People Are Sharing Hilarious Literal Translations, And Here Are 30 Of The Best Ones
Learning a new language is challenging. However, it's just as rewarding. I mean, having the ability to interact with someone who grew up in a a completely different environment? Juk tai nuostabu. And the lessons aren't just a painstaking grind. They're full of fun things as well. One of them is literal translations, the "word-for-word" translations that tend to drift away from the sense of the original word on sentence. One of the members of the Facebook group Monolinguals are the worst has urged others to share the funniest literal translations they know, and, believe me, they delivered. Scroll down to check out these linguistic gems and upvote your favorites!
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Interestingly, the United States is largely monolingual. In fact, only about 15-20 percent of Americans call themselves bilingual, compared to 56 percent of Europeans surveyed in 2006 by the European Commission.
According to Arabic professor Mahmoud Al-Batal, the inability to speak a foreign language makes it difficult for Americans to compete globally on a linguistic and cultural level. Others who criticized the United States’ monolingual nature have highlighted problems in university-level language courses that result in students failing to reach higher levels of proficiency in a foreign language.
The term 'whisky' derives originally from the Gaelic 'uisge beatha', or 'usquebaugh', meaning 'water of life'. Gaelic is the branch of Celtic spoken in the Highlands of Scotland.
In Czech we have too options. One would be "God greet you" in English, the other one "Die, bitch."
Sure we use it sometimes, but we are taught the 'translated' meaning - bless you, not the literal one.
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In French it's different depending on if it's the first, second or third time
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One of my dear friends have asked me to stop saying "bless you" when she sneezes, so now just say "sundhed" (health) to her, completely stole the concept from German 3😄
That's so funny! (sarcasm) I think English has the worst phrase in this case. As if we have the authority to bless someone.
Actually in spanish and french from Switzerland is "health" too, but in french from France it's "to what you wish"
Same in Spanish. You essentially wish good health on the person sneezing.
"Health" is the short form of "I wish you health." in German. Just like "Thanks" and "Thank you".
'Bless you' was supposed to save a person from their soul leaving their body when sneezing. I think there's no need to say anything so I don't. I'm allergic to many things and sneeze constantly during the allergy season. It's awful and painful and it makes me angry when someone says 'health!' every time I sneeze. Please consider it if you have allergic friends.
Spanish and catalan, same! Some people say "jesus", but it's becoming more popular the "health" thing
Same in Dutch (sinaasappel or appelsien) and from Dutch (as far as I know) it was borrowed into many languages, including Russian.
I've never in my Hispanic life heard someone showering with an artichoke.. this is maybe from a very specific country or region, and not part of the common Spanish language, I think.
Note: this post originally had 100 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Tibetan has its share. Motorcycles are "magic horses" or "machine horses" (eastern dialect). Computers are also electric brains, or even more literally lightning brains. Turtles are bony frogs. Gloves are hand covers, socks are foot covers and condoms are penis covers. Libraries are book treasury houses. Hospitals are medicine houses. Planes are air-boats, and elephants are literally bix oxen.
Book treasury houses ♡♡♡♡♡
sky-boats, sorry
Libraries are Treasury houses. Love that!
'Chrome horse' is a motorcycle for some in America.
I love this! So diverse, yet, one can tell the context of some of these literal translations. Amazing.
Missing some italian pearls, like English : "what's your name?" - italian : "how you call you ?" - English : "How old are you ?" - Italian : "how many hears you have ?" :D oh and "how are you doing" becomes "how goes" in italian 😂
Greenlandic: how many winters do you own.
We have something similar in Dutch. The translation is the same. But we use springs (as in season). We say: I am (in my case, I am 30) 30 springs young.
Its similar in slavic also.They say:koliko leta imas.The translation is the same just they use summer.
I don't know if it is an Italian thing or a my Italian mom thing, but she always said "close the light" instead of "turn off the light".
Same with portuguese, maybe comes from Latin lool
Same in other latin languages.
In naples area you "down the dog that I pee it" (walk the dog for his business), "open the building" (open the building door), while driving to warn someone you "knock" (the car horn), while to go to another level in a building you use "the wall train" (because elevators shows rails when they are in the middle of the ladders)
Same thing as Portuguese
Romanian, too
Both of these apply to Croatian as well, just I'd translate the 1st one as "how do you call yourself".
Same in French, Spanish, Catalan and Occitan :)
How are you called is not far from come ti chiami, btw...
German actually is very similar, "what's your name" means "how are you called" and "how are you doing" also means "how goes".
Peninsular Spanish (Castilian) has SO MANY incredible expressions. To say you're in a bad mood, you can say "estoy de mala leche" = "I'm of bad milk." To say you're going all in, you can say "de perdidos al río" = "from lost to the river." To express that something is surprising or incredible, you can say "cágate, lorito" = "shit, little parrot." I'm a translator and this whole post is fascinating.
sour puss
In Hebrew: "ani" means "me", "me" means "who", "who" means "he", and "he" means "she". Also, N is how you write the script letter "m" (mem).
Cool. Thanks for the mini Hebrew Lesson.
