Chinese words with no English equivalent

[lingo-ling]

綠化 "greenification"?

e化 "e-ification"?

[skylee]

consider greening for 綠化, and digitisation for that other one (do people really use that?)

[陳德聰]

We don't use "greening" here to mean 绿化, we would just find a way to change the syntax of the sentence to allow for "green" to still be an adjective. I would favour "greenification" over "greening" in a heartbeat. Though I think "go green" is probably a very common buzzphrase.

[Demonic_Duck]

I'd agree that "digitisation" is definitely acceptable, as is "going green". "Greening" sounds like... actually I have no idea. Maybe planting a load of trees? Though I'd be equally likely to think it was a euphemism for smoking pot...

[lingo-ling]

I thought "digitization" meant converting analog sound, picture or video into digital form.

 

Usually when I see "e化" it seems to mean more along the lines of automation or computerization, often involving networks or the Internet.

[tysond]

Greening is used by local councils and governments e.g. "greening our city".   I've heard it many times for that purpose (but never greenification, which I would generally say is not a real word in English).   It does mean planting a lot of trees generally, but might mean pollution cleanup, recycling, etc.   But greening is only used rarely - urban renewal, environmentalism are used plus more specific terms.

[lingo-ling]

I've found this one defies translation into English:

業者

Add to that: 同業.

 

業者 - those in the industry

同業 - those in the same industry

[lingo-ling]

夜景 - nighttime cityscape

 

I've heard "nightscape", but is that even a word?

[li3wei1]

夜景 - nighttime cityscape

 

I've heard "nightscape", but is that even a word?

 

If 夜景 carries the connotation of 'city', then 'city lights' could do, since you only see the city lights at night. It wouldn't work in a blackout, of course, but  . . .

[MeiMay]

嗯, 啊， -啊， -儿 (after names)? someone mentioned 慢走, I think you can actually translate it. "have a safe trip". the basic idea is the same anyway.

[陳德聰]

Do you say "have a nice trip" when someone leaves your store?

[MeiMay]

陳德聰: 啊，good point of course not... but "have a safe trip" is actually closer (I didn't say "nice"). If it's raining outside and a friend of yours leaves your home and is going to drive home, wouldn't you say "have a safe trip"? （慢走） it's not the same thing but it's more than "no equivalent" I think?

[陳德聰]

I don't think I would say "have a safe trip" to anyone who wasn't going on a trip. If someone said that to me while I was getting into my car to drive myself home from their house, I would give them a strange look and ask them if they needed to go back to ESL classes (half jokingly, half serious).

慢走 means "take care" as a salutation.

[MeiMay]

you'd never say "have a safe trip home" to someone who was going home, even if they have a long trip ahead of them? you're free to substitute "drive safely" but "drive" is a lot further away from "走"。 慢走 is a salutation but no salutation is without meaning. is it wrong to think "慢走,安走" besides the meaning "go slowly (don't be in a hurry to leave just yet because you enjoyed your time here)" ?

[lingo-ling]

Well, "have a safe trip" doesn't completely cover the meaning of 慢走. If I'm leaving a freind's house and going to my home elsewhere in the same city, I'm not going on a trip. I'm just going home.

[Lu]

I'd only say 'trip' if a plane ride or long drive was in order. You can say 慢走 even if the 走-er only needs to go around the corner. I'd translate 'have a safe trip' as 一路平安 or similar. Interestingly, in Dutch you can say 'Doe 't rustig aan' ('take it easy') as a parting greeting, so that would work as a translation, but it's not really used by entirely the same groups of people.

[MeiMay]

Lu: I'm not saying there is an exact equivalent for 慢走 I just wanted to discuss similar(ish) phrases. Long drive is a good example, I wasn't talking about walking (or driving) around the corner. It depends entirely on where you are. In certain parts of Australia a drive home might mean a 6 hour drive home I'm sure that's not unheard of in Canada either (unless you only befriend people that live in the same building). On the other hand if you live in a country like the Netherlands (since you mentioned Dutch) then pretty much everyone is your next door neighbor. If you want to get pedantic about it I wanted to discuss rough correspondence, not necessarily equivalence. I think there are many phrases in English and other languages that each correspond to 慢走 to a slightly different extent. Nobody's right or wrong here, maybe I'm trying too hard to compare phrases too, I don't know. I just wanted to put that out there.

ling-ling, skylee: going paperless maybe? for e化. or going digital?

[Hwong_DsiKiem]

How would one translate "不算數" into English?

I mean for the case of "he promised this, but today he 不算數" > he broke the promise

"The first shot 不算數, it's just a trial run" > it doesn't count.

But what about "He originally set a limit of 15 minutes, but he 說完又不算數 and pushed the limit to 5 minutes"?

[Lu]

My bathroom is being redecorated, I wanted something slightly complicated and because the tiles turn out to be a tiny bit smaller than the old tiles, my plan didn't quite work as I intended and I had to ask the construction guy to undo one line of tiles and do everything a little bit different, no doubt costing him a lot of work.

And I really missed having a Dutch word to express 辛苦你. Saying 'You're being paid for this but I still want to express that I really appreciate you doing this thing for me that is quite difficult' is just a bit cumbersome.