Polish words difficult to translate into English include: ZABYTEK, ZABYTKOWY: For isnstance: W naszym mieście jest sporo barokowych zabytków; zabytkowy samochód, książka, fresk... WYCHOWANIE, WYCHOWAWCZY: Ministerstwo Oświaty i Wychowania; zakład wychowawczy REPREZENTACYJNY: reprezentacyjna sala, fundusz reprezentacyjny KAMIENICA: On mieszka na parterze zabytkowej kamienicy KILKANAŚCIE, KILKADZIESIĄT: kilknaście osób, kilkanaście tysięcy dolarów, kilkadziesiąt lat Any suggestions, other examples?
nah, kamienica is more specific. This is a building, but it can't be called "kamienica"
no, but you don't find these buildings in the city...when people say "w której kamienicy mieszkasz?" what they really mean is "which building do you live in?" Otherwise fine, have it your way and translate it as "Which urban buiding made of stone do you live in?"
That calls to mind anotter difficult word -- murowany as in "murowany zamek"... English is more precise in specifying whether it was made of brick or stone.
Yes, wychwoanie is upbringing or rearing, but how does that sound in a proper name: Departament of Upbringing, Child Education and Rearing Department???
Can you think of any other such untranslatable or difficult to translate Polish words.
Don't be silly. The theme of this thread are literal translations. Perhaps "brick house"?
Kamienica may literally mean "stone building", but I think the closest English equivalent is "tenement".
If someone was asking you if you live in a kamienica, it is clear from the question that they aren't just asking you which (unspecific) building you live in, because "building" could include tower blocks (wielkie płyty) or other types of construction, but these aren't kamienice.
- this is not exact match translation (at least rearing definitely isn't)
one difficult word to translate is życzliwość - no nearly exact match transaltion in English
does umpteen really mean more than 10 and less than 20 ? I had an impression it means some not certain figure but not a very big one (not several at the same time) - well my impression could just prove wrong
As in: "Coorvah, I woke up, coorvah, took a shower, coorvah, had a cup of coffee, coorvah, drove to work, coorvah, then came back, coorvah, had some dinner, coorvah, watched a game, coorvah, an went to bed, coorvah."
I think the best way to translate "coorvah" is: "comma".
ruffled blanket, but "wymemłany" as you said is kind of slang/dialect word. same goes for "funfle", "dundle", "dutki" and many others, which do not come under "hard to translate" category in my opinion. difficult
As in: "Coorvah, I woke up, coorvah, took a shower, coorvah, had a cup of coffee, coorvah, drove to work, coorvah, then came back, coorvah, had some dinner, coorvah, watched a game, coorvah, an went to bed, coorvah."
I think the best way to translate "coorvah" is: "comma".
I always find 'smacznego'* a bit tricky to translate, well I have settled for either: 1. enjoy your meal! 2. bon appetit! The thing is, the first one doesn't mean exactly the same and the second one isn't really in English, is it :)
*smacznego - derived from the word smaczny/smaczna - tasty
it doesn't make sense to look for the english equivalent of certain words because in some countries they simply don't have certain types of buildings, or food, or anything else for that matter, so naturally they cannot have a word for something that doesn't exist in their country. common sense.
how can you say there is no translation in english for "kurwa"? it's f@ck, only in English, we have many more forms of "f@ck", like with an ing, ed, etc. Like usual, Polish has one word when English has several, all with slightly different meanings, but Polish simplifies it all to one word. A million examples of this in Polish. Anyway, back to Kurwa and F@ck:
na przyklad:
"F@ck, I woke up, f@ckin' took a shower, had a f@ckin' cup of coffee, f@ckin' drove to work, then came the f@ck back..."....so on and so forth.
i've yet to come across a word in Polish that didn't have an English translation, excluding of course things that don't exist in English speaking countries but exist in Poland.
i've yet to come across a word in Polish that didn't have an English translation, excluding of course things that don't exist in English speaking countries but exist in Poland.
how can you say there is no translation in english for "kurwa"? it's f@ck, only in English, we have many more forms of "f@ck", like with an ing, ed, etc. Like usual, Polish has one word when English has several, all with slightly different meanings, but Polish simplifies it all to one word. A million examples of this in Polish. Anyway, back to Kurwa and F@ck:
You're completelly wrong, kurwa is not precisely fuck, although it might be used in a similar manner, there are few polish words beside kurwa that overlap with the word fuck. Such as jebać, pierdolić, pieprzyć and so on they all have different meaning same as fuck. Don't state something if you don't know the language well enough..
Many countries have a 'favorite' expletive, usually with some kind of sexual meaning. It's what people say when they get upset and tends to be used often in ways where the literal meaning would make no sense.
For Americans, that word is 'fuck'. For Brits, I guess it's fuck too but I have the impression that it used to be 'bollocks' (a word most in the US are ignorant of).
In Spanish, it varies by country, chinga in Mexico (fuck), puta (whore) in Nicaragua and con~o (cunt) in Cuba and Spain are ones that I know about.
For Poland, that word is kurwa, which means 'whore' of course. But as the expletive of choice, it corresponds to American use of 'fuck' as a semantically empty way of cursing. It does not correspond to fuck in referring to sexual acts.
For Poland, that word is kurwa, which means 'whore' of course. But as the expletive of choice, it corresponds to American use of 'fuck' as a semantically empty way of cursing. It does not correspond to fuck in referring to sexual acts.
Good explanation. That's how I've translated it as well.
there are few polish words beside kurwa that overlap with the word fuck. Such as jebać, pierdolić, pieprzyć and so on they all have different meaning same as fuck.
sure there are other words/variations, but I can say the same thing about english. no different.
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