Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6439 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese
| Message 9 of 15 15 April 2008 at 1:03pm | IP Logged |
leosmith wrote:
It sounds like "where there's smoke there must be fire" to me, but I could be wrong. Give me an example of how it's used, and I'll try to give you the closest English idiom. |
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It's nothing like "where there's smoke, there's fire." The idea is more that since there is more than one of something, or something has happened more than once, it's bound to be again.
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leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6550 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog
| Message 10 of 15 15 April 2008 at 2:39pm | IP Logged |
I prefere an actual usage, but ok. How about "if it's happened before, it'll happen again".
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ymapazagain Senior Member Australia myspace.com/amywiles Joined 6959 days ago 504 posts - 538 votes Speaks: English* Studies: SpanishB2
| Message 11 of 15 03 May 2008 at 3:37pm | IP Logged |
"No hay dos sin tres" is the title of my friend's album. I always wondered what the significance was as a direct translation makes no sense!
I think you are close when you say "trouble comes in threes." In English we often say "bad things always happen in three" and I think this is the meaning you're after. If you were looking for a positive spin on this i guess it would be "good luck always comes in threes"....though this is much less common I think.
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thephilologist Tetraglot Newbie United States Joined 6034 days ago 26 posts - 29 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German, French Studies: Portuguese
| Message 12 of 15 10 September 2008 at 10:09pm | IP Logged |
Perhaps "When it rains, it pours." -This idiom is usually negative, though it can be used for good things as well.
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Giordano Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 7174 days ago 213 posts - 218 votes 3 sounds Speaks: English*, Italian*, French Studies: Cantonese, Greek
| Message 14 of 15 06 January 2009 at 3:37pm | IP Logged |
I often hear "jamais deux sans trois", which is almost exactly like in Spanish. But, as I've experienced it, the expression usualy refers to negative or neutral situations (such as a false fire alarm going off or failing a third exam in a row).
Edited by Giordano on 06 January 2009 at 3:37pm
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William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6272 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French
| Message 15 of 15 12 February 2009 at 8:21am | IP Logged |
I can understand a lot of Azerbaijani without having studied it - it is simply so close to Turkish.
One difference from Turkish seems to be a rather higher amount of Persian vocabulary in Azerbaijani. But this is not a two for one situation as I do not know Persian.
Edited by William Camden on 12 February 2009 at 8:27am
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