7 ms·

I think they meant it doesn't have an exact one word equivalent.

bryanrasmussen 5y ago
I can see some words on there that do have a one word equivalent, or is it that the equivalencies can't express the concept but also have other meanings as well. I wonder if that wouldn't be the actual rare words, not just words that translate, but in which all the meanings of a word in translating language are the same as the meanings of the word in the target language. on edit: consider Hov in Danish which the page says does not translate, but I think in English Whoa can handle all permutations of Hov, but I don't think Hov really handles the Keanu Reaves type of Whoa. Thus Hov can translate to English, but Whoa cannot translate to Danish by this kind of strict translation. But if we just accept that the most common meaning of a word a needs to translate then Hov and Whoa can both translate to each other, IMHO.
wbsss4412 5y ago
Or they are simply giving the closest possible translation. They list “te quiero” as meaning “I love you but not quite. Which is a mistranslation. It literally translates as “I love you”. But at the same time you have “te amo”, which also translates to “I love you” yet they are two different phrases with different meanings.
- lupire 5y ago
  "te quiero" = "i adore you"
  - wbsss4412 5y ago
    That’s not really my understanding of it, but I’m not perfectly bilingual either.
  - jng 5y ago
    Not really. "I adore you" is literally "te adoro". "Querer" in Spanish just means "to love", it's a synonym to "amar", also "to love". "Querer" is more common language and applied non-romantically all the time, and "amar" is more poetic and veers more towards romantic love, but they both mean the same. BTW, "querer" means "to want", but when it is used to convey love (easy to tell by context), it doesn't ring of objectification in any way. "Quiero a mi familia" is the simplest, clearest, way to say "I love my family".
    - wbsss4412 5y ago
      This is what I had thought. And in the way this is written, it’s clear that querer does not have a clear English translation. No English speaker would truly understand the proper meaning and context with which querer is used without knowing some Spanish.
    - School-Cotton 5y ago
      Indeed. When I first started dating someone who is natively bilingual in English and (Northern Mexican) Spanish, she didn’t yet feel strongly enough about me to say “I love you” in English, so she always told me “te quiero”, as there was no English phrase other than “I love you” that fit in that niche.
    - dmitriid 5y ago
      > "Querer" is more common language and applied non-romantically all the time, and "amar" is more poetic and veers more towards romantic love, but they both mean the same. It's interesting from the point of view of English and Russian. When we tal about people: - In English `love` can be used for both romantic and non-romantic love. - In Russian `love` (especially nowadays) feels to be almost exclusively either romantic or family-related (love between parent-child, between siblings etc.). You can't really tell your friend you love them :) It's weird
      - vba616 5y ago
        >You can't really tell your friend you love them You might say in English to a friend "I love you" meaning "I'm bemused by your quirks, but I'm fond of you anyway". I wonder how that translates.
- jp_sc 5y ago
  The best translation for “te quiero” is “I care about you”
  - School-Cotton 5y ago
    The correct translation depends on the context, but I think the English expression with the most overlap is “I love you”, with the understanding that the overlap is imperfect because the English phrase can, in some but not all contexts, imply a stronger emotion than the Spanish one. “Te quiero” is an extremely common stock phrase in Spanish, whereas nobody really says “I care about you” in English, so I think that choice of “the best translation” is unsatisfying.
- tremon 5y ago
  Rather, it literally translates as "I want you", and is often used in the romantic sense more than "te amo". My impression is that "amor" in Spanish isn't as single-mindedly restricted to love interests as it is in English: amor/amar is used for close friends and relatives as well.
  - wbsss4412 5y ago
    Querer is also used for non romantic relationships. Source: direct first hand experience.
  - School-Cotton 5y ago
    Sorry but this is completely wrong and backwards, at least in the varieties of Spanish I’ve had exposure to.
itdoestranslate 5y ago
That has never been the definition of translation.
hk__2 5y ago
If that’s the case they should remove all the expressions that are on the website. 5 of the 15 untranslatable Italian “words” are multi-words like “in boca al lupo” (totally translatable: “good luck”) and “rompere il cazzo” (literally “faire chier” in French).

