A Few Words of Polish

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Forgive me when I disturb the off topic discussion but I need to know a Polish translation for "Good luck" or "Break a leg". I don't know if the latter exist as an idiom in English as well. In German we use "Hals und Beinbruch", which means "Good luck" as well.
 
PetraSilie said:
I need to know a Polish translation for "Good luck" or "Break a leg". I don't know if the latter exist as an idiom in English as well. In German we use "Hals und Beinbruch", which means "Good luck" as well.
"Good luck" seems like a very worthy addition to our budding Polish vocabulary!*scratches head* I'm not sure I understand what you mean when you say that you don't know if "Break a leg" exists as an indiom in English, since you just used it. Doesn't "Hals und Beinbruch" include breaking more than one's leg in the idiom -- "hals" is "neck," isn't it? So if you didn't say, "Break your neck and leg," then you already know how it goes. :hmmm:In English, "Break a leg" is usually used to wish someone luck before a performance. It started out being said to actors and broadened to include musicians and other performers; sometimes people use it for performance-y aspects of ordinary life, too, such as job interviews. I'm told that the expression came about because actors were terribly suspersitious, so wishing them "good luck" made them worry that something terrible would happen. So one wishes them "break a leg" to call down good luck by specifying its opposite. I've never really understood actors and acting, and this is just one more reason why! :D
 
Well, Good luck - PowodzeniaBreak a leg - Połamania nóg (which is an almost direct translation of the English one, but perfectly OK in Polish)
 
thx Daerdin :beer:Corylea, that's exactly the meaning overhere in Germany as well. I asked because not in every case German and English idioms have the same meaning. I just learned 'a grain of salt' has nothing to with flavour your meal with a bit salt. ;D
 
I would also addZłam kark = Break a neck which is often used before exams in place of Połamania nóg :)
 
Złam kark? I don't know where you're from, Otaku, but in Wielkopolska[Greater Poland, a region in Poland] that would sound awkward :p I think połamania karku would sound way better. If you want to wish someone luck before an exam, połamania długopisu [break a pen] will work as well.All three (połamania nóg, połamania karku, połamania karku) are calques from English, as Daerdin mentioned, so I prefer to use powodzenia. I find myself a language purist of Polish and of English as well. I mean, I have a LOT yet to learn about English, but you can't be a linguistic purist of only one language. Otherwise it would be either hypocrisy or nationalism.
 
szczepek said:
If you want to wish someone luck before an exam, połamania długopisu [break a pen] will work as well.
That's so cute!
All three (połamania nóg, połamania karku, połamania karku) are calques from English, as Daerdin mentioned, so I prefer to use powodzenia. I find myself a language purist of Polish and of English as well. I mean, I have a LOT yet to learn about English, but you can't be a linguistic purist of only one language. Otherwise it would be either hypocrisy or nationalism.
*laugh* I appreciate your even-handedness, but please don't defend English from calques! I think English's greatest strength is its willingness to borrow, steal, and just plain take over any words from other languages that it finds useful. Such greed and grabbiness would be reprehensible in a person, but in a language, it gives us depth and an enhanced ability to express nuances that can only be admirable.
 
The English language takes off on its triumphal course in German language. If you are looking for a job the majorty of profession terms are in English though the job description is German. I think companies do that to sound very sophisticated :sleep: So Germany takes over tons of English terms.Złam kark = Break a neck has resemblance with the German "Hals- und Beinbruch". Połamania długopisu "break a pen" for exams (and all kind of written tests?) sounds great as well.
 
PetraSilie said:
If you are looking for a job the majorty of profession terms are in English though the job description is German. I think companies do that to sound very sophisticated :sleep: So Germany takes over tons of English terms.
English uses French words when it wants to convey that the food is fancy or sophisticated or something like that. If your food is au beurre noir, it must be a lot niftier than if it's simply fried in butter. :D And most of our musical terms are Italian. "Play slowly" sounds boring, but andante sounds elegant. But I'm not sure much compares to the convulsions of laughter of French-speaking tourists who first encounter Grand Teton National Park. It's a park in the Rocky Mountains, in the western half of the US, and it pretty much means Big Tits National Park. Most Americans are anglophone, though, so they don't know what those lonely French explorers named the parks!
 
