lisajhb

Carrying on from the lost in translation thread a while ago, talking about translating humour from italian to english, I wondered if anyone has problems at times, successfully translating specific vocab, verbs etc from italian to english and vice versa. Of course I cant actually think of many examples right now, but i know there have been many times when i havent been able to find the right translation. For example, can anyone tell me how you can say "sad" in italian. I obviously dont mean the emotion, but the slang to mean pathetic.

cornishvellan

sad-sfigato

Lorna at Vicenza

but isn't that closer to - unlucky - pathetic?

You can say a person is sfigato but you couldn't really say a situation is......

if you saw a 55yr old mutton dresed as lamb trying to cop off with a 20 yr old adonis and you thought it was all a bid 'sad' you could maybe say....

é penoso (painful - pathetic)

lisajhb

Ok i like that. Heres another one for you girls, how do you say " fare la denuncia." Is it only make a police complaint? Sounds sooo much better in italian.
Oh and is there a way of saying " good ridance?!"

Lorna at Vicenza

fare una denuncia is to make a formal and official complaint.
it is modtly used in police terms but can also be used for insurance purposes and just recently I made a denuncia in the enviromental office at my town hall about a neigbour who kept burning all his rubbish at any time of day in hs fireplace inside his shed kind of out-building.
Normally I wouldn't have gone so far but his chimney is basically infront of my terrace and I got sick of bringing in my washing stinking of very bad smoke and also got sick of my little kids saying "mummy - close the doors and windows - that burny man is stinking out the house again"
I already knew that the new enviromental laws here say that you can't burn so much as a blade of grass and this guy was burning laminated bits of smashed up furniture, painted fences and God knows what else.
I did politely ask him one day if he could limit his fires to night time only and he told me where to go in a very strong language ..............
"Right" I thought - "I'll show you". I even took photos with me to the town hall - pressed my point very strongly and well well well - fastests response ever - just 3 weeks later the Polizia Locale were in his back courtyard for over 20 minutes and they took their own photos too.
I hope the old git got a huge fine !!!!!!!!!!!!

Lorna at Vicenza

can't think now of any exact translation but you could say for objects .....

meglio liberarsi

and for a phrase like "good riddance to bad rubbish" I can only think of ....

Meglio senza che con ----- not quite the same but gives the same idea.

Patty

Well done you !!!! That'll show the old git ! Hope he gets what he deserves.
These old contadini think they can do what the hell they like. My neighbour has 3 shitty little dogs - they make our lives a misery - sometimes they fight and I sit there praying they might tear each other to pieces ! I don't let my cat out the front cos they would tear him apart. Really pees me off !!!:curse:

ballerina

I had a book in England (why did I leave it there?!) called 2000 Italian-English idioms with tons of phrases in English showing the Italian versions and vice versa.. they had some pretty funny ones.. the one I learnt first was something like : la ragazza è interessante... che peccato che sia brutta come le fame!' (lots of sp mistakes no doubt). It was the equivalent of saying someone is ugly as sin, but literally means 'ugly like the hunger'!!! very italian.
My boyfriend taught me a phrase yesterday somthing about monkeys without branches not swinging to the next tree... he was trying to say that unless my boss was really stupid, she wouldn't sack me until she had got someone to replace me. If anyone knows the saying I'd love to hear it! (and my boss was stupid.. she cut her nose off to spite her face.. how do you say that?)

Lorna at Vicenza

cut off her nose to spite her face ............
my boss did that too when he tried to sack me
and the only italian equivalent as a proverb that I know of is .....
darsi la zappa sui piedi (smash the rake into one's own feet)