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"Winning the lottery" in many languages | ||
Tags: Multilingual | Translation | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| Ponape Pentaglot Groupie Spain Joined 5962 days ago 42 posts - 58 votes  Speaks: Spanish*, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Greek, Basque, Swahili, Tagalog, Arabic (classical), Quechua, Vietnamese, Turkish, Korean, Serbo-Croatian, Hindi | Message 1 of 11 22 December 2009 at 5:01pm | IP Logged |
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Every December 22nd there is an important Christmas lottery draw in Spain, which is very popular here. That made me think about how different languages express the concept of "winning the lottery", including English. For example, in Spanish we say "le ha tocado la lotería", literally "the lottery touched him", i.e. "he's won the lottery" and "el Gordo ha tocado en Madrid" ("the Fat one has touched in Madrid"), meaning that the biggest prize tickets have been sold in Madrid. How do different languages express the same idea?
By the way, I wasn't lucky this year either... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5847 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 11 22 December 2009 at 6:21pm | IP Logged |
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German translation:
"Er hat (einen Preis) in der Lotterie gewonnen." Or if it's the main prize worth some millions: "Er hat den Hauptgewinn der Lotterie gewonnen." Fasulye Edited by Fasulye on 22 December 2009 at 6:26pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| QiuJP Triglot Senior Member Singapore Joined 5855 days ago 428 posts - 597 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Czech, GermanB1, Russian, Japanese | Message 3 of 11 22 December 2009 at 7:29pm | IP Logged |
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Chinese/English (Singapore)
”他中了马镖。“ ”他中了头奖。“ "He has striked lottery" For some reason, Singaporeans like to refer winning lottery as striking lottery in English (Singapore). In Singaporean Chinese, the verb used is also very werid: it is "中" which means middle. In this case here, it has the meaning of winning. Furthermore, lottery trickets in Singapore are also called "horse tickets" in Chinese. This is because house racing was the first legal betting game before lottery was introduced which was later refered to lottery ticket by convention. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7156 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 4 of 11 22 December 2009 at 7:49pm | IP Logged |
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horse tickets... heh-heh :-)
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7156 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 5 of 11 22 December 2009 at 8:21pm | IP Logged |
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The Spanish way seems to be the most distinct. What I've seen and heard in some Eastern European languages reminds me of what is said in English.
Chung won the lottery. Chung vyhrál v loterii. (Czech - Chung won in the lottery) Chung nyerte meg a lottót. (Hungarian - Chung won the lottery) Chung nyerte meg a főnyereményt a lottón. (Hungarian - Chung won the main prize on the lottery) Chung wygrał w lotto. (Polish - Chung won in the lottery) Chung vyhral v lotérii. (Slovak - Chung won in the lottery) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| leniko Diglot Newbie Greece Joined 5453 days ago 12 posts - 15 votes Speaks: Greek*, EnglishB2 Studies: German, Japanese | Message 6 of 11 22 December 2009 at 10:49pm | IP Logged |
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Interesting topic!
Phrases we usually say in Greece for winning the lottery are: Ο Νίκος κέρδισε το λαχείο (Nick won the lottery), or Ο Νίκος πέτυχε το Τζόκερ/Λόττο (Nick won the Joker/Lotto) Note that Joker and Lotto are two very popular lottery games which are held twice every week. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Muz9 Diglot Groupie Netherlands Joined 5524 days ago 84 posts - 112 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Somali | Message 7 of 11 22 December 2009 at 11:08pm | IP Logged |
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Dutch:
Jan heeft de loterij gewonnen. direct translation: Jan has the lottery won. proper translation: Jan won the the lottery. Edited by Muz9 on 22 December 2009 at 11:12pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lizzern Diglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5909 days ago 791 posts - 1053 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English Studies: Japanese | Message 8 of 11 23 December 2009 at 12:57am | IP Logged |
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In Norwegian you would say "(name) har vunnet i lotto". Lotto is the main lottery I guess, there are lots of
them now, but unless you know that person won something else that you should identify, you would always refer to it as winning "i lotto", instead of using some form of the word "lotteri". 1 person has voted this message useful |
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