Translating figurative Dutch letterly into English
Many Dutch people don’t turn their hand around for it. They just translate Dutch expressions letterly into English and they are surprised if their English speaking listeners do not understand a rate of it. They say: ‘I am sitting here for beacon and beans’ and ‘We should not throw away the baby with the bad water’.
Some expressions are not meant to be literal, but figurative. When a Dutchman says: make that the cat wise, he does not advise someone to go and talk to his cat, but he implies that he does not believe you. Many expressions used by the Dutch do not exist in English. The English have other expressions for that situation, like: and pigs fly and go tell it to the marines.
Once I was in an international meeting with our board and many young and intelligent people. A heated discussion developed about the strategy of our company. One of our boardmembers was being scrutinized and his assumptions were being questioned. Somewhat annoyed he finally remarked: But I have not fallen on my behindhead. In Dutch this is a figurative way of saying: I am not crazy. Of course, all Dutch people present loved the comment, as they immediately realised the fact that it was the purest form of Denglish. Non-Dutch people present, however, were wondering what he was talking about and were rather confused.
So foreigners beware: the Dutch use figurative expressions. Examples:
- He did not eat any cheese of it, which should be: he doesn’t know the first thing about it.
- Now breaks my wooden shoe, which should be: I’m blown.
- You are walking to hard from staple, which should be: you’re getting ahead of yourself.
- Make your breast wet, which should be: brace yourself.
- He is a strange duck in the bite, which should be: he’s the odd man out.
- The bullet is through the church, which should be: the decision has been made.
- I do not want to fall with the door in house, which should be: I don’t want to come straight to the point.
- We are the child of the bill, which should be: we are the losers.
After reading We always get our sin too you know inmiddles that you should not fall into this trap. Because if you translate Dutch expressions letterly, you will be on glad ice.
Please share your favourite letterly translation by posting a comment!
maandag 6 oktober 2008, 22:37 uur
Uuh, that would be ‘bacon and beans’ right?
maandag 6 oktober 2008, 23:46 uur
Maarten Rijkens’ book is a delight for every Dutchman living and working abroad. You almost have the impression of sometimes knowing precisely who he has in mind when he quotes another hilarious example.
I was once witness to a well meant remark by a Dutchman to a citizen of the country he had been born in. “I lived in your country as a child for some years. You may not know it, but I was fed up there.”
No prize for guessing how his was taken.
dinsdag 7 oktober 2008, 06:35 uur
On the local news on one of the televisions stations here in Vancouver (home to large numbers of Dutch people), an interviewee unwittingly gave away his country of origin by complaining that something had been hushed up by the local authorities: “It was put in the deafpot!”
dinsdag 7 oktober 2008, 07:01 uur
Here are two of my favourite letterly translations. My wife’s grand children, who live here in Canada and don’t speak any Dutch, use the translations as well, much to the dismay of their parents. Their excuse is that their “grandfather” uses the expressions all the times.
Now comes the monkey out of the sleeve.
That looks me strong.
dinsdag 7 oktober 2008, 10:17 uur
“It’s cookie and egg between them”
dinsdag 7 oktober 2008, 11:49 uur
Some Dutch are really making a little pot out of it!
dinsdag 7 oktober 2008, 12:53 uur
Not sure how true this one is, but I heard about a dutch dog breeder answering a question about his job with the phrase “I fok dogs!”
dinsdag 7 oktober 2008, 15:28 uur
Probably just as confusing/amusing is the English to Dutch translations of newcomers to the lowlands. I can remember confusing my new made cloggy friends with such remarks as… “Is zij lid van jullie royale familie?” or to an elderly lady about to descend a precipitously dangerous Dutch staircase “Pas op anders pleur je van de trap”. (Having learnt to speak Dutch in Rotterdam I assumed that “pleuren” was the Dutch verb “to fall”). I also learned that “skeletons in the cupboard” does not translate as “skeleten in de kast”, “it’s raining cats and dogs” does not translate as “het regent katten en honden”, etc…
EngNLs ?
dinsdag 7 oktober 2008, 15:30 uur
Somebody I know’s got a book about this. Very nice things, like ‘How do you do and how do you do your wife’ or ‘May I thank your cock for the lovely dinner’ (A kok is a cook in English). I really like these Denglish things.
dinsdag 7 oktober 2008, 18:39 uur
“You can my back up!”
woensdag 8 oktober 2008, 14:03 uur
Some are downright cryptic: “They were helped around soap” (they have been killed) and “you are slept over in the Monkey.” (you have been fooled).
vrijdag 10 oktober 2008, 16:02 uur
“He’s a strange duck” might work in English as long as you do not add the other bit (whatever it was). I like it when non-native English speakers translate their sayings into English because it does add a certain “freshness” to the way they speak and it can also be very funny. I would encourage them to do so in normal conversation, but to avoid such expressions in business and more formal dialogue.
zaterdag 11 oktober 2008, 08:25 uur
What about: That hits like a pair of pliers on a pig (dat slaat als een tang op een varken).
dinsdag 14 oktober 2008, 04:49 uur
i lay double of laughing!
i laughed the balls out of my pants!
vrijdag 17 oktober 2008, 00:02 uur
I think English speaking people will understand very well the meaning of ‘We should not throw away the baby with the bad water’, probably thinking that “bad” here is just a poorly pronounced “bath”. After all it’s quite close to the analogous English expression.
vrijdag 17 oktober 2008, 11:56 uur
Google for John O’Mill. His writings are full of Denglish.
vrijdag 24 oktober 2008, 21:54 uur
@15 Wim
As a matter of fact , the expression ” to throw out the baby with the bath water” is not only understood, but also used in the U.S.
maandag 27 oktober 2008, 14:31 uur
Beyond translating figurative speech, consider the pitfalls of adapting English language expressions to our own rich cultural heritage.
