8 Foreign Words With No Single English Translation

Every language has a few words that seem to pick out something other languages leave unnamed. "Untranslatable" is a bit of an exaggeration, since you can always explain the idea in a sentence. But it's fun to see which ideas some languages decided deserved their own word.

Eight worth knowing

• Saudade (Portuguese): a deep longing for something or someone that's absent, often mixed with fondness. It can be about a person, a place, or a time in your life that's gone.
• Hygge (Danish): a feeling of cosy contentment, usually involving candles, warm drinks and people you like. It's about atmosphere more than any specific thing.
• Fernweh (German): a longing for far-off places, even ones you've never been to. It's the opposite of homesickness.
• Komorebi (Japanese): sunlight filtering through the leaves of trees. If you've ever stopped on a path because of the way the light looked, that's it.

• Sobremesa (Spanish): the time spent at the table talking after a meal is finished. In Spain and Latin America, leaving right after eating can feel abrupt.
• Tsundoku (Japanese): buying books and letting them pile up unread. Most readers recognise it immediately.
• Gökotta (Swedish): getting up early in the morning to go outside and hear the first birds sing.
• Jayus (Indonesian): a joke that's so unfunny, or so badly told, that you can't help laughing anyway.

Do these words really have no equivalent?

Not quite. English doesn't have a single word for sobremesa, but English speakers certainly know what it's like to linger over a table. The experience exists everywhere. What differs is which experiences each culture bothered to give a name.

That's what makes these words useful: they show you what people care about. A language with a word for the afternoon light through leaves belongs to people who notice it. A language with a word for staying at the table is describing a culture where conversation is part of the meal.

A good question to ask someone

Next time you're chatting with someone from another country, try asking: "Is there a word in your language that's hard to explain in English?" It's a gentle, curious question, and people tend to light up when they answer it. You'll often get a whole story, along with a new word you can try out yourself.

If you'd like some other places to start, our 50 questions to ask someone from another country has plenty.