this. The thing is, during a world championship men are temporarily gone. Nowadays, this expression is changing: a popular online game «World of Tanks» also took lives of many men, so their wives can be called «Tanks widows».
- Bioaccessory This is a pretty rude word that describes a person who is used to look well compared to him or her. Imagine two teenage girls, one of whom is way more good-looking that another. It is likely that the prettier is using the other one to look better.
- Closet music This is a kind of music you can only listen to when you are alone to avoid embarrassment. Picture a brutal man, who is a fan of Justin Bieber. I don’t think he will tell his biker friends about his tastes.
- Facepalm. You definitely know that feeling when you hear someone say something so stupid that you want to put your palm on your face. This is facepalm.
- Girlfriend button. This expression is used for the button on the gaming console controller that men push when their girlfriends need to talk to them.
- Gobbledygook. Did you find this words difficult to read? That’s the point! The words means writing or speech that is extremely difficult to understand. It refers to professional law jargon, for instance. Some people use long and strange words just to seem more intelligent.
- Serendipity. An unexpected, yet fortunate coincidence is called serendipity. If you find a 10-euro bill on your way home, you can use this word.
- Bromance (from brother and romance). This word can be explained in any language, but the word exists only in English. A friendship between two male friends is called bromance. Important: we mean friendship!
- Stage–phoning. Imagine a guy seeing a beautiful girl, taking his cell and starting to talk about his new Mercedes and his house in Miami trying to attract the girl’s attention. Like an actor on stage.
- Brandalism (from brand and vandalism). When a city is covered with banners it is called brandalism.
- Sibling. In Russian we ask: «Do you have any brothers or sisters?» In English we can say: «Do you have any siblings?» We don’t have to use two words. Just one.
- Hopefully, you found this information interesting and useful. We wish you more interesting language discoveries and success in studying English!
You may like
29.03.2016
3631
0
0
28.03.2016
3920
0
0
24.03.2016
3663
0
2
08.03.2016
3825
0
3
These examples may contain rude words based on your search.
These examples may contain colloquial words based on your search.
трудно перевести
трудно переводить
сложно перевести
тяжело перевести
It’s really hard to translate this word.
But she wasn’t a trained musician so it was hard to translate what she wanted.
Но она не была обученным музыкантом, поэтому было трудно перевести то, что она хотела.
When it comes to budgets, it’s hard to translate prices to USD because the peso fluctuates so much.
Когда дело доходит до бюджетов, трудно переводить цены в доллары за песо так сильно колеблется.
KLN: Were there any particular words that were hard to translate?
ЕВ: Можете вспомнить выступления, которые было особенно трудно переводить?
Memes are too hard to translate into Mongolian.
It is hard to translate a joke into another language.
It’s hard to translate, but something like My remaining days are numbered.
Sometimes an idea or concept is hard to translate because the language has no words with which to express it.
Иногда идею или концепцию бывает трудно перевести на другой язык в силу того, что в этом языке нет адекват-ных слов для их выражения.
It’s hard to translate into something other than Mandarin
Сложно перевести это слово с мандаринского диалекта на другой язык.
Maybe it’s hard to translate Cosmic concepts into English, but we do the best we can.
Может быть, трудно перевести Космические концепции на английский язык, но мы делаем все, что можем.
The term is hard to translate, but it’s best described as the political equivalent of what happens when you pour acid on organic material: dissolution and disintegration.
Этот термин трудно перевести, но лучше всего его охарактеризовать как политический эквивалент того, что происходит, когда вы льете кислоту на органический материал: растворение и распад.
He found it interesting that proximity to green space was not associated with increased physical activity and added that it’s hard to translate these findings into specific recommendations since some people don’t have grandkids or like dogs.
Он нашел интересным то, что близость с зеленым зонами не была связана с увеличением физической активности и добавил, что трудно перевести эти выводы в конкретные рекомендации, так как у некоторых людей нет внуков и собак.
However, if someone will tell a really funny joke or story, my imagination could kick in, and sometimes it becomes hard to translate because I may be amused myself.
Однако, если кто — то расскажет, действительно, забавную шутку или историю, мое воображение может взыграть, и тогда станет трудно переводить из-за эффекта неожиданности.
For the ancient Greeks, a man’s telos was reaching a state of eudaimonia; a word that is hard to translate but means something akin to happiness, excellence — full human flourishing.
Согласно представлениям древних греков, человек, занятый реализацией телоса, достигал состояния «эвдемонии» — это слово, которое трудно перевести, но оно означает что-то похожее на счастье, блаженство, расцвет всего лучшего в человеке.
This word is hard to translate.
It’s really hard to translate the title.
That word is hard to translate.
We must, however, strive hard to translate this into reality.
Conceptually it may be hard to translate the capacity of engaging in social relationship into the definition of health in different countries.
Концептуально может быть трудно отразить способность налаживания социальных связей в виде показателя здоровья в различных странах.
