untranslatable phrases are a piece of cake

Grymnir schrieb: ,,Gerlish"

Wrong spelling Sir: German + English = Gerglish

Another running joke about Germany is germ any.

7a schrieb:Wrong spelling Sir: German + English = Gerglish

Oh, my bad ^^

Germ any, thats pretty funny :)

To be henpecked - Ein Pantoffelheld sein
To chose between the devil and the deep blue sea -Die Wahl zwischen Pest und Cholera haben
Go jump in a lake- Geh dahin, wo der Pfeffer wächst

airtight - wasserdicht

Smoking Gun: Eindeutiger Beweis

I would say these sentences are translatable because there is an German equivalent. I find it interesting that all these sayings have also been developed in our country, in some way.

Are there English sayings that have no German equivalent and are therefore truly untranslatable?

@FreakySmiley

,,Underachiever" has no real German equivalent, it is mostly translated with ,, jemand, der mit seinen Leistungen hinter den Erwartungen zurückbleibt", but there is no simple German word to explain what it means.

,,Timing" is used in German the same Way its used in English, but there is no German word for it.

@Grymnir
I just ran the englisch Timing through a translater. There are many words for it:
zeitlich anpassend {adj}
Timing {n}
Zeiteinteilung {f}
Zeitablauf {m}
Terminierung {f}
Zeitwahl {f}
Zeitgefühl {n}
Zeitmessung {f}
Zeitvorgabe {f}
Zeitplanung {f}
Zeitaufnahme {f}
Zeitsteuerung {f}
Zeitberechnung {f}
zeitliche Planung {f}
zeitlicher Ablauf {m}
zeitliche Steuerung {f}
zeitliche Abstimmung {f}
zeitliche Einplanung {f}
zeitliche Regulierung {f}
zeitliche Koordinierung {f}

@FreakySmiley
@Grymnir
There are more English nouns missing a German translation,such as smog, (smoke + fog)

@FreakySmiley

From all these translations only ,,Zeitgefühl" comes closeto the meaning of ,,timing".

There sure are many more Words, but i cant pull them out of the ,,Stegreif"

@7a
You're right. smog has been carried over.

@Grymnir
Because timing is generally a technical word used in everyday talk, "zeitliche Abstimmung" fits best.
You can also make one word out of it: "zeitabstimmung"

@FreakySmiley

Yeah thats the big avantage of th erman language: I wonder what a ,,Siebtrommeltrocknungsanlage" would be called in English... or even worse, in Spanish :D

@Grymnir
Can't you use that "-" for combining in English?

@FreakySmiley

Maybe i could, but i am so used to the German way that i use it all the time.i dont even know why the keyboard doesnt offer the German quotation marks and i have to use two kommas.

@Grymnir
@FreakySmiley

You are not the yellow from the egg, are you?

@CurtisNewton

No, check this out: My Englisch is not the yellow from the egg!

@Grymnir

Well, your Kartoffel-English is a "pain in the ass" = absolut schrecklich :D :D

And his ( @FreakySmiley ), too :)

@CurtisNewton

Yeah, i know that my english grammar is heavyly influenced by the german, but what can i do... When speaking english its not that much. I dont know the reason, but as long as you understand what i'm writing everything is fine, i guess :)

@Grymnir

Every dog has its' day :D