Some phrases just don't translate...

11 May 2012

In the 8 years I've been studying Spanish, I've learned that there are just some phrases that don't translate or are false friends--meaning they don't mean what you expect them to mean. I wanted to share a couple I came upon while reading rough drafts of pen pal letters, others I've heard about from other people's stories, and some that I've misunderstood when I heard them.

I'm also going to share a couple words that don't have a direct translation. Also, I think it's interesting to consider why some words translate better than others and what this might say about culture.

pesado/pesada. While reading pen pal rough drafts, I was trying to figure out why all of the girls were writing "Is your sister as heavy as my sister?" This seemed a little rude. Spaniards tend to be more direct than Americans, but they are extremely rude. I'll admit I had to think about this question for nearly 45 minutes before I figured out what the problem was. The girls wanted to use the word "pesada" which means both heavy and annoying. Unfortunately, they translated the word wrong and asked about how heavy their sisters are instead of how annoying they are.

constipado/constipada. For your information, this does not mean constipated. It's actually used to mean "stuffy" or "congested" as in "My nose is stuffy." I think it throws everyone off the first time they hear it in Spanish.

awkward. While you can translate awkward into Spanish as uncomfortable, this just doesn't fully capture the full essence of the meaning of the word awkward. I'm 100% sure that the fact that the word awkward doesn't exist as such in Spanish doesn't have anything to do with the lack of awkward situations in Spanish. I assure you the awkwardness is a universal problem.

feeling hot/cold. These should not be directly translated. In Spanish, you have cold (tengo frío) or you have hot (tengo calor). If you use the Spanish verb for "to be," it will have a sexual connotation. One girl on my first trip to Spain learned this the hard way when our guide just laughed at her.

procrastinator. There isn't a single word for this in Spanish. I asked my language exchange partner about it a week ago because I wanted to describe myself that way in Spanish. However, you can basically only call yourself  "alguien que deja todo hasta el último momento."

quirky. I had a conversation about this word with my language exchange partner. I explained that a quirk is something a little funny/goofy that someone does for no real reason, but that usually it's seen as a positive or funny thing. He told me that the translation would be "manía," but I'm not sure that captures the positive side of the word "quirky."

embarazada. This is a false friend. It doesn't mean embarrassed. It means pregnant. I know someone who once said that she was "embarazada" to her host parents in order to say that she was embarrassed about something. They looked at her stomach strangely and only later did she realize her error.