Are you learning a foreign language? Or, maybe you know some fantastic expressions and idioms in your mother tongue(s) that you’d like the world to know? This is where Untranslatable, the world’s first multilingual urban dictionary, comes in clutch.
We’ve created a wonderful platform, where users from all around the world can submit their favourite foreign language expressions, phrases idioms, slang, and references from any language they’d like. This is such a great way for language enthusiasts to learn sayings and expressions that will help them to better understand the culture of their target language(s) and immerse themselves fully in language.
What’s more is that not all of the foreign language expressions submitted to Untranslatable have to actually be untranslatable. They might have a slightly amusing literal meaning, like “it’s raining cats and dogs” (we’re looking at you Afrikaans, for having some of our favourite literal meanings!), or they might just be a phrase you want to share with the world.
This blog post will provide you with all the information you need to submit a foreign language expression to Untranslatable, and how to view all the entries on our amazing multilingual urban dictionary.
1. Go to untranslatable.co
Here you’ll find our home page that describes what we do at Untranslatable, and here is where you’ll be able to browse our wide collection of foreign language expressions that have been submitted by our users.
2. Click “add entry”
This will take you to our submissions page, which is also available at https://untranslatable.co/submissions/new.
3. Create your submission
This is our submissions page. It’s all laid out in a super clear and helpful way, but we’ll talk you through it, just so you’re confident in how to submit your foreign language expressions to Untranslatable.
Firstly, you can choose whether you want to sign up or post anonymously. Either is absolutely fine, the only difference is with an account, you can see the number of submissions you’ve created, you’re notified of when your submission is approved, and you can earn cool badges!
Then, type your entry in. Providing alternative forms (perhaps different dialects of foreign language expressions, or different grammatical forms of the phrase might be useful) and a literal translation just help us to better understand your submission. These literal translations are some of our favourite things to read!
The next step is to add in the categories. Simply fill out the following:
- Its category
- The language(s)
- How often the phrase is used
- Who uses this phrase
- What country is this phrase from
- How would you describe/explain this phrase
The final information to submit is its use in real life. This context is great in helping language learners to better understand how and where phrases are used. Our use of context is really what sets us apart. Providing us with the foreign language expression in context, alongside its literal translation (and pronunciation/synonyms if possible!), along with a link to prove its usage, is a sure-fire way of ensuring your entry gets submitted and users can start using this phrase!
We hope you’ve found this blog post helpful in enabling you to create your own Untranslatable submissions of foreign language expressions. We can’t wait to see your submissions! In the meantime, why not browse our current entries? You can search by topic, language, country, dialect, frequency use, or explanation just by clicking on our little search icon in the lower right-hand side of your screen.
You could also check out some of our great collections of foreign language expressions by looking at our 8 Fantastic Romanian Everyday Idioms blog, or our Eleven Spring-themed Expressions from Around the World post!