Untranslatable words and phrases

Peter Shortall wrote:

I think what you've mentioned is related to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, according to which (in a nutshell) there are ideas in some languages which you can't express in others, (...)

Another little phrase, off the top of my head: "spor la treabă/lucru!" in Romanian, which is what you say to someone when they're working or going to do some kind of work or other. Very roughly, "spor" means something like "efficiency" so the literal meaning would be "[I wish you] efficiency with [your] work!" But I don't think there's really anything idiomatic that you could say in English in that situation.

[Edited at 2007-05-03 12:45]

Veronika Masopustová wrote:

And the first speaker may continue: sabah-al-ward (-good- morning of rose or I wish you a rosy morning). And the answerer goes on as if trying to beat each other: sabah-al-ful (I whish you a morning full of beans --- f.e. typical Egyptian breaksfast is beans)... and if their both in good moods they may continue endlessly.

Nesrin wrote:


Hi Veronika,

Just a small correction - sabah-al-ful doesn't actually mean "I wish you a morning full of beans!". It doesn't refer to "fool" (beans), but the lovely white fragrant flower "foll", the English name of which eludes me..