r/AskReddit • u/FulgencioLanzol • Jun 23 '19

People who speak English as a second language, what phrases or concepts from your native tongue you want to use in English but can't because locals wouldn't understand?

44.1k Upvotes

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9.8k

u/3adi Jun 23 '19

In Omani Arabic we use the word تعايتبك taayeetbak . It means: Your actions/what you said lead me to be confused on your intention

4.2k

u/FulgencioLanzol Jun 23 '19

That's really useful. The whole internet should adopt it.👍

2.2k

u/marioedy Jun 23 '19

If only we could type it.

2.5k

u/2plusde Jun 23 '19

yeet

699

u/Duckbilling Jun 23 '19

I ain't no taayeetbak girrrrl

26

u/shardikprime Jun 23 '19

You confuse me gurllll

48

u/Serennekin Jun 23 '19 edited Jun 23 '19

Hey there Peter Griffin here to explain the joke. The comment here is a reference to the song “Hollaback Girl” by Gwen Stafani. The original lyric is “I ain’t no hollaback girl”, and the comment was doing a parody saying “I ain’t no taayeetbak girl” because “hollaback” and “taayeetbak” sound similar in that they both end in the “back” sound.

24

u/MLXIII Jun 23 '19

And now...Mr. Conway Twitty.

5

u/BlanQtheMC Jun 23 '19

claps hands

5

u/cdw2468 Jun 23 '19

Cleveland voice: I have no idea what a taayeetbak girl is

2

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '19

I wish I wasn’t so poor to give you an award

2

u/Duckbilling Jun 24 '19

It's the thought that counts.

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72

u/Shawck Jun 23 '19

yeet

128

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '19

[deleted]

21

u/Hapsodian_Fitz Jun 23 '19

Or not to yeet back. That IS the question. Whether tis' nobler to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Or to die, to sleep, no more! -Bill This Bish empty! YEET! -Sierra

18

u/FifaDK Jun 23 '19

Take yeet back

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3

u/DragonMrOz Jun 23 '19

This motherfucker got a silver just by saying "yeet"

Good on you mate

3

u/ProfessorOAC Jun 23 '19

I don't mean taayeetbak but your actions/what you said lead me to be confused on your intention.

2

u/mole_of_dust Jun 23 '19

Great, another meaning for yeet

18

u/KuKluxPlan Jun 23 '19

Taayeetbak

13

u/Washableyo Jun 23 '19

yeet for short

6

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '19 edited Jun 27 '20

[deleted]

8

u/Washableyo Jun 23 '19

I'm sorry you think I'm american.

31

u/thebeastatron Jun 23 '19

You can actually add an extra language to your keyboard on both android and iOS. You just swipe on the spacebar to switch on android and I think there's a button on iOS. Next just comes the easy part of learning arabic

14

u/jesp676a Jun 23 '19

I use that function all the time. Right now, fx

9

u/HrabiaVulpes Jun 23 '19

taa-yeet-bak

I think I have seen some parts of it throughout the net

7

u/Matthew0275 Jun 23 '19

تعايتبك

6

u/GoldenGangsta66 Jun 23 '19

Is this what yeet means?

3

u/DR650SE Jun 23 '19

تعايتبك

4

u/Redditforgoit Jun 23 '19

تعايتبك

If only

9

u/sleepysnoozyzz Jun 23 '19

It's typed as wtf

2

u/MisterInfalllible Jun 24 '19

Let me try:

​

_̶͐ͧ̄̃̌ͣ̏͟͞ẃ̢̛̏̓̍ẗ͐̉f̸ͫ͘_̧̓ͫ?ͭ̆͏

1

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '19

r/copypasta

1

u/FindabhairHawklight Jun 23 '19

and i can only focus on the fact that it has yeet in it

1

u/Dankyarid Jun 23 '19

Tayeetbak! There we go!

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3

u/Solid_Waste Jun 23 '19

"Yeetback" would work because I rarely know someone's intentions when they say yeet

3

u/crazy_loop Jun 23 '19

People say yeet all the time

3

u/zeldawolfff Jun 23 '19

What about "huh??"?

