I know some of you hate the Twitter with a hot tweety passion, but I wanted to let you know that I’m giving away digital copies of Lessons in French today, courtesy of Sourcebooks Casablanca. So if you’re online, watch for hastag #lif and see what crazy trivia I come up with today.
This week we’ve done French idioms (Faire une carte de France? I better see that in a romance novel REAL soon), animal husbandry, bulls in fiction, and Regency insults and trivia. Oh, and Great Moments in Women’s History, with your host, Napoleon Bonaparte.
But suppose you want a digital copy, and don’t have the Twitter? Can’t use it at work? Aren’t interested? How about we give away a digital copy here? Sure, why not! Leave a comment with your favorite foreign language phrase, and it can be French or any other language, and the translation, and I’ll pick one winner at random to receive a digital copy of Lessons in French. Comments close in 24 hours. Bring on the funky foreign phrases!
Pura vida – kind of means what a great life.
Im a fan of tête-à-tête and Ménage à trois. 😉
Is a translation really necessary?
Word: give64 …only 5 off!
ILLEGITIMI NON CARBORUNDUM – Don’t let the bastards get you down
PERFUR, OBDURA – Hold out, be strong
AUDACES FORTUNA IUVAT – Fortune favors the bold
UVA UVAM VIDENDO VARIA FIT – Garbled latin from Lonesome Dove – Means “a grape changes color when it sees another grape”
Cher
My all-time favorite: Meine Eltern haben sich nach Asien abgesetzt!
German for “My parents had to flee to Asia!”
Applicable to a variety of situations, of course.
Word verification: enough68. Time to move on to the next number, perhaps? 🙂
“mon petit chou” = my little cabbage
Or at least that was what I was taught!
For some reason this endearment has ALWAYS charmed me…
One more – the only Spanish I remember from school
El elephantes sun animal que no vive en hoteles
(Elephants don’t live in hotels)
Cher
La plume de ma tante est sur le bureau de mon oncle. Le papier de mon oncle est sur le bureau de ma tante. Bureau du ma tante!
Translation: the pen of my aunt is on the bureau of my uncle. The paper of my uncle is on the bureau of my aunt. Bureau of my aunt!
I’ve been singing that phrase all morning.
spamword: called99
The only thing I remember from my Russian class is
Razresite vam priglasaty na taniets – Would you dance with me?
(My hovercraft is full of eels in Hungarian is “A légpárnás hajóm angolnákkal van tele”)
Je t’aime – what is sweeter?
Pogue mo thoin!
(Pogue muh ho-in)
Nice Irish way to say “kiss my ass” 🙂
Illud Latine dici non possum
(I can’t say that in Latin)
I know it’s not a phrase—but it is foreign and beautiful to me in either tongue.
Love Sonnet XVII
by Pablo Neruda
en espanol
No te amo como si fueras rosa de sal, topacio
o flecha de claveles que propagan el fuego:
te amo como se aman ciertas cosas oscuras,
secretamente, entre la sombra y el alma.
Te amo como la planta que no florece y
lleva dentro de si, escondida, la luz de aquellas flores,
y gracias a tu amor vive oscuro en mi cuerpo
el apretado aroma que ascendis de la tierra.
Te amo sin saber como, ni cuando, ni de donde,
te amo directamente sin problemas ni orgullo:
asi te amo porque no si amar de otra manera,
sino asi de este modo en que no soy ni eres,
tan cerca que tu mano sobre mi pecho es mia,
tan cerca que se cierran tus ojos con mi sueno.
in english
I don’t love you as if you were the salt-rose,topaz
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire;
I love you as certain dark things are loved,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that doesn’t bloom and carries
hidden within itself the light of those flowers,
and thanks to your love, darkly in my body
lives the dense fragrance that rises from the earth.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you simply, without problems or pride;
I love you in this way because I don’t know any other way of loving,
but this, in which there is no I or you,
so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand,
so intimate that when I fall asleep it is your eyes that close.
