Chinese words with no English equivalent

[carlo]

^^ 膻 shan1 as in shan1wei4 in Mandarin. And what about the famous Japanese umami (旨味), don't know if an official Chinese translation exists (it may be 鲜味, but I'm not sure)。

[skylee]

I think the term is "seen" in Cantonese, I have no idea what it is in English.

We use "臊" (sou, pronounced as "so" in English) to describe the taste/smell of mutton. But I guess the right word is 羶 (膻 in simplified Chinese, as in carlo's post).

[geraldc]

oh yeah, it's so, I think seen is the one to describe something that tastes a bit like snake...

The reason why I find 臊 hard to translate, is that some people who like eating lamb/mutton, won't eat it if it tastes 臊. So you can't say that Mr X won't eat lamb if it tastes of "lamb". If you stew lamb/mutton for a long time, it's normally not 臊, but it still tastes of lamb/mutton...

[in_lab]

For 羶 , you could say gamey. I not sure if I've heard 羶 used in conversation, but I often hear 腥味. For seafood, you could say fishy, I guess, but for other meats, like pork, I'm not sure if it would be gamey or something like "smells like it's going bad." Whatever it is, I'm not very sensitive to it.

[amego]

氣質 qizhi

This is quite difficult to translate.

Haha I've always tot of it as "X-factor"

what about 加油？what'll be the translation? add oil? work harder?

Try harder, buck up but the "feel" is not there.

-nandao 难道

-shunbian 顺便

-suibian 随便

难道~"Don't tell me"

難道是真的~Don't tell me its real

muhaha

顺便

我幫你拿 I help you take.　

我順便幫你拿 I help you take too???

I have one: 苦衷, always translated as "reason", but its not the same as 理由.

[Quest]

I was trying to translate 难道，不如 and 反正 today.

[Dani_man]

-不如 -aren't equal, for example: 人和动物不如

难道： 难道你会说中文？Could it be that you speak Chinese?

反正 - It's like anyway.

Those words do have their own translation,

but they get different meaning in different sentences (Like 难道 - don't tell me that...)

[richiechen]

Guanxin关心

[muyongshi]

How about 红包. I know it's a known but it is still a cultural based word....

[ABCinChina]

For 紅包, I've been using "red envelope" since I was little. I wonder is that is what everyone calls it...

关心 = be concerned about (sth.)

不如 = it would be better to...

[muyongshi]

The point of this post is that even if translated an english native speaker wouldn't necessarily know what you are talking about or the meanings do not exactly line up.

If you went to England and starting saying red envelope they would not know what you are talking about because it is has a culturally based background.

[chenpv]

I read an article about '蹭饭族' in universities in China just now. And this character '蹭' sort of gave me a really hard time for an equivalent in English. Is there an English word that means 'gently rubbing/nuzzling/stroking somebody/something back and forth'? Also for '蹭东西', any word that means 'haunting around someone/someplace in an affectionate way so as to snap bits of advantage from this guy/place, probably with this guy/place's acquiescence'? :help

[DrZero]

In what way is it surprising that some Chinese words wouldn't match up one-for-one with English counterparts? They are, after all, languages that developed almost completely separately. I would say that the vast majority of all words don't translate directly and therefore don't have an "equivalent" in English. Even the most basic greetings don't match up.

One thing is for sure, though. Any concept that can be expressed in one language can be expressed in any other. It may take more words or a roundabout way of saying it, but it can be done. So there's really no mystery.

[muyongshi]

No it's not surprising....some are just more difficult/father apart then others due to cultural differences...

[chyilande]

Well, I have been sent here from my own thread, although this one doesn't include English words for which it is hard to find a satisfying Chinese equivalent, and am not sure how many people still go on this topic.

Just want to reply to Muyongshi that I am not surprised by lack of "equivalents" and don't think it's anything mysterious. I just want to see what examples people discovered and what can be learned about the culture from those examples. Just because something isn't surprising doesn't mean it's not worth exploring.

Don't take everything so literally!

[lingo-ling]

Old thread!

But here are a couple:

業者: "people in the industry"

同業: "people in the same industry"

Hard to find an elegant way of phrasing these words in English, unless you specify the industry (e.g. "fellow manufacturers"). Sometimes "competitors" can work, but certainly not all the time.

芬多精 - phytoncide. Interesting example of a word with a translation but with no equivalent. Why? Because of how well-known it is among the populace. Perhaps 99% of adult Taiwanese know what this is, but perhaps 99% of adult native English speakers have never heard of it.

緣分 - fate, destiny. But it's more than that: it's a karmic bond between two people that spans many lifetimes. Karma, karmic bond, karmic affinity.

As for some others in this thread:

勞駕 - does anyone even say this? Years ago when I used it once, I was laughed at and told that I sounded like an octogenarian mainlander. I've never heard anyone use it anywhere.

加油 - depending on the circumstance: "Keep it up!" "Keep going!" "You can do it!" "Go baby go!" "Come on!" "Go!" A general cheer or expression of encouragement

順便 - Equivalent sense can be found in phrases like "While you're at it, ..." "On the way I stopped by..."

厲害 - awesome, damn good 你好厲害! - You rock! 船搖得很厲害 - The boat rocked something fierce.

順利 - successfully, smoothly, safely, without a hitch, uneventful

[Lu]

I recently came across 洗漱. Wash one's face and brush one's teeth, the dictionary said, but it's a bit more I think, the whole ritual of small hygenic routines one does before going to bed and/or after getting up.

And 玩, not sure if it has been mentioned yet. It's a lot broader than 'play'.

[xiaocai]

贱.

[tooironic]

Nasty? Bitchy? When talking about people anyway...

[lingo-ling]

肯定 - affirmation, approval, confirmation; affirmative, certain; affirm, approve. It's one of those words that's very "Chinese" - used a hell of a lot, and in areas where we in English would normally use different phrasing altogether. Gives a general sense of a "thumbs up" from some pertinent authority.