Can you pick the foreign word or phrase to match the hint?

created by triviahappy

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Correctly selected answers will show up in green
Hints MAY be literal translations, or they may be what the phrase means when commonly used in the USA
Also try: Badly Translated Movie Quotes

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There are 47 comments for this game.
(Warning: comments may contain spoilers)

Frenetic Foreign Phrases Quiz

by triviahappy

Created May 29, 2012 in Language
Featured Jul 7, 2012
Game Plays 36,863

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Archived comments: show them

	debbiedoesnothin:	Jul 7th, 2012 at 05:05 GMT		3 points
	It threw me off that it's not alphabetized correctly. Example, I would expect nee to come before nom de plum & dejavu before dolce vita.

	Xpider:	Jul 7th, 2012 at 05:58 GMT		5 points
	Very good quiz! Strangely enough, I think my study of English helped more than my study of Spanish or French! (esp. considering there are so many languages represented). Thanks, triviahappy!

	BamaRainbow:	Jul 7th, 2012 at 06:25 GMT		5 points
	@debbie: I think the incorrect alphabetization has to do with the special characters and punctuation marks. (Technically, "c'est la vie" is incorrectly placed as well.)

	BamaRainbow:	Jul 7th, 2012 at 06:49 GMT		5 points
	Just for the record, the phrase "que será, será" doesn't actually mean anything. It's essentially mock-Spanish. (Since Doris Day's recording of the song, however, Spanish has sort of adopted the phrase just as Italian's done with the variant "che sarà, sarà.")

	Terentius_Varro:	Jul 7th, 2012 at 09:00 GMT		-2 points
	Ad lib is a shortening of ad libitum. The first isn't really foreign, the second is.

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	Tongueforker:	Jul 7th, 2012 at 11:30 GMT		10 points
	Just to let you know, I'm going to have 'Hakuna Matata' and the image of a friendly singing warthog in my head all day now.

	triviahappy:	Jul 7th, 2012 at 12:00 GMT		1 point
	@debbie: I did click the "alphabetize" option, but as BamaRainbow said, I think the quiz "reads" things differently when punctuation is there. It can also happen with numbers; for instance, I had done a clickable quiz to pick numbers in movie and TV titles. It included both numerals and words for numbers. Most of the numerals ended up in numerical order, but the quiz didn't put the number containing 1/2 in order, and it didn't recognize a large number where I needed a comma, e.g. 20,000. That ended up in a random place. I think it's just a quirk. :)

	triviahappy:	Jul 7th, 2012 at 12:08 GMT		2 points
	@BamaRainbow: I did consider not including it. But it's sort of been incorporated into languages. And as my game note says, not all are "literal" translations, but what they mean when someone uses them in everyday conversations. :)

	hodgetiger:	Jul 7th, 2012 at 12:13 GMT		2 points
	My modus operandi was to start Tabula Rasa and with being Compus Mentis!

	Zak6009:	Jul 7th, 2012 at 13:30 GMT		12 points
	Great quiz... except, Mazal Tov is Hebrew and NOT Yiddish. Both words are modern-day Hebrew and sound nothing like Yiddish.

	poiu:	Jul 7th, 2012 at 13:59 GMT		5 points
	Zak6009 is right, as well as the fact that Mazal Tov literally means good luck (Mazal = luck, tov = good). Used as a phrase, it means congratulations, and nobody uses it to mean good luck (the word for that is behatzlachah), but as I am no expert in any of the other languages on this quiz, I am not sure if the fact that the non-literal translation is used is consistent with the other items on the quiz. Just wanted to point that out.

	plokool:	Jul 7th, 2012 at 14:14 GMT		2 points
	Definitely got Par Avion thanks to the Lost episode.