When I took Russian in college, we really wanted to know some quality profanity, but never managed to learn any. So we had to make do with what words we could put together from our texts. I came up with “chlyen su shchi.” Which may or may not mean “penis with ears,” but that’s what I was going for and it was something you could mutter at will with no fear of repercussions, because, really, how many people know badly translated Russian?
Baciami.
It’s Italian for “Kiss me.” Me and my ex (who was Italian) used to say that to each other.
Italian’s a pretty language.
I took both Latin and Spanish in high school, and have one phrase in each that stuck with me. (Ignore my spelling/grammer errors—it’s been a while since high school!)
For Latin: ‘Plurimum bibi, et planus madidus est.’ = I drank too much, and now I’m totally wasted.
And Spanish: ‘Silencio! Estoy friendo las papas fritas!’ = Be quiet! I’m frying french fries!
…I think I had some entertaining language teachers in high school.
I can’t find the actual French on the internet and I don’t have the movie in front of me, so I have to rely on Google translator and my memory:
Cameron: Puis-je tu offrir un panais?
Bianca: Non, tu mai pas.
Cameron: Où est-crayon de mon oncle?
Bianca: Je ne sais pas. Peut-être que c’est ton cul?
May I offer you a parsnip?
No, you may not.
Where is my uncle’s pen?
I don’t know. Maybe it is up your ass?
(from 10 Things I Hate About You. The discussion continues with her getting pissed off – in French – that he hasn’t asked her out, since it’s obvious his French is poor and he’s just “tutoring” her to get close to her)
Roughly transliterated from the Cyrillic that I no longer remember:
Kakaya krasiveya mashina!
Translation: What a beautiful car!
Why I remember it: This was the sentence used as an example of a particular Russian stress pattern, used to indicate surprise/wonder; the pitch goes up on the second syllable of the phrase and back down on the penultimate syllable. It’s pretty much the only thing I retain from college Russian.
I only know how to say this, not how to spell it, so I deeply apologize to any Dutch speakers for my thoroughly bastardized transliteration.
My aunt lives in Holland and the last time she visited we created a nonsensical, off-color song to be sung to the tune of “Frere Jacques”:
Mieren nohke, mieren nohke,
Stoma lul, stoma lul
Khotverdamme klotzak, khotverdamme klotzak
Sukkul kreng, sukkul kreng.
It translates to:
Ant-fucker, ant-fucker (literally; the figurative meaning is “nitpicker”)
Stupid penis, stupid penis
Goddamned scrotum, goddamned scrotum
Asshole bitch, asshole bitch.
If I had to choose a specific phrase, it would probably be “Mieren nohke.”
One of my favorite French idioms is: Revenons à nos moutons, the literal translation being “Let’s get back to our sheep”, i.e., “let’s get back on the subject”, from a medieval French farce.
In Latin, a personal favorite: Cuius testiculos habes, habes cardia et cerebellum. That’s from a Discworld novel by the inimitable Terry Pratchett, and he translated it (very politely) as: when you have their attention in your grasp, their hearts and minds will follow. The literal translation’s a bit more colorful than that 😉 .
I know lots of interesting phrases in in one particular foreign language. Since that language is English, however, I suppose they would not qualify, since I presume that by “foreingn language” you really mean “not English”. (My first language is Norwegian.)
OTOH, if I start quoting, say, Håvamål in Norwegian, I would be taking unfair advantage of my origins. But I suppose quoting one verse – and starting with Old Norse – should take care of that 😉
Old Norse
Er-a svá gótt
sem gótt kveða
öl alda sona,
því at færa veit,
er fleira drekkr
síns til geðs gumi.
Norwegian
Inkje so godt
som godt dei segjer
er øl for manna-ætt.
Di meir du drikk,
di mindre vit
mun du i hausen hava.
English:
Less good there lies
than most believe
In ale for mortal men;
For the more he drinks
the less does man
Of his mind the mastery hold.
A couple of bits of Latin
Homo sum; human? nil ? m? alienum put?.
I am a man; I believe that nothing human is foreign to me.