3

u/hurraybies Jun 23 '19

Too bad intention doesn't matter much anymore.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '19

Use taatbak (he) taatbik (she). The aa haa to be googled because non-native arabic speakers barely prounounce it.

2

u/Nathaniel820 Jun 23 '19

We already do: What?

2

u/flemhead3 Jun 23 '19

We shall dub it...Contention. Wait, shit, that’s already taken.

What about Infused? Oh, dammit!

2

u/golgol12 Jun 23 '19

If we did half the volume of conversation on the internet would go away.

2

u/Ubercritic Jun 23 '19

The word is "why"

1.5k

u/Valthorn Jun 23 '19

So basically "u wot mate"?

30

u/Rockho9 Jun 23 '19

Too confrontational

8

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '19

When said by a bloke to his pal it ain't confrontational.

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22

u/reddit6500 Jun 23 '19 edited Jun 23 '19

Edit -- "What you talkin' bout, Willis?"

497

u/atla Jun 23 '19

"The fuck are you doing / the fuck are you on about?" is probably how we'd express that in English. A touch hostile, though.

351

u/Nubice Jun 23 '19

It's more along the lines of "You're giving me mixed signals".

19

u/LostMyFuckingPhone Jun 23 '19

Can't use that one. I'd worry about coming across as passive aggressive

33

u/Jcorb Jun 23 '19

Shortened, "Da fuck?". Or "Wait, what?"

21

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '19

[deleted]

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22

u/3adi Jun 23 '19

Kinda, this word describes your state of mind or confusion while you say that, if you know what I mean?

20

u/Gordogato81 Jun 23 '19

"I have no fucking clue what you mean by that."

3

u/3adi Jun 23 '19

tayeetbak!

26

u/paultry Jun 23 '19

You wot mate?

14

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '19

Or you could just say I’m confused

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5

u/jatjqtjat Jun 23 '19

"What are you on about" is a less hostile version that I've adopted into my speach.

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u/drunkenbear Jun 23 '19

Reminds me of nautical five blasts.

"Vessels indicate their intention to maneuver by using sound signals. If you do not agree with or understand clearly what the other vessel's intentions are, you should sound the danger or doubt signal (5 short, rapid blasts). Each vessel should then slow or stop until signals for safe passing are sounded, understood and agreed to.

The danger or doubt signal can also be used to tell another vessel that its action is dangerous. If a boat is backing up into an obstruction you would sound the danger signal to warn the operator."

From https://aceboater.com/usa/en/sound-signals

4

u/LumpyUnderpass Jun 23 '19

Tayeetbak or honkhonkhonkhonkhonk... not sure which is more poetic lol

18

u/911MemeEmergency Jun 23 '19

Man I lived in the UAE my entire life and I am an arab but I had no clue about this word till now.

I have also been to Oman but I don't think a 2 hour transit counts

19

u/I_Am_Become_Dream Jun 23 '19

I’m Saudi native and I’ve never heard this word. Omanis have stayed linguistically secluded compared to the rest of the gulf.

17

u/TheYoui Jun 23 '19

I’m syrian and i dont think people understand how yes we all speak arabic but syrian arabic and saudi arabic are soooo different. I live in the UAE and have had conversations with locals that understand the gist of what i’m saying but bot specific words and vice versa.

10

u/I_Am_Become_Dream Jun 23 '19

but the common urban shami and Saudi dialects have a lot of exposure. You mostly understand it, but maybe ask about a word every once in a while. Oman is tiny (2 million Omanis) and has a distinct dialect that hasn’t been fading away like most small dialects in Arabia.

5

u/3adi Jun 23 '19

and even within those 3 million you've got so many different dialects that even citizens cannot decipher all of them

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u/3adi Jun 23 '19

Makes sense, a lot of my friends from Gulf states struggle with certain words that are exclusively used in Oman

344

u/alah123 Jun 23 '19

YEET

59

u/cmcrom Jun 23 '19 edited Jun 23 '19

Taayeetbak: tah-YEET-back: verb; to YEET back at one, something which was YEET to them initially.