Isn't there an Abbot and Costello scetch about that?
Lol
English: Butterfly Norwegian: Summer Bird
Butter fly is a horrible name :S
English, half 12 (time) Swedish, half 1 Because it’s half TO the 1. Alway confirm what time you are meeting a Swede!
Same in Catalan but in quarters, so half past one is "two quarters of two"
A few Dutch examples: English: French toast Dutch: Turning bitches. (Bitches as in female dogs though;-) ) English: Leopard Dutch: Lazy horse English: Seal Dutch: Sea Dog English: Moped (vehicle) Dutch: Mustache bike English: Ambulance Dutch: Burn again / Burn weather
French toast in Finnish is "poor knights" :). The recipe is a bit different, but still, what a name!
I had to think about the 'burn again'. That would be the fire service/brigade (brandweer) rather than an ambulance (which stays the same in Dutch).
Crocodile in Vietnamese means ugly fish and a shark is a fat fish. Always thought people were joking when I started to learn the language& thought they were all into that:D
Helicopter isn't called a lifting screwdriver in german, but a lift screwer (Hubschrauber).
English: dental floss German: tooth silk
Argh though, I've always shuddered at the German translation of gums: toothmeat/flesh
I see a lot of Gaeilge, Irish, on this list, and I have to say I agree. Everything about it is dumb. Hello in Irish is Dia Daoibh, which literally translates to “God to you”
"Top of the morning to you" also has a correct response: "and the rest of the day to yourself"
Something I learned recently... Goodbye is from the early 1800s, and is a shortening of God be with ye. So even English to English translations are odd. :-)
A mobile phone/cell phone is a handy in German.
in flemish belgium "le gsm"
English: placenta Swedish: mother's cake
English: you'll be sorry Zulu: you'll point to the house with alcohol
Someone built a translation machine and into it fed "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak" They translated it into Russian and back into English. They got back "The wine is agreeable but the meat has gone bad"
English has its own stupid terms: sea lion, sea horse, sea cow, sea monkey, sea urchin, sea cucumber, seaweed, dogfish, catfish, clown fish, bull shark, right whale, black rhino and white rhino (both are the same colour)... I'm sure there are other misnomers outside of the animal kingdom too.
This just Made my day
For any of you who are not Canadian or are not familiar with eggnog (a drink we have around Christmas time)... the French Canadian literal translation is hen milk, or better yet slut milk!
Hebrew has its share of military slang that went into common parlance. A lot of it is technically obscene: "To put a penis" or "to NOT put a penis" both mean "to not give a damn". Many expressions also come from the Torah or Talmud, for example "he's a lime-covered well" - "he has a good memory"; "he hits mountains together" - "he is a great scholar".
I know that I'm a year late, but about "toes" in Spanish is not a literal translation. The thing is that we don't have a specific word (like "dedospie") for that, and we call to the toes "dedos de los pies" (fingers of the feet).
Also Italian has its own oddities: - Hedgehog: needle-pig - Shark: dog-fish - Sunset: [when the sun goes] behind the mountains - To sunbathe: to get a bronze skin - To kill: to club someone to death
German hand shoes killed me
English: Athlete's Foot Finnish: Leg Mushrooms
English: headache French: bad from head
My favourite is from English, lady literally means bread maker it's from an old English word. Most of these did not use the literal translation of the English words.
English: liver Bulgarian: Black lung English: bladder Bulgarian: pee bubble English: forearm Bulgarian: in front of the armpit English: ear lobe Bulgarian: ear seashell English: pickle Bulgarian: little sour cucumber
Thanks for all the laughs!...and the literals!
English - Italian: uncaring -> Idontgiveadamnist damn! -> cabbage! Crazy -> outside like a balcony Afterlife -> beyond the grave Know-all -> I-know-everything / everythingist
In German sauerkraut literally means "sour cabbage" and the phrase for "I'm sorry" (Es tut mir Leid) means "It does me suffering".
Great fun doing literal translations - Afrikaans: My swaer het 'n ystervark gesien. Translate this to English: My heavy did an iron pig see. Swaer = brother-in-law. Heavy = swaar.
English: Squirrel ... german: oak-croissant!
How to unread these? 😂
English:step on it! French: press on the mushroom!
English: Out of sight, out of mind. German: Invisible idiots!
English: ladybug Portuguese: little joana
English: bulb / German: glow pear
English: Turkey [bird] French: from India (dinde = d'Inde)
If you like the German language, go get yourself the book "you go me on the cookie" by Dana Newman
Or Mark Twain's "the awful German language".
English: elevator - German: Up Pull (But I would call it pull up in English, as it sounds better)
English: Police Yorùbá: baton users
English: Now you have gone too far. Swedish: Don't shit in the blue cabinet.
In Danish a JCB (earth mover) is called ‘gummiged’ which means ‘rubber goat’. Speed (velocity) in Danish is ‘fart’. Jellyfish (funny word to start with) in Danish is ‘vandmand’ which means ‘water man’.