Ipsa scientia potestas est
Knowledge itself is power
si post fata venit gloria non propero
If glory comes after death, I’m not in a hurry
And to finish, a bit of Klingon
Heghlu’meH QaQ jajvam
Today is a good day to die
“Habent sua fata libelli” -it means books have their own fates. It’s going to be the text of my next tattoo, incidentally. 🙂
baileythebookworm at gmail dot com
En la boca serada no entran moscas – it means flies don’t enter a closed mouth.
My mom was fond of using this phrase when I was in high school 🙂
I’m partial to the Japanese zenzenchigau. It means “that’s not right at all,” and it’s helpful to have something in your hand to throw as you say it!
Since I’m the former, I appreciate the latter! (I’m a non-twitter-er, so thanks for the giveaway here!)
Sláinte! (To Your Health)
Three polite Irish curses, ascending:
Imeacht gan teacht ort.
—May you leave without returning
Titim gan eliri ort.
—May you fall without rising.
Go nithe an cat thu, is go nithe an diabhal an cat.
—May the cat eat you, and may the cat be eaten by the devil.
Favorite insult:
Hircus gravis in alis hirsutis vestris vivit.
A serious billy goat lives in your armpit.
Flirty:
Sum magister deliciarum.
I am the master of pleasures.
In German, you can say “Du kannst mich mal” (you can [unstated] me) in contexts where in English you would say “Bite me”.
Another useful phrase: “Halt die Klappe” (stop your flap) = “shut up”
Carpe Diem -Seize the day.
My favorite foreign phrase is mon petit chou….my little cabbage…
My sister recently went through a Spanish course. Being southern, she came home and butchered “gracias,” making it sound more like “grassy-ass.” We don’t ever plan on letting her live it down 🙂
On a Friday afternooon I would really love to have un verre de vin, s’il vous plait (a glass of wine please).
Great contest!
voulez vous coucher avec moi?
My favorite spanish saying: Me cago en la leche! (Translates into “I s**t in the milk”)
God, I’ve already forgotten my Irish cursing.
I’ve tried for years to get my sister to remember some Spanish phrases, but at least I got one through. Now, whenever I ask how she is (in SP), it goes like this:
Me: “Como estas?”
Her: “Las cucarachas entran, pero no puedan salir.”
“The cockroaches enter, but they can’t leave.” It’s the old “Roach Motel” slogan.
having failed miserably so far to win a copy on Twitter, even after correctly identifying Artificial Vagina (thanks Dirty Jobs man)
I’ve come here. 🙂
My favourite so far, is, without doubt:
Go nithe an cat thu, is go nithe an diabhal an cat.
—May the cat eat you, and may the cat be eaten by the devil.
ROFLMAOPIMP!
Voulez vous couchez avec moi ce soir?
I’m fairly adept at French (thank you College!) but this remains my all time favorite phrase. Great pickup line? It worked on the boyfriend!
I love the French phrase ‘J’en ai marre.’ It means ‘I’m fed up’ or ‘I’ve had enough’ in English. I love it mostly because my school French teacher was a huge fan of legendary musical miserabilists The Smiths and was endlessly amused (given the theme of many of their songs) that ‘J’en ai marre’ sounds like the name of The Smiths guitarist, Johnny Marr.
My favourite phrase has to be my mum’s endearment to us. She calls us Ya Kibdi in Moroccan arabic which means my liver. I asked her the meaning of that and she replied that as her kids we are vital to her just as her liver and its a commmon endearment in Morocco 😀
I forgot to add my foreign language quote-how about some Welsh?
Twlch dyn pwb sais.” (apologies for spelling) It means The English are a** holes.
I have lots of favorite Italian idioms….but I’ll pick one that shows off my favorite thing about language: the drift from one original phrase to something totally wacky.
To say someone is crazy in Italian, you say they are “of their head/mind”—“fuori di testa”. Most people just shorten this expression to “fuori”—“out” or “outside”. So you say “She was so mad, she was almost outside.” And if someone is totally batty, they aren’t just outside, they’re so outside that they are “fuori come un balcone”—“outside like a balcony”.