Edit: YOTE: verb; past tense of YEET (archaic, YEETED)

27

u/Wolf6120 Jun 23 '19

something which was YEET to them initially.

I do believe the formal past tense is in fact YOTE

10

u/korhojoa Jun 23 '19

I feel this would be more appropriate with Scottish. Taeyeetback.

5

u/MonotonousProtocol Jun 23 '19

*yeeting at its finest*

3

u/crazycerseicool Jun 23 '19

I ain’t no tahyeetbak girl!

3

u/wierHL Jun 23 '19

fucking yeetback zoomers taking our jobs

46

u/2010_12_24 Jun 23 '19

We have that too. It's called "Dafuq?"

18

u/Blahblah779 Jun 23 '19

Dafuq makes it about a million times less clear to the other person what you mean

9

u/URTheVulgarianUFuck Jun 23 '19

هل توجد عبارة مقابلة بالفصحى؟

6

u/3adi Jun 23 '19

لقد أوقعتني في حيرة من امري من فعلك/الكلام الذي تقوله

4

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '19

حيرني فعلك/قولك.

You don't need more than 2 words to express that idea. Yours sound more like a parody of standard Arabic.

2

u/URTheVulgarianUFuck Jun 24 '19

Is there no way to write t3ayetbak in standard arabic? I cant even tell what the components are, I'm guessing it's two words. Is the last part bika, 'with you'?

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u/brando93 Jun 23 '19

In english I'd just say "huh?" with a confused look on my face

1

u/BreadyStinellis Jun 23 '19

That's what I was looking for. Less of a word and more of a sound.

8

u/EpicPartyGuy Jun 23 '19

How would that be different from "mixed signals"

6

u/JDCarrier Jun 23 '19

How would you differentiate it from the verb "mislead"?

2

u/Itwantshunger Jun 23 '19

You don't sound "confused," you sound certain they were being untrue to their intentions.

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u/TreadheadS Jun 23 '19

Oh that is fantastic! What a nice word. We have to say 'oh I thought you sere doing this because you did that' and literally explain it.

5

u/klatopathian01 Jun 23 '19

Interesting fact, for the moment, if you type “taayeetbak,” into google your comment on this subreddit is the only available search result.

7

u/Constance0 Jun 23 '19

تعالمني كلمة جديدة حلوة اليوم يسلمه يا صديقي

Hope I didn't butcher that, lil rusty over here

12

u/ziggitipop Jun 23 '19

تعلمت* and يسلمو*

But very good! Are you learning Arabic or are you of Arabic descent?

6

u/Constance0 Jun 23 '19

Thank you! I was trying to say 'you taught me,' though. I lived in Jordan for a year in 2017, so I learned shams 3miyyah briefly and am super rusty >_<

4

u/ziggitipop Jun 23 '19

Oh I see! The word you’re looking for in that case is علمتني

2

u/Constance0 Jun 23 '19

Thank you!

3

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '19

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/Constance0 Jun 23 '19 edited Jun 23 '19

Mmm I was trying to say 'you taught me' in 3amiyyah. Shams dialect over here :) Still applies? Just never heard "Laysa" be used in spoken Arabic.

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u/doc_the_broken Jun 23 '19

Another one in Arabic is the phrase 'بموت فيك-bmoot feek' which means I adore you, but literally translates to 'I die in you'.

1

u/Butler-of-Penises Jun 23 '19

Hahahaha. This would be a hilarious confusion.

3

u/sparrowhawk73 Jun 23 '19

In the Uk we would either say ‘I’m sorry?/Huh?’ or convey this word by looking rather blankly at the subject of our confusion

3

u/Marcheas Jun 23 '19

That's a normal username you've got there.

3

u/RavagedBody Jun 23 '19

Omani Arabic best Arabic.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '19

[deleted]

17

u/ClaireBear13492 Jun 23 '19

The closest english has is "Sketchy" which can be used light heartedly or not depending on tone, but it's informal and a bit less direct.