I can see some words on there that do have a one word equivalent, or is it that the equivalencies can't express the concept but also have other meanings as well. I wonder if that wouldn't be the actual rare words, not just words that translate, but in which all the meanings of a word in translating language are the same as the meanings of the word in the target language. on edit: consider Hov in Danish which the page says does not translate, but I think in English Whoa can handle all permutations of Hov, but I don't think Hov really handles the Keanu Reaves type of Whoa. Thus Hov can translate to English, but Whoa cannot translate to Danish by this kind of strict translation. But if we just accept that the most common meaning of a word a needs to translate then Hov and Whoa can both translate to each other, IMHO.

wbsss4412 5y ago

Or they are simply giving the closest possible translation. They list “te quiero” as meaning “I love you but not quite. Which is a mistranslation. It literally translates as “I love you”. But at the same time you have “te amo”, which also translates to “I love you” yet they are two different phrases with different meanings.

lupire 5y ago
"te quiero" = "i adore you"
- wbsss4412 5y ago
  That’s not really my understanding of it, but I’m not perfectly bilingual either.
- jng 5y ago
  Not really. "I adore you" is literally "te adoro". "Querer" in Spanish just means "to love", it's a synonym to "amar", also "to love". "Querer" is more common language and applied non-romantically all the time, and "amar" is more poetic and veers more towards romantic love, but they both mean the same. BTW, "querer" means "to want", but when it is used to convey love (easy to tell by context), it doesn't ring of objectification in any way. "Quiero a mi familia" is the simplest, clearest, way to say "I love my family".
  - wbsss4412 5y ago
    This is what I had thought. And in the way this is written, it’s clear that querer does not have a clear English translation. No English speaker would truly understand the proper meaning and context with which querer is used without knowing some Spanish.
  - School-Cotton 5y ago
    Indeed. When I first started dating someone who is natively bilingual in English and (Northern Mexican) Spanish, she didn’t yet feel strongly enough about me to say “I love you” in English, so she always told me “te quiero”, as there was no English phrase other than “I love you” that fit in that niche.
  - dmitriid 5y ago
    > "Querer" is more common language and applied non-romantically all the time, and "amar" is more poetic and veers more towards romantic love, but they both mean the same. It's interesting from the point of view of English and Russian. When we tal about people: - In English `love` can be used for both romantic and non-romantic love. - In Russian `love` (especially nowadays) feels to be almost exclusively either romantic or family-related (love between parent-child, between siblings etc.). You can't really tell your friend you love them :) It's weird
    - vba616 5y ago
      >You can't really tell your friend you love them You might say in English to a friend "I love you" meaning "I'm bemused by your quirks, but I'm fond of you anyway". I wonder how that translates.
jp_sc 5y ago
The best translation for “te quiero” is “I care about you”
- School-Cotton 5y ago
  The correct translation depends on the context, but I think the English expression with the most overlap is “I love you”, with the understanding that the overlap is imperfect because the English phrase can, in some but not all contexts, imply a stronger emotion than the Spanish one. “Te quiero” is an extremely common stock phrase in Spanish, whereas nobody really says “I care about you” in English, so I think that choice of “the best translation” is unsatisfying.
tremon 5y ago
Rather, it literally translates as "I want you", and is often used in the romantic sense more than "te amo". My impression is that "amor" in Spanish isn't as single-mindedly restricted to love interests as it is in English: amor/amar is used for close friends and relatives as well.
- wbsss4412 5y ago
  Querer is also used for non romantic relationships. Source: direct first hand experience.
- School-Cotton 5y ago
  Sorry but this is completely wrong and backwards, at least in the varieties of Spanish I’ve had exposure to.

itdoestranslate 5y ago

That has never been the definition of translation.

hk__2 5y ago

If that’s the case they should remove all the expressions that are on the website. 5 of the 15 untranslatable Italian “words” are multi-words like “in boca al lupo” (totally translatable: “good luck”) and “rompere il cazzo” (literally “faire chier” in French).