What’s your country’s expression if something stopped working?

14 comments

1. >In Germany, we say “den Geist aufgeben”, which translates to “give up the ghost”.

   Isn’t it more like “Give up the spirit”?
   A ghost is, as far as I remember, a „Gespenst”.

2. I don’t know if it’s common, but my mother always says something “went to follow her father” (“s-a dus după tata”). For context, her parents died before I was born. Anorher expression I know is “și-a dat duhul” (it gave its soul away).

3. We surely have many regional expressions, the one I know is *foi com o caneco*, which literally translates to “it went with the (beer) mug”. But as it was once explained to me (don’t quote me on this), *caneco* used to be slang for top hat, so the expression refers to a top hat that would be blow in the wind. So in the end, the translation would be closer to “gone with the wind”.

   It’s also very common to simply say *foi-se*, or literally “it went”, meaning “it’s gone”. That’s a bit broader, and it can even be used to say that someone died.

   Then there are all of the variations on something that means a bit like “it had a fit”: *deu-lhe o badagaio/um fanico/um piripaque/um chilique/a macacoa/um ataque.*

4. Same to German but we use the verb to breathe out so “wyzionąć ducha” – to breathe out the ghost.

   Also, specific to cars we can say “rozkraczyć się” – to spread the legs. But in a rude way. Hope it makes sense.

   More vulgar way would be to say “zjebało się” – it got fucked up.

5. Outside of more basic or obscene expressions, one of the funnier ones imo is “накрыться медным тазом” (nakryt’sya mednym tazom), lit. “cover oneself with a copper bowl”.

6. We have the same expression in the Netherlands; ‘De auto heeft de geest gegeven’.

7. There are more options in Hungarian

   – an older one: it said Thursday. (Csütörtököt mondott) no idea about its origin.
   – a very common, quite vulgar one: it shat itself (beszart)
   – a neutral also very common one: xxxx tönkre ment (how do you translate this??)

8. The plain way to say it would be: “Mi si è rotto” (It broke on me – with an *ethic dative* construction).

   If you don’t care about sounding a bit vulgar, you can say “È andato a farsi benedire” (It went to get blessed), “È andato a farsi fottere” (It went to get fucked), or even “È andato a puttane” (lit. It went to whores). “Andare a puttane” is a vulgar way to say that you’re enjoying a sex worker’s services, but also that a situation is fucked up beyond repair.

   If you wanna be polite but still a bit funny you can also simply say: “Mi è morto” (lit. It died on me).

   E.g.

   1. Mi è morto il computer.

   2. La mia macchina (=my car) è andata a farsi benedire.

   3. Mi si sono rotti i pattini. (=My roller skates broke on me).

   But my personal favourite is: “Si è sminchiato”, which would mean “It fucked itself up” although I’m not sure how widespread it is and whether it’s a regional expression or not.

9. Poles will love this, but the most neutral expression is “porouchat se”.

   Also “odejít” (to go away) is quite popular, as more obscene “posrat se” (to shit oneself).

10. There are several.

    Füstbe ment – it went into smoke (went up in smoke)

    Kudarcot vall – it confessed failure

    Csütörtököt mond – it said Thursday (supposedly the original was “csüttöt mond” which means “it said csütt” which refers to the sound a flintlock musket makes if it misfires.

    Elromlik – it’s gone bad – this is the most common way to say something stopped functioning

    Becsődöl / csődöt mondott – it went bankrupt / it failed

    Felsül – it got burned up (misfired)

    Meghiúsul – the effort was in vain

    Leszerepel – it failed (referring to very poor acting)

    Befuccsol – it fails (by drawing a bad card) from German Futsch

    Dugába dől – it collapsed (fails) it refers to the wooden planks of a barrel, which are called duga / donga. If these planks are poorly made then if you put the iron rib thingies on them that keeps the barrel together, the planks may crack and collapse.

11. PORTUGAL:

    “Foi com os porcos” – it went with the pigs

12. Genau das selbe auf Englisch… to give up the ghost.

13. “Šlo je rakom žvižgat” – It went whistling to the crabs.

14. If you want to be more vulgar you can also say “Das Auto ist am Arsch.” “The car is on the ass.”