Useful words and expressions in other languages we don't have in English.

[MardyBra]

Like schadenfreude for example.

Brain has gone blank trying to think of other examples!

Sleeveen - a sly person in Irish.

Oh, I like that, holly! Sleeveen, it sounds sly already!

In irish, mé féin means myself and a mé féiner is a truly selfish person who is only interested in themselves

Vlad I think you are misremembering...

Kollegen are colleagues you work with, although there are some people who use it for their friends and it is slang...
But the only difference between 'mein Freund' and 'meinem Freund' is grammar, one is nominitiv and the second dativ. Do you possibly mean "ein Fruend von mir" v "mein Freund"? That's like the difference between a friend of mine and my boyfriend.

My favourite is l'esprit de l'escalier, particularly as it is normally my status quo. But then I think 'boh' or 'uffa' and enjoy some schadenfreude.

tak1ngchaces it is the Anglicising of it that really does it by adding the 're' to the end of me fein you are calling them a selfish bastard in 2 languages.

'er' not 're' doh

wetaugust, stoating doesn't just mean weather, it also means something hard or tough, usually something that shouldn't be. "That loaf is stoating".

Too many commas.

Too many commas.

I love "beeling" in Scots. It means very angry but it just feels different.

Swedish seems to have many words which are very useful but have no English translations

lagom to be/have just enough, not too much, not too little, this is the ideal in Sweden. Example "how much cake do you want?" "oh just a lagom bit thanks"

orka to have the energy to do something (or not orka inte) Example "I orka inte wash up tonight, lets do it in the morning"

mammig/pappig a child who is especially attatched to mummy or daddy, not used in a negative way such as words like clingy or mummy's boy. Example "my son is very mammig at the moment so he spends lots of time sitting on my knee looking at books"

hinna to be on time (very important in Sweden) or to have the time. Example "hinna us to the train?"

mysa to be cosy, can be used to describe sitting having a coffee in a nice cafe or snuggling on the sofa watching a film or cuddling. Example "what are you doing on friday night?" "we are just going to stay at home and mysa on the sofa"

vabba to stay at home looking after ill children, comes from Vård av barn. Example "where is Björn today?"he's vabba"

A Dutch lekker is the word to say when you don't know what to say. If it's nice it's lekker. If it's not so nice it is also lekker. Once someone pointed it out to us we heard it everywhere.

In Norwegian the phrase "Takk for sist" meaning thank you for last time. Having spent some time with someone,eg, wedding,dinner party or whatever occassion, the next time you see your host it is very polite to greet them with hello, nice to see you and takk for sist.

In Ireland if we don't the name of something we say "that yoke". In French they say machin...what do we have in English? Thing? It's just so bland

Doobrie

Kali in Swahili - means sharp, vicious, harsh.. Eg kali dog, kali teacher, kali knife, kali sun. We use it all the time.

Fernweh in German

In Australia we have sook which is a person prone to childish whinging or tears. If you want to be really insulting you could call them a sooky la la.

Of course we have a perfectly good word for a railway station but the Russian word for one of these was specifically meant to convey the opulence and grandeur of the big Moscow termini. The word is 'vokzal', because that's what they thought Vauxhall station in London was like. Of course today the place is a cowp.

I love lekker!

Another Dutch one - stroof or stroef, not sure of spelling but my Mum isn't in for me to check! We always use it to describe that feeling you get on your teeth when you have been eating spinach.

I love lekker!

Another Dutch one - stroof or stroef, not sure of spelling but my Mum isn't in for me to check! We always use it to describe that feeling you get on your teeth when you have been eating spinach.

Pog mo hoan, the irish for kiss my arse

Langer, its a cork irish saying for "that annoying drunk arsehole", they even have made a song about the word

I would add:
Ferienreif - literally holidayripe (ready for a holiday)
Fruehlingsmuede - the type of tiredness you get in springtime

Great thread.

I used Schlep recently on another thread. Had no idea it was Yiddish! Actually a lot of words I use are yiddish, it seems (we aren't remotely Jewish).

Precioso/a the way Spanish speakers use it. I couldn't say something was lovely-darling-precious in the same way in English without sounding like a weirdo.

Colleague used to mutter Scheisse under her breath a lot at work. I know we have the same word in English, but somehow the way she used it, it said so much more.