Working for a Dutch-based international, multicultural organisation, which has chosen English as its common language for internal use, I remember drafting a short strategy brief that contained the following cautionary phrase: “[ ] practice what you preach”. This was actually meant to be a tongue-in-cheek reference to the Dutch genes of our organisation, which in this type of document tends to be a bit long-winded. What I meant to say was “no words but deeds”, so to speak.
The joke turned on me when one peer-reviewer, a Dutch national apparently unfamiliar with this expression and seeking to come up with a clear, direct and positive assertion, changed this into: “[our] practice is what we preach”.
Calvin rules ok!
maandag 27 oktober 2008, 18:28 uur
“Ï’m keeping you in the holes” is a gem and we frequently use “go your corridor” in our house!
dinsdag 4 november 2008, 11:10 uur
Is the ‘letterly’ (letterlijk) a joke? Or did you really mean literally? People in glass houses and all that.
One nice bit of Dunglish – rather then the rather odd ‘Denglish’ you seem to prefer – I saw was in a Dutch newspaper ad for the so-called corporate communications department of a certain Rotterdam university. The ad told potential communications students – rather ‘letterly’ – that they would be given a chance to a ‘take a look in the kitchen’ (a look behind the scenes) at leading US and European corporates.
donderdag 6 november 2008, 12:50 uur
don’t take me in the mailing!!!
maandag 10 november 2008, 21:07 uur
- short through the bend
- mustard after the meal
- to call a horse
- to stand on your stripes
- now it’s puppetshow
- to wind somebody around a finger
Oh and who knows a good translation for ‘dat zet geen zoden aan de dijk’
maandag 10 november 2008, 23:20 uur
Forgot about the most important one:
There’s an adder under the grass!!
dinsdag 11 november 2008, 15:52 uur
International meetings, especially board meetings do have their pitfalls for Dutch members. At a meeting of the Board of an International School in Latin-America the other Dutch member, outraged about an issue, said:”You all have butter on your head!”.
As you all guess, she meant to say: “You all have an egg in your face!”
The other members all kept silence, having no clue what she meant…..And I didn’t translate, not to embarrass her more.
maandag 24 november 2008, 17:03 uur
One I often hear during meetings:
We’ll see it through the fingers….
dinsdag 25 november 2008, 10:37 uur
A common German/Dutch mistake:
“Could you sign the back side please”
(You have to undress to make this possible)
dinsdag 26 mei 2009, 09:59 uur
Pieter de Baan, How nice to come across a message from you on this site. When we were working together, our Dutch boss once thanked me in an encouraging way for my “elaborate presentation” to the Regional Managers. Maybe in Denglish this is a compliment, but in English it generally is taken to mean that you have spoken for too long, in too much detail, and even been somewhat boring! Or will I be the one with egg on my face when one of you tells me that it has that same meaning in Denglish?????
Still, I am Australian and we have all manner of slang and odd sayings. Take, for example, sayings such as “Flat out like a lizard drinking” (meaning very busy); “She’s a bonza sheila” (meaning she’s a good/nice woman); “S/he’s a roo short in the top paddock” (roo being kangaroo, and meaning the person is a bit stupid); “No flies on him/her” (meaning the person is intelligent or shrewd); and “Don’t come the raw prawn with me” (meaning don’t try to fool me).
dinsdag 29 juni 2010, 14:03 uur
that are no seeds on the dike
dinsdag 19 oktober 2010, 16:34 uur
Two hands on one belly.
Antfuckers.
Two fingers in the nose.
Shake it out of my sleeve.
It’s like an angle peeing on my tongue.
dinsdag 14 december 2010, 13:39 uur
How about this one:
‘That’s coffee-fat looking’
zaterdag 5 maart 2011, 16:06 uur
I grew up in Holland with parents who didn’t immediately catch on language-wise. Dutch expressions were often enigmatic to them. I once overheard my mother talking to a neighbour who was complaining about my brother’s behaviour. My mother wondered afterwards why the neighbour kept referring to ‘baked pears’ and how it related to her son being kicked in the groin.
On another occasion another neighbour, who was into windsurfing, told my dad in half-English, half-Dutch about a tear in his surfboard. He said: “there’s a cut in de zwaardkast”. If you consider how the Dutch insist on pronouncing the letter ‘u’ and how it sounds back in Dutch, you can imagine how amused we were.