Technical documents are pretty hard to translate.
Results: 63. Exact: 63. Elapsed time: 74 ms.
Documents
Corporate solutions
Conjugation
Synonyms
Grammar Check
Help & about
Word index: 1-300, 301-600, 601-900
Expression index: 1-400, 401-800, 801-1200
Phrase index: 1-400, 401-800, 801-1200
There’s a running debate among translators about what word is hardest to translate. Obviously, the challenges vary from language to language, with languages that have less in common creating more elusive word to word translations. Let’s acknowledge that determining the hardest word to translate is more of a game than any sort of realistic exercise. That said, here are a few contenders that make the hypothetical list.Jayus is an Indonesian word that conveys the awkward humor behind a joke delivered so badly that you can’t help but laugh. In English, we sarcastically say, “That’s so funny I forgot to laugh.”
- Tartle is a Scottish word for the hesitation one feels when introducing people but having forgotten someone’s name.
- Prozvonit is a Czech word for “dropped call” but it refers to a mobile phone user who calls, lets the phone ring once then hangs up. The person who was called then dials the caller, saving the caller the cost of the call.
- Saudade is a Portuguese word for longing for someone or something that someone has loved and lost. It is stronger than the sense of the English nostalgia. (A Spanish word, duende, is considered difficult for similar reasons. Learn the exact story, here.)
- Cafune is a Brazilian Portuguese verb for running your fingers through someone’s hair tenderly. The Danish word Hyggelig literally translates as “cozy,” but the modern connotation has more to do with how Danes see themselves.
One of the hardest English words to translate into other tongues is gobbledygook, meaning “jargon-filled language that is difficult to read, maybe intentionally confusing.” It’s based on the onomatopoeic sound of a turkey’s gobble. Given the confusion that language learning students face when deciphering new words that would be a handy word to have available to describe what a poor translation looks like.
Can you think of any other words that would be difficult to translate into English? Let us know.
* Special thanks to Maria and Manny at Alta Language Services www.altalang.com
The world’s most difficult word to translate loses much in translation
In an article published by the BBC on June 22, 2004, “ilunga” was deemed the world’s most difficult word to translate. According to the article by Oliver Conway, “ilunga” topped a list compiled by 1,000 linguists as the “hardest word to translate.” It was reported that “ilunga,” which comes from the Tshiluba language, spoken in south-eastern Congo, means “a person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time”.
The survey was conducted by Today Translations, which emphasized, while the ilunga’s definition can be found in the dictionary, the difficulty in translation comes from its cultural connotations and usage.
BUT WAIT, there is a problem.
According to an article in Wikipedia: There is no independent evidence supporting Today Translations’ claim that “ilunga” is in fact the world’s most difficult word to translate. In fact ilunga is apparently a reasonably common family name in the DR Congo, and it has nothing to do with a conditionally forgiving person. Furthermore, according to Wikipedia, the translation company failed to respond to inquiries regarding the survey, made by the same reporter. Also, according to an entry in Nation Master Encyclopedia, not all of the words on Today Translations’ list were even legitimate. Some of them turned out to be mistakes and hoaxes.
In my opinion, the category the “most untranslatable word” is on its face problematic to begin with. It appears the article infers that these words are the hardest to translate into English, but there is no specific mention of this. Despite the 226,000 hits for “ilunga” from my July 19, 2008, Google search (many of which represent blogs recycling the original BBC article), it seems Today Translations’ linguistics need better translators. It also appears the BBC could have done a better job deciphering fact from fiction.
Even so, the list “The ten foreign words voted hardest to translate,” is fun to consider, so here it is:
1. Ilunga [Tshiluba word for a person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time; to tolerate it a second time; but never a third time. Note: Tshiluba is a Bantu language spoken in south-eastern Congo, and Zaire]
2. Shlimazl [Yiddish for a chronically unlucky person]
3. Radioukacz [Polish for a person who worked as a telegraphist for the resistance movements on the Soviet side of the Iron Curtain]
4. Naa [Japanese word only used in the Kansai area of Japan, to emphasise statements or agree with someone]
5. Altahmam [Arabic for a kind of deep sadness]
6. Gezellig [Dutch for cosy]
7. Saudade [Portuguese for a certain type of longing]
8. Selathirupavar [Tamil for a certain type of truancy]
9. Pochemuchka [Russian for a person who asks a lot of questions]
10. Klloshar [Albanian for loser]
About robertstevenson
Dr. Robert Stevenson is a Professor of Journalism and Director of Student Publications for the Department of Mass Communications and Theater at Lander University in Greenwood, SC. He received the Distinguished Faculty of the Year award for 2007-’08, and the Lander University Young Faculty Scholar Award in 2005-06. Stevenson also serves as chair of the Lander University American Democracy Project. First and Formost I am a dad of two wonderful boys.