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Why translators get idioms in subtitles wrong, and how to read them

Word-by-word translation turns idioms into nonsense. Five real subtitle lines, what they really mean, and how to recognise an idiom when you meet one.

Most of what you do not understand in a series is not a rare word. It is ordinary words used in a way no dictionary entry explains. A word-by-word translator reads them one at a time and hands back something grammatical and wrong.

Five lines a word-by-word translator gets wrong

• «Il n'est pas dans son assiette.» Literally "he is not in his plate". It means he is not himself, he feels off.
• «¿Me estás tomando el pelo?» Literally "are you taking my hair?". It means are you pulling my leg?
• «Ich drück dir die Daumen!» Literally "I press my thumbs for you". It means fingers crossed.
• «Depuis qu'elle est partie, j'ai le cafard.» Literally "I have the cockroach". It means I have been feeling down.
• «Me importa un pepino.» Literally "it matters a cucumber to me". It means I couldn't care less.

How to tell that you are looking at an idiom

The words make a picture that does not fit the scene: nobody is near a plate or a cucumber. The phrase sounds fixed, like something people say rather than something this person made up. And the translation of each word is clear while the sentence is not. When that happens, look up the whole phrase, not the word.

What to do with one

Read the whole line, because the same words can be literal elsewhere. Learn the picture as well as the meaning: "not in his plate" is much easier to remember than an abstract definition. Save the phrase with its line, so you meet it again in the same scene.

How Subtitle Notes reads idioms

Subtitle Notes reads the whole subtitle line before it answers, the way a dubbing translator would. For an idiom it gives the meaning in that scene, synonyms for that sense, and the literal picture behind it, then keeps the phrase with its line in your library. It works in Chrome, on Android and on Windows, and ten careful translations a day are free.

More guides

• How to learn a language from TV series without pausing every five seconds

  A practical way to learn from series in the original: which words to look up, why the meaning in the scene matters, and how to keep the words you find.

• How to translate words in YouTube and Netflix subtitles on a computer and a phone

  Step by step: see what a word in a subtitle means in that exact line, in Chrome, on an Android phone and in VLC on Windows, and keep it for later.

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