Ideas for common, hard-to-translate words and phrases – Italian to English

A substantial portion of most translation is fairly clear-cut. “Zimbabwe” is pretty much always “Zimbabwe” and “cinque” is usually “five.” Then, there’s the rest of the text that takes extra thought, creativity and research. If I write “gastronomy,” will English-speaking readers imagine “gastrointestinal disorders” rather than fine food? What is the English title of the movie starring Winona Ryder rendered in Italian as Young, Cute, and Unemployed? [Reality Bites]. When they say gadget in Italian, is it still “gadget” in English?

Some well-loved phrases pop up in every other Italian document and have no clean, catch-all English translation. Take, for instance, vero e proprio (literal: “true and really”; non-literal: see table below). Each context calls for a fresh translation. These are some recurring sticking points that make Italian-to-English translators worldwide screw up their faces and pull out an eyebrow hair or two. Unhappy with my cache of possible solutions to some of these common problems, I turned to my colleagues on the IT-EN list, generous, seasoned professionals. Together, we came up with suggestions to these sticking points.

The driving force behind translator decisions is always context, from that of the society at large to that of the sentence. Many of the words and phrases below, especially those not nouns and adjectives, are often absorbed into reworked sentences or paragraphs that could not be represented here. The main intent of the table is to inspire new context-appropriate solutions.

To expand your mind or save you some hand-wringing, the current table can be found below. If you have solutions or Peskies to suggest, write it in the comments.