Mark Liberman, a linguist at the University of Pennsylvania, noted recently on the Language Log blog that English does not allow you to pair any old adjective with any old noun in a fixed expression. You may wish someone “good morning”, “good afternoon” or “good night”, but not “good weekend”. You can say that phrase if you like, but your neighbour would look at you quizzically if you lob it over the fence on a Friday evening. In other languages it is perfectly conventional.
https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2021/02/13/if-only-english-had-a-word-for
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France
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Where do you need help? I don't see "at a loss for words" in the text from the article.
Portugal
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Member (2007)
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I don't need help! The article was published (Feb 13th 2021 edition) in "The Economist" under the headline "At a loss for words"...
Portugal
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Please check the last line:
This article appeared in the Books & arts section of the print edition under the headline "At a loss for words"
https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2021/02/13/if-only-english-had-a-word-for
France
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How embarrassing! I didn't see it was in the "Translation news" section. Very interesting indeed, to bad I can't read the whole article without subscription.
Portugal
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They have a free subscription that gives you access to a limited number of articles per month...
United Kingdom
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Member (2008)
Italian to English
Example of a stupid sentence from a stupid article:
"The Italians wish each other “buon lavoro”—basically “have a good workday”—though their culture is not known to be especially work-focused".
Idiotic racist remarks like this do not encourage belief in the reader.
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Netherlands
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English to Afrikaans
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Really? Is it truly faux pas in English to say "congrats" to the birthday girl? If so, which types of anniversaries get "congratulations" and which d... See more
Really? Is it truly faux pas in English to say "congrats" to the birthday girl? If so, which types of anniversaries get "congratulations" and which don't? ▲ Collapse
United Kingdom
Swedish to English
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Special occasions are another way in which pleasantries differ. English-speakers wish each other a happy birthday, but speakers of many other languages say “congratulations”, as if (to the English ear) the birthday girl had done something impressive merely by surviving another year.
Really? Is it truly faux pas in English to say "congrats" to the birthday girl? If so, which types of anniversaries get "congratulations" and which don't?
Used for babies mainly
And winning stuff, promotions
Netherlands
Local time: 17:20
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
"The Italians wish each other “buon lavoro”—basically “have a good workday”—though their culture is not known to be especially work-focused".
Idiotic racist remarks like this do not encourage belief in the reader.
One has to take into account the culture of the author. In the author's culture, "family-focused" and "unpunctual" is considered the opposite of "work-focused". The article is as much about oddities in other cultures as it is about the author's assumptions.
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:20
Member (2008)
Italian to English
"The Italians wish each other “buon lavoro”—basically “have a good workday”—though their culture is not known to be especially work-focused".
Idiotic racist remarks like this do not encourage belief in the reader.
One has to take into account the culture of the author. In the author's culture, "family-focused" and "unpunctual" is considered the opposite of "work-focused". The article is as much about oddities in other cultures as it is about the author's assumptions.
In this case, the author's "culture" is white anglosaxon Protestant work ethic.
Spain
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There could be a couple of potential bones of contention in that squib. For example, I'd say that the meaning of the Swedish “tack for senast” is pretty much covered by "long time no see". And "have a good weekend" is quite a common expression among co-workers.
I suppose it's along the lines of the plethora of articles that appeared in the UK press a few years ago claiming that English was simply unable to express the Danish notion of "hygge". (eyeroll)
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:20
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
Idiotic racist remarks like this do not encourage belief in the reader.
And your slipshod use of "racist" does not inspire confidence in the reader either. I think you'll find that Italians are mainly Caucasian. What you meant to say was "Idiotic, bigoted remarks like this". For somebody who is happy to snipe at others for their perceived poor use of English, that's an amateurish mistake. Precision, Tom, that's the key.
Dan
Italy
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Member (2013)
German to Italian
+ ...
And your slipshod use of "racist" does not inspire confidence in the reader either. I think you'll find that Italians are mainly Caucasian. What you meant to say was "Idiotic, bigoted remarks like this". For somebody who is happy to snipe at others for their perceived poor use of English, that's an amateurish mistake. Precision, Tom, that's the key.
Dan
I don't see how most Italians being Caucasian is relevant to what Tom said. He quoted this passage: "[Italian] culture is not known to be especially work-focused." As an Italian, I find this definitely racist.
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