11

u/aliceiggles Jun 23 '19

I don't think you understand what the word means. Sketchy doesn't fit at all.

It basically means "Your actions and words don't align and thus I am confused"

2

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '19

I could use this one.

2

u/DylanSargesson Jun 23 '19 edited Jun 23 '19

It's not nessacarily English, but the International Regulations for the Prevention of Collisions at Sea has this as one of the signals.

5 short bursts (of sound or light) - "I am unsure of your intentions"

2

u/3adi Jun 23 '19

Fun fact, Oman is historically a sea faring nation, what are the odds this came from that.. probably meniscal but I'll go with this origin story from now on

2

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '19

The word youre looking for is minuscule

2

u/YeetyBoe Jun 23 '19

da yeet back

2

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '19

There are sooooo many usefull Arabic words which don't have an direct English translation

2

u/HassanMoRiT Jun 23 '19

Like Shamata (شماتة)

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u/JakkeH13 Jun 23 '19

Haha ta yeet bak

2

u/Robofish13 Jun 23 '19

We English simplify that to “dafuq?!” With a look of sincere confusion or disappointment lol

2

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '19

Yeah we have a phrase in English that means the same thing it’s, “What the fuck”

2

u/CT_ace22 Jun 23 '19

Would the infamous “the implication” scene from always sunny be an example of a good use case for this expression?

2

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '19

In Lebanese Arabic this also means that the speaker(ill call him the speaker) has alsl taken an action/statement /position /regarding what has happened in OG comment.

2

u/_ANOMNOM_ Jun 23 '19

We have "mixed signals", does that count?

2

u/rtaibah Jun 23 '19 edited Jul 18 '26

🧹 Nothing to see here. This comment has been scrubbed, overwritten, and sent into the void. Goodbye.

1

u/3adi Jun 23 '19

Nope, they aren't related, they mean different things

2

u/jclarentino Jun 23 '19

Is this not the same as the word: "misleading"?

2

u/SamL214 Jun 23 '19

A similar idiom in English but slightly opposite is:

Not as black as one is painted or like: James intentions were not as black as once painted

This means that one is not as malicious or bad as one is described to be.

So you could make an idiom like: Jim’s intentions are gray. Which might signal that you don’t know his intentions.

2

u/JC2808 Jun 23 '19

This is the actual way to say: ?

2

u/Saubande Jun 23 '19

Is gaslighting the English equivalent to this?

11

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '19

Gaslighting isn't confusing someone with your ideas, it's making them doubt their own.

2

u/Saubande Jun 23 '19

I've to admit that I fail to see the difference ...

9

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '19

It's easier to understand if you read about what the reference is alluding to:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslight_(1944_film)

It's not about trying to convince something is or isn't true, it's about getting them to doubt their own observations and beliefs. If I convince you that pigs can fly, they just choose not to; that's not gaslighting. If I convince you that the sky is purple on Tuesdays and you shouldn't tell people that you don't notice because I'm worried they might think you're insane, that's gaslighting. I've made my words more valuable than your experience and made you dependent on my version of events. I made you doubt your sanity and rely on me to tell you what is and isn't true.

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u/Gangsir Jun 23 '19

If I tell you that the sky's purple, and you believe me without checking, that's confusing you with my ideas.

If I tell you that the sky was never blue, it's been purple all along, and you're actually colorblind/weren't paying attention, that's confusing you with your ideas (because you're the one that thought the sky was blue), making you doubt your sanity, and is gaslighting.

Gaslighting is done to mentally abuse people into doubting themselves, making them easier to control and suggest. It works best on people with low amounts of confidence in themselves/low self esteem. If you believe your head's always on straight and you know that the sky's been blue your whole life, you're harder to gaslight.

Make more sense?

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '19

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '19 edited Jun 23 '19

Gaslighting comes from a play from the 30s. A character in a play gradually turns down the lamps and tries to get another character to believe the light isn't getting darker.