szczepek said:
Złam kark? I don't know where you're from, Otaku, but in Wielkopolska[Greater Poland, a region in Poland] that would sound awkward :p I think połamania karku would sound way better.
That would explain it ;) I live in Małopolska (literally Minor [or small] Poland - also a region in Poland) and I have some family connection to Śląsk. That's probably the reason it sounds odd to you and the later sounds odd to me ;)
szczepek said:
But I'm not sure much compares to the convulsions of laughter of French-speaking tourists who first encounter Grand Teton National Park. It's a park in the Rocky Mountains, in the western half of the US, and it pretty much means Big Tits National Park.
One just have to love the Nature :DIn Poland we have some funny named places too. There is a village Piekło that translates to Hell and it's just a few kilometres south to Niebo (Heaven) :) But these are only two examples. There are much more towns and villages on Polish map with strange names.
 
Corylea said:
Corylea said:
All three (połamania nóg, połamania karku, połamania karku) are calques from English, as Daerdin mentioned, so I prefer to use powodzenia. I find myself a language purist of Polish and of English as well. I mean, I have a LOT yet to learn about English, but you can't be a linguistic purist of only one language. Otherwise it would be either hypocrisy or nationalism.
*laugh* I appreciate your even-handedness, but please don't defend English from calques! I think English's greatest strength is its willingness to borrow, steal, and just plain take over any words from other languages that it finds useful. Such greed and grabbiness would be reprehensible in a person, but in a language, it gives us depth and an enhanced ability to express nuances that can only be admirable.
Old quote:"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse wh*re. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary."
 
Quixote said:
Old quote:"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse wh*re. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary."
bWAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAweeeeeeeeeee...(simply LOL) :pOn nature - explorers all around the world feel strange connection to nature...alism..ism...In Poland we've got plenty of "ekhem" names in wilderness (mountain paths, oddities in nature, cliffs etc). Once I red a master's thesis on such names - taking root in vulgar vacobulary and especially sex oriented...Now I mentioned it most bad language is sex oriented - genitals mostly (in Poland).And there are some strange meaning shiftings. Eg onec kutas was a part of nobles belt, a tassel of some kind. Now it stands for a penis in very pejorative meaning...go figure :hmmm:Whats it like in your country?
 
Thanks Gerant. I didn't know that it is translated that way :p I usually tend to leave original naming rather then translate them. I also found that Małopolska is translated into Lesser Poland rather than Minor as I wrote. (Strange that on the map in Wikipedia cities' names aren't translated except for Warsaw [PL Warszawa])
 
Okay, I think it's time we learned how to say assassins of kings in Polish. Can't imagine why I might want to know that. :D Oh, and while we're at it, what's Polish for two?
 
I found this really good quote, but from the English version, could someone please translate it to Polish?"Only death ends a battle. Everything else only interrupts it." :peace:
 
Corylea said:
Okay, I think it's time we learned how to say assassins of kings in Polish.
It may be translated literally into "Zabójcy królów" (official title) or a better sounding (at least for me) "Królobójcy". Keeps the same meaning but two words are connected into one :)
Corylea said:
I found this really good quote, but from the English version, could someone please translate it to Polish?"Only death ends a battle. Everything else only interrupts it." :peace:
"Tylko śmierć kończy walkę*. Wszystko inne tylko ją przerywa."* may also be "bitwę" instead of "walkę", "bitwę" is more literal but "walkę" suits better I think.I hope that translation is good enough ;)
 
Otaku said:
Otaku said:
I found this really good quote, but from the English version, could someone please translate it to Polish?"Only death ends a battle. Everything else only interrupts it." :peace:
"Tylko śmierć kończy walkę*. Wszystko inne tylko ją przerywa."* may also be "bitwę" instead of "walkę", "bitwę" is more literal but "walkę" suits better I think.I hope that translation is good enough ;)
Any translation is good. I am currently reading the books but in Bulgarian, so I don't know the Polish versions exactly. Thanks :peace:
 
Gotta ask...anyone interested in polish singing language? :)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDRVuWNxLxwif so I'm happy to comply ;P
 
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