All Questions
Tagged with translation idioms
17
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English equivalent of the Russian idiom "притянуть за уши" + opposite of "to abbreviate"
I have encountered a couple of problems regarding the proper translation from the Russian language into English. Here are 2 cases:
There's an idiom that literally translates as "pull the ears&...
- 157
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3
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227
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“Sell extremely strong onions to opponent” Asian idiom or mistranslation
This anime clip I found on Facebook has the following caption: “Pretending to lose 2 rounds to sell extremely strong onions for opponents”. I’m assuming the “sell extremely strong onions” part is a ...
- 136
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0
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The meaning of the sentence "We don't all have to go down the line here"
“We don't all have to go down the line here! I'm not playing around!“
The context of a cartoon situation is: a guy waving a fake gun (but everyone thinks tis real) yells at his hostage the following ...
2
votes
2
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How can "jemand muss funktionieren" be translated to english?
The german term
Jemand muss funktionieren
is often used to express that somebody has to continue doing his stuff (work, house work, ...) because otherwise there are negative consequences (e.g. for ...
- 123
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2
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What is the equivalent idiom for the German "Existenzberechtigung"?
"Existenzberechtigung" is a German word used to assert something has a reason/justification to exist, but most often used negated to say something has no reason to exist / should not exist because it ...
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2
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What does Trap Queen means?
I'm new in learning English, so I want to know more about idioms and some words that I can't understand.
What is the meaning of trap queen?
And how and when the situation we can say that. If you ...
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1
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2
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What's the meaning of "throw a pallet at her"?
Please tell me the meaning of "throw a pallet at her" in this context:
Teachers might be using the Unit Organizer and the course map and starting to see kids that normally don’t respond, responding....
- 19
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2
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What is the meaning of "lay it on" in this sentence?
I read a sentence in "The Tempest" which was:
Lead, monster; we’ll follow. I would I could see this
taborer. He lays it on.
And it is translated to:
Lead on, monster. We’ll follow. I wish I ...
- 3
2
votes
3
answers
357
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How to find proper phrasal verbs or idioms for the sentence you're translating?
Let's assume you're translating a sentence. You can translate everything in English but sometimes there are idioms and phrasal verbs that you can use to make your sentnce more clear and compact. e.g., ...
- 285
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votes
4
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849
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Alternative ways for expressing a narrow victory
I am a Czech interpreter working with English. Just recently during a conference a "funny" guy tried to use elaborative Czech idiom with a twist. We often say to win by breast instead of win by a nose....
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2
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How to say a movie is not for the general public?
In Czech we say it's "viewer-demanding" (divácky náročný). This can either mean it's "a movie that requires deep comprehension on the part of hte viewer" or that it's "a movie that requires being an ...
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3
votes
1
answer
167
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putting feet on the donkey!
I'm translating the subtitle of a documentary about the artist "David Hockney" by B.B.C and someone says at about minute 9:
"And he said this guy was just like this on his thing, and sort of
...
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4
answers
428
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Interpretation and meaning of ""They were speaking to each other halfcircular words at the semiround table."
I translated a sentence to English:
"They were speaking to each other halfcircular words at the semiround table."
In original language, this sentence is:
"Разговаривали друг с другом за ...
6
votes
1
answer
655
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A spoken English equivalent of 'someone who has glass-dust'
In my native language we have the expression having glass-dust by which in spoken language we describe a person who's generally good but sometimes gets dishonest to take advantage of a situation or ...
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1
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407
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An equivalent to the French "se débrouiller"
My first language is French, and there's something I'd like to know how to translate in English. The verb "se débrouiller" seems to hard to master. Here's some examples of that word.
Quand j'ai ...
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4
votes
1
answer
294
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What idiom should I use for this paragraph?
What idiom should I use for the following phrase? Is the last line fine?
He often had to get up at four AM. Sometimes he had to lift on an old minibus colt to get to his office. He would sit on the ...
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1
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A bad swimmer: like a beer bottle in water
"Beer bottle" is a Korean idiom for a poor swimmer. You could express it as 저는 물에서 맥주병입니다 which would translate literally to "I, in water, am a beer bottle."
The phrase obviously derives from the ...
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