Dienstag, 22. Februar 2011

introducing: untranslatable words

Did you ever come across a word that expressed perfectly what you want to utter - only in a different language? And when you start to explain you notice different connotations concepts have and how much of the fine details change when translating. A group of artists have made the effort to collect untranslateable words and describe what they mean and how to use them, thus we can broaden our vocabulary and score some  extra eloqunece points at the next dinner party.

Check out the online version of the book, where you can also download it:
http://www.untranslatables.net/

My favourite word for today: Fika
"You can say “let’s fika!” to someone when you want to take a break from work, or even when you want to go on a date."

1 Kommentar:

Rasmus Karlsson hat gesagt…

My favourite untranslatable word is "Wehmut" or "vemod" in Swedish.

Not only is it difficult/impossible to translate into English ("pensive melancholy" just does not have the same connotations), I am not even sure that Wehmut exists as a mode of existence for native speakers of English :-)