Can you translate poor English to English?
These expressions are very literally translated from Dutch to English. Can you guess their meanings and think of an equivalent expression? Or just wing it?
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1) I've got a wee apple for the thirst!
2) C'mon, bite through the sour apple..
3) That will not fit through the trolley!
4) This is fighting against the beer quay mate!
5) Someone's walking across my grave..
6) You shouldn't ask me the shirt of my body.
7) Joost may know that.
8) Now my clog breaks!
9) I'm off to snap a little owl.
Update:.. Apple, good try! I'll give points to the most correct.. Or the most politically incorrect :o)
Answers & Comments
Verified answer
But...It FEELS like homework!
Get a copy of Wren and Martin 's English Grammar with the Companion Volume for exercises.After improving the spoken language a bit, enrol in British Institute's Course in English as a Second Language.
I'd say:
1.
2. Thinking dry throat so thirsty and a juicy apple will cure this!
3. Not got a scooby!
4. This is a struggle.
5. Can mean one of too things a) someone has/is talking about you or b) you've had a touch of deja vu.
6. Again not got a scooby!
7. Someone called Joost has the answer to your question.
8. I've broken the heel of my stiletto.
9. I'm going to bed!
Tee Hee Hee.
I will probably make a total fool of myself but what the heck, it's for fun.
1. A small thirst for a drink
2. Go on you can do it
3. You can't fit a large butt into a small seat
4. You fighting a losing battle
5. I just had a shiver
6. I would give you the shirt off my back
7. Ask someone else
8. Now I remember
9. I'm going to break someone's neck (second guess on that one requires a bathroom)
Be nice when you let me know how much I messed that one up please...:-)
i surely nominate you for question of the month. i find it utterly intriguing. i'm sitting trying to decipher all this. i've heard some pennsylvania dutch, like "the cow over the fence jumped" but man, this is tough.
8. i'd try to translate as "now i'm mad!"
9. taking a poo? 7. only God knows? 2. take it like a man? 3. that will NEVER work!? 4. rowing against the tide? futile? 5. i have a bad feeling about this! (that sounds good) 6. don't ask of me what you would not give me?
GAWD, my brain hurts!
1) Let me get you a drink
2) Give it a go, or If at first you don't succeed..
3) That won't fit on! Hold on darlin', I've got a Large here...
4) Going against the grain, or against the tide
5) My ears are burning
6) You're asking an arm and a leg
7) Ask Jeeves
8)That's the last straw
9) I don't give a hoot!
This is what teachers call grammar translation. If you are teaching English to, in this case Dutch students, then you need to know at least a little bit of the language. Although, preferably we should encourage students not to translate, and if they do... very little!
How many English direct_translations could you translate into Dutch?
Now I want to know what they mean! I'll take a stab at it...
1. I'm thirsty?
2. tough it out
3. its too big?
4. whaaaa?
5. I have no idea, but maybe its like how people say their ear itches when people are talking about them...
6. you're asking for too much
7. I have know clue
8. wtf??
9. this is gross... but it just sounds to me like it means they have to take a little bathroom break
your thirsty you want cider your fat and you can't fight tou are cold and you took your clothes off you know something and then your shoe broke you need a wee your drunk aren't you