	A_Trep:	Jul 7th, 2012 at 14:56 GMT		9 points
	Doppelgänger literally means double goer/walker. Coming from the past participle gegangen of the verb gehen [to go (by foot)]... As in someone/something who looks like they could be your twin. This could be a complete stranger, a computerized avatar or more supernaturally (Germans love their fairy tales), an evil twin, a ghost/spirit or a shape-shifter. Something in your form. But I guess what I'm really getting at is that a Doppelgänger can be a ghost, but not all Doppelgängers are ghostly.

	triviahappy:	Jul 7th, 2012 at 15:02 GMT		2 points
	@hodgetiger and Zak6009: Sorry about that. The source I used said it was Yiddish. Some sources give it as either. Another source says that the actual words "mazal" (mazel in Yiddish) and "tov" are of Hebrew origin, but the phrase itself is from Yiddish origin and was later incorporated into modern Hebrew. The phrase was first recorded as entering into English from Yiddish in 1862. I'm no expert, so I was just going by the sources. Sorry for the mixup, but hopefully people can still pick out the correct clue and it won't mess up their score. :)

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	noticeperiod:	Jul 7th, 2012 at 15:40 GMT		3 points
	Hakuna Matata....it means 'no worries' for the rest of your days!! It's in the song how did I get it wrong!!

	Colmar:	Jul 7th, 2012 at 16:17 GMT		11 points
	This quiz has a certain je ne sais quoi to it.

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	Zak6009:	Jul 8th, 2012 at 03:10 GMT		7 points
	I clicked guru for expert, anyone else make that mistake? I mean... sure it has it's origin, but the way it's used in modern-context seems to mean "expert" no? The "Fishing guru" from Pokemon comes to mind, and there are other contexts I've heard it as. Oh and like another commenter said, I also have LOST to thank for Par Avion.

	pete32782:	Jul 8th, 2012 at 03:14 GMT		5 points
	@noticeperiod: it's a problem free philosophy.

	phoenix1693:	Jul 8th, 2012 at 04:05 GMT		1 point
	Too much time! (also couldn't stop thinking about Claire)

	CH1LLI:	Jul 8th, 2012 at 04:15 GMT		0 points
	Love the game. Only knew 'Hakuna Matata' from the Lion King song. Hakuna Matata, what a wonderful phrase. It means no worries no worries for the rest of your days. So funny

	sapphire_blu2:	Jul 8th, 2012 at 06:01 GMT		3 points
	Nice quiz! :D

	milgita:	Jul 8th, 2012 at 19:40 GMT		3 points
	Grrr. I need to learn Greek now.

	Bunnylump:	Jul 8th, 2012 at 22:27 GMT		2 points
	How did I not know that karaoke meant empty orchestra? We sporcle, we learn. :)Always knew I could justify my time on here somehow...

	jamie9:	Jul 9th, 2012 at 00:07 GMT		3 points
	This quiz confused me a little bit because sometimes the English counterpart was the literal translation (e.g. karaoke = empty orchestra) whereas other times the English loanword meaning is used (e.g. tête-à-tête = intimate conversation (instead of head-to-head))

	tudorrose16:	Jul 9th, 2012 at 00:24 GMT		3 points
	I loved this quiz! It was such a good idea. Languages are fascinating :)

	cmkeller:	Jul 9th, 2012 at 01:34 GMT		3 points
	In addition to "Mazel Tov", which others mentioned above, "Maven" is also Hebrew rather than Yiddish.

	Zak6009:	Jul 9th, 2012 at 01:52 GMT		1 point
	@cmkeller I'm not too sure about that. I'm fluent in Hebrew and if it's the word I'm thinking of which means "understands", it's a huge stretch from how it's actually spelled/pronounced.

	Helixer:	Jul 9th, 2012 at 03:59 GMT		1 point
	Saw "open air" and immediately looked for "en plein air". Needless to say, I couldn't find that.

	mjmooney:	Jul 9th, 2012 at 15:23 GMT		-2 points
	Yay, another 100%. I'm on a roll today.

	cmkeller:	Jul 9th, 2012 at 16:01 GMT		3 points
	@Zak6009 - I'm well-versed in Hebrew too - on a Yeshiva-student level, not on an Israel-conversational level - but I'm not sure why you think "Maven" is a stretch from the Hebrew word that means "one who understands."

	MarineAquaqua:	Jul 11th, 2012 at 09:35 GMT		-3 points
	Thanks for all being meanie pies, all i was doing was showing my irish heritage, i didn't ask you to like it.:((