For example, "björntjänst" under Swedish. If you actually check the Reddit post, you can see that people have posted "niedźwiedzia przysługa" (Polish), "Bärendienst" (German), "medveđa usluga" (Serbocroatian) and "bjørnetjeneste" (Norwegian) as the literal same word. I can also confirm that the Finnish "karhunpalvelus" is also a literal one-to-one translation.
Same in Russian: медвежья услуга (/mʲɪˈdvʲeʐjə ʊˈsluɡə/ in IPA)
heck, i'd argue that most abstract words are just close-ish approximations, which can be used to convey the same thing, but are also useable in different contexts with significantly changed meaning.
Take yesterday's wordle for example: tangy. few languages have something that maps onto exactly this meaning. Its still easy to translate it with a sentence, but its likely going to be more than one word. And the chosen translation will likely change significantly depending on the context the word is used in.
To claim otherwise would be like saying that the concept of chile pepper can only be expressed in Nahuatl.
Then there's plenty examples where a direct English equivalent exists even if it's not a literal translation of the original: nachäffen (de) = na-apen (nl) = mimicking (en), but English lacks the animal connotation (Affe == aap == ape); schwarzfahren (de) = zwartrijden (nl) = fare dodging (en), but English loses the colour in the expression (Schwarz == zwart == black).
Funny thing also that it lists the Spanish "sobremesa" as after-dinner conversation, then lists the Dutch "natafelen" as lingering after having finished dinner, continuing conversation. The two are equivalent expressions, except that one is a noun and one is a verb. Same for "fremdschämen" (de) and "vergüenza ajena" (es), which is known in Dutch as "plaatsvervangende schaamte".
Even here, english has the term 'aping': https://www.google.com/search?q=define%3Aaping, with the same meaning and retains the same animal connotation.
I'm not sure of the origin, but "lust for life" is an expression that's been used in English for at least a century, it seems. It was the name of a biography of Vincent Van Gogh.
The earliest reference on this page seems to be a German film, so maybe it comes from German: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lust_for_Life
Hmm, maybe it goes back further - Google Books seems to have some instances from the 19th century. A few are negative, basically using the phrase to mean being worldly and not spiritual, a bad thing or even a "curse".
In that sense it wouldn't seem to be the same meaning, but maybe it changed over time.
I’m a native English speaker and I’ve never heard of the expression “Joie de vivre”, so I don’t understand how “Joie de vivre” is the English translation of “Joie de vivre”.
But well done for so densely packing French loan words (loan phrases?) into a single paragraph!
From a French perspective though it’s mixed French/English until the end which would be entirely French.
And below, a broken banner for "Take back the Web, Get Firefox".
Complete with a link to spreadfirefox.com that seems to be broken.
One funny thing I've noticed with French EFL speakers of medium proficiency is that they too think all those loanwords from French aren't English words. It's always fun to troll them dropping a en route and look at their reaction.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/joie%20de%20vivre
This one’s on you. Here’s a helpful list: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_French_expressio...
https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=Joie+de+vivr...
It's one of those weird specific words that you use to show that you're smarter than you are (this doesn't apply to Stephen Fry of course :D )
It has been estimated that English has more than a million words, what percentage do you think you actually know?
> Typically native speakers know 15,000 to 20,000 word families - or lemmas - in their first language.
Sounds about right to me.
A literal or detailed and contextful translation does not express the same "feeling" as in the native tongue, which you could argue as a what is impossible to translate.
Instead the subreddit's description[0] is a far better description, and the discussion on each phrase about possible translations or similar ideas in different languages is a lot of fun!
[0]: Post quirky and niche words/phrases from foreign languages that can't easily be translated.