134 votes
Accepted

How was "Hodor" adapted in other languages?

Brazilian Portuguese "Segure a porta" ("Hold the door") → "a por-" → "Hodor" Czech "Drž vrata! Honem!" ("Hold the gate! Quick!"), where the evolution to Hodor is quite a stretch… Danish "Hold døren!"...
106 votes

Why is the spoken German in many US films and TV shows so inaccurate?

Because it's a level of detail that was considered irrelevant for the show's development As a software developer and general IT nerd, I am constantly faced with this principle. Many, many TV shows ...
Flater's user avatar
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77 votes
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Why is "Captain Marvel" translated as male in Portugal?

Ok, in English this is gonna be weird to explain, but as this link explains, it has to do with the official patent designation. In Portugal, there is the woman "Primeiro-Ministro" (Prime-Minister in ...
Gustavo Gabriel's user avatar
36 votes

Why are honorifics not translated in dubbed movies?

Well, first of all, that's not always the case. But for this discussion we can ignore that and just focus on movies that do use original honorifics. Dubbing gets complicated when characters with ...
Matt's user avatar
  • 1,573
34 votes

Do translators get a list of jokes and/or puns when making their translations?

No. Usually the distributor tries to find a translator that "feel" certain genre so their translations will be as close to original as it can be. In Poland we had Irena Tuwim, a very talented poet ...
SZCZERZO KŁY's user avatar
32 votes
Accepted

English translation of the temple chants in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom?

Well, I am not quite sure about the background chants (something in Sanskrit language) but Mola Ram (Amrish Puri) prays to Kali Maa* (considered as goddess of power) in the "Temple of Doom's heart ...
s_k's user avatar
  • 481
29 votes

Subtitling vs. dubbing and vice versa

In the US, Europe, Canada and other countries with nearly 100% literacy rates, dubbing vs subtitling is certainly a matter of preference. Subtitling allows the viewer to get a more exact translation ...
Catija's user avatar
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28 votes
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What is the second prostitute saying in Vietnamese in Full Metal Jacket?

The actress is speaking Vietnamese but is obviously reciting the script and not a native speaker (the pimp is). She is not able to make most of the intonations sufficiently clear along with an off ...
người Sàigòn's user avatar
26 votes

Why is the spoken German in many US films and TV shows so inaccurate?

There are a few potential reasons for this: Rule of Funny. Most of the shows you linked are comedies, and someone speaking pseudo-German nonsense in a bad accent is inherently funnier than someone ...
F1Krazy's user avatar
  • 22.1k
25 votes

Why are honorifics not translated in dubbed movies?

Matt has a good answer, but there's another aspect of things here. There may be no direct translation for the honorific, causing it's meaning to change into something unintended. By changing the ...
computercarguy's user avatar
22 votes
Accepted

Aphorisms and idioms in The Witcher

The Polish version of 'don't look a gift horse in the mouth' is 'don't check the teeth of a horse you received as a gift' ("darowanemu koniowi w zęby się nie zagląda") (source). Similarly, devil's ...
Joachim's user avatar
  • 5,905
19 votes

Why is "Captain Marvel" translated as male in Portugal?

Short Answer: Translating between languages is difficult, including whether to modify the gender of words that are translated. Long Answer In the English language, the original language of the ...
M. A. Golding's user avatar
18 votes

Subtitling vs. dubbing and vice versa

The debate of dubbing vs subtitles is well discussed, including numerous studies and polls of movie goers. It's an opinion that is split by demographic, by country, by certain distributors. ...
user5603's user avatar
  • 12k
18 votes
Accepted

The Usual Suspects what's the joke?

"...és követeli tőlem, hogy mutassam meg a biztosításomat" means something like: "...and she's demanding me that I showed my insurance!"
Kovács Levente's user avatar
17 votes
Accepted

What is the meaning of the Latin exchange between Doc Holliday and Johnny Ringo in Tombstone?

Doc: In vino veritas. Ringo: Age quod agis. Doc: Credat Judaeus Apella, non ego. Ringo: Iuventus stultorum magister. Doc: In pace requiescat. The literal meaning is Doc: In wine there is truth. ...
Greg Bacon's user avatar
14 votes
Accepted

What does Helsinki say to Oslo in Russian in Money Heist, at the end of S01E12?

Upon Helsinki seeing Oslo laying on the ground, injured, he says the following in Serbian: HELSINKI: Hey, bro! My brother. What have they done to you, bro? What have they done to you, those dirty ...
Charles's user avatar
  • 14.3k
13 votes

Why is "Captain Marvel" translated as male in Portugal?

One-liner: Military ranks in the Portuguese Language (applies to almost all countries, including Portugal and Brazil) do not have a female lexical gender. Even if the holder of the rank is female, the ...
Mindwin Remember Monica's user avatar
13 votes
Accepted

What makes the "Tweety Bird saw a Romulan" joke funny in the original version?

There is no deeper joke in English. It is "funny" simply because Sheldon said something nerdy yet incorrect in a confident manner. That it apparently also makes a pun in French is une bonne ...
OrangeDog's user avatar
  • 4,135
10 votes

Why is the spoken German in many US films and TV shows so inaccurate?

All of those shows you listed were created in the USA for America by Americans. Given that, you have to realize that very, very few Americans know German. I'm talking less than half a percent of the ...
T.E.D.'s user avatar
  • 2,551
10 votes
Accepted

What does the Hungarian burn victim shout at Jack Baer?

Partial, as I'm still looking, but I did find this: https://web.stanford.edu/~landy/UsualSuspectsHungarian.html ...what you'll currently find on the web -- via wiki answers, imdb, etc. -- is based on ...
blobbymcblobby's user avatar
9 votes
Accepted

Why change translation text into a picture for international versions?

Pixar expended tremendous effort to localize Inside Out for particular audiences, going so far as to re-animate whole scenes. For instance, in the American version, Riley hates broccoli, but in the ...
vastra360's user avatar
  • 4,028
9 votes
Accepted

What did the German street thugs say to Donovan when they stole his coat?

I'll try to write it down. My German is a little bit rusty so I may be misunderstanding some parts of it. Sich verlaufen? Did you get lost? I'm not really sure about this line. The best I can ...
Montag451's user avatar
  • 2,230
8 votes

What does Helsinki say to Oslo in Russian in Money Heist, at the end of S01E12?

It has nothing to do with Russian, it’s Serbian. I’m a Serbian myself so I’ll translate it to you from the first hand. Before he kills him with the pillow, he says: "Kume promise me one thing: you’re ...
KajaB's user avatar
  • 81
8 votes
Accepted

What is Geun-se (the man in the cellar) messaging to Da-song, the Park family's son?

You don't see the full message being typed out, because part of the scene shows him pressing the button. However, based on the button pressing and actual light scenes, it looks like he is spelling ...
David Robie's user avatar
7 votes

What is the Arabic saying behind “Angst essen Seele auf”?

Well it's one of the common phrases that is used in Arabic language and it's translation is: الخوف يأكل الروح Update, In Latin letters, Al-kawf ya'kol Al-rooh. Or can be written in this way too, Al ...
EmbryoCore's user avatar
7 votes
Accepted

What is being said in the purely Native American language scenes in Jim Jarmusch’s “Dead Man?”

Okay, I found a post on Reddit from 2015 that essentially asks the same question as this question. And there is an answer there that provides translation of some of the dialogue, but it is in a PDF ...
Giacomo1968's user avatar
  • 6,095

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