Weird Translation Game

give a LITERAL translation of a word or sentence from your mother tongue/ a foreign language you know.
let the others guess what it means if you think it's easy enough, or just explain it yourself.

here's some examples:

"Well, I know yes not what this shall" = I don't know what this is supposed to mean (German: Also, ich weiss ja nicht was das soll)
[mean not as in the meaning of a word but as in why somebody is doing something etc]

"place-before-stander" (Ortsvorsteher), the mayor of a little town or village that is part of a bigger administrative unit...

"bag-animal"; "lazy-animal" ---> can you guess???

I've got another one, which Mark Twain mentions in "The Awful German Language" (the translation is mine though):

"Age-dom's-know-creations" well, yeah, that's something like Classics or Archeology....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SleepyWitch

"bag-animal"; "lazy-animal" ---> can you guess???

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Let's see. Well, Sleepy, (believe it or not, that was my grandfather's nickname, Sleepy!), I'm guessing a possum since they have a pouch (bag) and tend to "play dead" (lazy). Just a guess.

Redneck-- in this country means someone who is very backwoods, living a simple life, unused to technology, unsophistocated.

With that in mind, what would a poleaxe be?

Adaab, Tumhara kiya haal hai? (Urdu in English letters)

Hello, How are you? (translation)

From the Hebrew Scriptures:

Wayyo`mer `ELOHIM, yehi `or; wayhi `or. [And_said ELOHIM be light and_was light.]
Often translated: "And GOD said, 'Let there be light', and there was light."

W`elleh, shemoth beney Yisra`el, haba`im, Mitsraymah: `eth Ya'aqov, `ish uveytho ba`u. [And_these, names (of)_sons (of)_Israel, the_going_ones, (into)_Egypt: with Jacob, each and_house went_he.]
Often translated: "Now these are the names of the sons of Israel, who came into Egypt with Jacob; every man came with his household."

The word "aura", which has something to do with light, consists of a stem virtually identical to Hebrew "`or", with a feminine suffix appended on. The stem is "aur-". Conversely, in a feminine form, Hebrew "`or" becomes "`orah".

The Hebrew term "haba`im" consists of the definite article, "ha", plus the stem "ba" (derived from a verb in which, depending upon dialect, the /B/ can sound as /V/, and it has a similar function to Italian "va"), plus the plural, masculine substantive ending, "_im".

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pendragon

Let's see. Well, Sleepy, (believe it or not, that was my grandfather's nickname, Sleepy!), I'm guessing a possum since they have a pouch (bag) and tend to "play dead" (lazy). Just a guess.

Redneck-- in this country means someone who is very backwoods, living a simple life, unused to technology, unsophistocated.

With that in mind, what would a poleaxe be?

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neat guess :)
er, it's two different words actually, sorry if it wasn't clear.
yep "bag-animal" is something like a possum... it's a literal translation of the German word for marsupial, we call marsupials "bag-animal" because they have a pouch

what about the "lazy-animal" then?

Tree-sloth we would guess, since tree-sloth in Estonian is "laiskloom" which means "lazy-animal".


Horse-fly instrument. Can you guess what it is?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Taliesin

Horse-fly instrument. Can you guess what it is?

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Might it be a riding whip, used to flick away the pesky flies from horses? ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Taliesin

Horse-fly instrument. Can you guess what it is?

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Oh, what a strange one. (I like this game!) Perhaps it has something to do with the vibrations, like the sound a horsefly makes? If, of course, it means "musical instrument..." um..

...a kazoo? :lol: Oh no, I've completely lost my train of thought now. I think Pen's guess was better.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Taliesin

Tree-sloth we would guess, since tree-sloth in Estonian is "laiskloom" which means "lazy-animal".


Horse-fly instrument. Can you guess what it is?

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yep, it's a sloth :) hehe, Estonian is just as funny a language as German :)


I've got another weird German word... I don't think anyone will be able to guess it (except people from the Netherlands maybe, coz i heard it's the same in Dutch)

"witch-shot" (it's a medical condition, German: Hexenschuss).

we've also got a funny expression that translates as "The oats are stinging me" which means you are in an exuberant and silly mood (possibly also up to manifold wickedness :) ), especially because it's spring...

Might a horse-fly instrument be a Jew's harp?

I dare anyone to figure out what a Swede means when he tells someone "You've crapped in the blue cupboard".

er, do you have blue crapper booths like this is Sweden?
http://www.argeurlaub.de/rolli-wc1.jpg

nope, that would be too obvious.... give us a clue? what is a blue cupboard? an actual cupboard, or does the phrase stand for something else? at any rate, it seams to mean that you do something nonsensical of one sort or another....
???

Here's a few I found when trying to learn Cantonese a few years back:

May-gwok (Beautiful country
Fa-gwok (Flower country)
Ying-gwok (Brave country)

In Urdu (Urdu languge but in English alphabets)

Khub-soorat Mo-olk (Beautiful Country)

Phuloon ka Mo-olk - (Flower Country)

Baha-dar Mo-olk (Brave Country)