I don't understand the smileys in some of those posts? Also, all the other Dutch users beat me to it when it comes to the Dutch translations, so I have nothing to say about any of these. XD
I find it fascinating, having worked in quite some countries.
In Dutch you write “How” as hoe and “That” as die.
In Dutch: “whats your name” = “hoe do you heat” and “whats up” = “hoe gate it” and “elephant” = “oil phant” and “turtle” = “shield toad” and “merkat = “little sticktail” and “We’re missing all of it!” = “It goes before our nose away.” and “raccoon” = “wash bear” and “chipmunk” = “ground squirrel” and “cellphone” = “little mobile” and “bra” = “Breast Holder (BH)” Pfew, I hope you’ll enjoy this cuz I did 30 minutes about this. 😉
Thank you very much.
Surprised not to see a lot of the Finnish ones here, like: English - Dice, Finnish - "Lottery Cube" (arpakuutio) , English - Turtle, Finnish - "Shield Toad" (kilpikonna), English - Bra, Finnish - "Breast Vests" (rintaliivit), and the word for "Sloth" (as in the animal) is literally just "Lazy One" (Laiskiainen)
Brassiere in French relates to a kind of vest, but the garment worn on the breasts translates as "throat supporter".
Nobody says arpakuutio it's just noppa.
"Arpakuutio" is still a real word, even if old fashioned nowadays. Just as "jalopeura", a noble deer, is a word for "lion" though no one uses it anymore.
Interesting. Would like to see one that compares "The Queen's English" with the U. S. and other English- speaking countries, like Australia, Canada and India.
English: raccoon French: small rat which washes Icelandic/German: bear which washes
English = Double Barrel Shotgun Afrikaans = Double hail walk gun English = brother in law Afrikaans = heavy English = Tree root Afrikaans - carrot of tree English - Leopard Afrikaans - Lazy horse
And let's not forget - English: giraffe, Afrikaans: camel horse
19th century English: camelopard modern English giraffe
sloth in german = lazy animal / platypus = beak animal / armadillo = belt animal
Englisch: Gear German: Tooth-wheel English: Spotlight German: Shine-thrower English: You annoy me German: You go me on the sack English: You are crazy German: You have one on the waffle
English: rabbit Polish: English: what?! Polish: ...little king
Holaa
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I really hope that this fad of thinking they're writing out a sitcom sketch disappears really soon. It so doesn't work in written form.
Tibetan has its share. Motorcycles are "magic horses" or "machine horses" (eastern dialect). Computers are also electric brains, or even more literally lightning brains. Turtles are bony frogs. Gloves are hand covers, socks are foot covers and condoms are penis covers. Libraries are book treasury houses. Hospitals are medicine houses. Planes are air-boats, and elephants are literally bix oxen.
Book treasury houses ♡♡♡♡♡
sky-boats, sorry
Libraries are Treasury houses. Love that!
'Chrome horse' is a motorcycle for some in America.
I love this! So diverse, yet, one can tell the context of some of these literal translations. Amazing.
Missing some italian pearls, like English : "what's your name?" - italian : "how you call you ?" - English : "How old are you ?" - Italian : "how many hears you have ?" :D oh and "how are you doing" becomes "how goes" in italian 😂
Greenlandic: how many winters do you own.
We have something similar in Dutch. The translation is the same. But we use springs (as in season). We say: I am (in my case, I am 30) 30 springs young.
Its similar in slavic also.They say:koliko leta imas.The translation is the same just they use summer.
I don't know if it is an Italian thing or a my Italian mom thing, but she always said "close the light" instead of "turn off the light".
Same with portuguese, maybe comes from Latin lool
Same in other latin languages.
In naples area you "down the dog that I pee it" (walk the dog for his business), "open the building" (open the building door), while driving to warn someone you "knock" (the car horn), while to go to another level in a building you use "the wall train" (because elevators shows rails when they are in the middle of the ladders)
Same thing as Portuguese
Romanian, too
Both of these apply to Croatian as well, just I'd translate the 1st one as "how do you call yourself".
Same in French, Spanish, Catalan and Occitan :)
How are you called is not far from come ti chiami, btw...
German actually is very similar, "what's your name" means "how are you called" and "how are you doing" also means "how goes".
Peninsular Spanish (Castilian) has SO MANY incredible expressions. To say you're in a bad mood, you can say "estoy de mala leche" = "I'm of bad milk." To say you're going all in, you can say "de perdidos al río" = "from lost to the river." To express that something is surprising or incredible, you can say "cágate, lorito" = "shit, little parrot." I'm a translator and this whole post is fascinating.
sour puss
In Hebrew: "ani" means "me", "me" means "who", "who" means "he", and "he" means "she". Also, N is how you write the script letter "m" (mem).
Cool. Thanks for the mini Hebrew Lesson.
Isn't there an Abbot and Costello scetch about that?
Lol
English: Butterfly Norwegian: Summer Bird
Butter fly is a horrible name :S
English, half 12 (time) Swedish, half 1 Because it’s half TO the 1. Alway confirm what time you are meeting a Swede!
Same in Catalan but in quarters, so half past one is "two quarters of two"