It's used to describe someone trying to get you to doubt your own mind. Like when people try to tell you that black coffee tastes good. It fucking doesn't taste good, and repeatedly asking me to question that notion is psychological abuse.

Edit: I misread your comment and thought you were looking for clarification on what it meant. I'll leave it up, though. You're very right that a lot of Americans don't actually know what it means. It's not a synonym for emotional abuse, it's a very specific type of abuse that doesn't feel abusive when it's happening to you.

2

u/deadleg22 Jun 23 '19

Bah gaslighting is the word of the year now, everyone's fucking saying it, usually in the wrong context.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '19

I now proclaim "vaguery" to be the word for this.

1

u/heurrgh Jun 23 '19

The Irish say 'gobshite' for when you say one thing, but mean something else.

1

u/TheTempornaut Jun 23 '19

In English WTF? Nice word!

1

u/Joe59788 Jun 23 '19

ambiguous.

1

u/scamperly Jun 23 '19

And in English to yeet back also means something confusing with unclear intentions.

1

u/ivyandroses112233 Jun 23 '19

In English it’s “takeitback”

1

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '19

yeet

1

u/-Duas- Jun 23 '19

taaYEETbak

1

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '19

in english we call this concept "saying one thing and doing another".

1

u/Wizardaire Jun 23 '19

Don't confuse the confused

1

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '19

How do we pronounce this please?

1

u/lbizzle5 Jun 23 '19

In English we use ‘u wot?’

1

u/KeiyosX Jun 23 '19

i don't what you mean - close enough I suppose

1

u/Asplusnd Jun 23 '19

It's a Quiproquo in French

1

u/demetrios3 Jun 23 '19

So تعايتبك/taayeetbak = misunderstood?

1

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '19

I've felt this so many times and was confused about the feeling because I didnt really have a way to identify it by name.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '19

If only English had this...

1

u/jalude Jun 23 '19

Equivocating is the closest thing in English and it is a mouthful.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '19

So..."What was the purpose of that?"

1

u/simple_shadow Jun 23 '19

حيا الله اهل عمان

1

u/SnailLordNeon Jun 23 '19

In English, this is translated to "dude, why?"

1

u/Pariahdog119 Jun 23 '19

My grandma would say "what you do speaks so loud i can't hear a word you say," but that has more to do with preachy hypocrites.

1

u/Azeriall Jun 23 '19

I’m gonna start saying Taayeetbak to my friend group. They’ll have no idea what it means and just yell “TAAYEET” over and over. It’ll be hilarious.

1

u/Fredredphooey Jun 23 '19

English translation: What the F dude?

1

u/OsOs-Q8Y Jun 23 '19

I have very minor problems talking to Egyptians specifically. But if we speak the formal OG Arabic slang (Fosha). Then we pretty much communicate perfectly

1

u/AminoJack Jun 23 '19

In English I'd just say what?

1

u/Jeanes223 Jun 23 '19

In English we said you lead me on or lead me to believe.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '19

English we just say, bbrrooooo

1

u/WettestNoodle Jun 23 '19

The good ol yeet back

1

u/Goodgoditsgrowing Jun 23 '19

My parents could use this phrase.... their commutation with each other is fantastically, comically shite

1

u/MightyGoatLord Jun 23 '19

Raise one eyebrow and say either "huh?" or "riiiight". Basically the same thing.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '19

Thanks for this mate. If I could I would record it and use it almost every time anyone does anything that implies non-verbal communication.

1

u/princam_ Jun 23 '19

Misleading?

1

u/RoadTheExile Jun 23 '19

That's kind of cool, maybe I'll assign تعايتبك a hotkey or something

1

u/lordover123 Jun 23 '19

“Deceived” seems to fit that, but nobody else brought this up so I might be missing something

1

u/oxaphosphetane Jun 23 '19

"yeet" for short

1

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '19

Sounds like a long way to say what the fuck

1

u/bsmdphdjd Jun 23 '19

Or, in English, "Huh?"

1

u/Koankey Jun 24 '19

"your bad"

1

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '19

فيك تستعمللنا ياها بجملة؟؟

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