Valentine's Day is behind us, of course, but every day of the year is an opportunity to tell your other half how much she means to us. And when the "I love you" are not enough to reflect the extent of the feelings, we can always draw on the rich vocabularies of other languages. The company specializing in travel Expedia has brought together 10 expressions on love which, although untranslatable in French, put words to emotions that we have all already felt. We take note!
In yagan, the language spoken by the Amerindians in Chile, this expression designates a look full of meaning and accompanied by silence between two individuals who want to go towards each other, but who are afraid to take the first step.
This term in Welsh means a hug that makes the arms of the one you love feel like a safe place of refuge.
The Arabic expression used in Lebanon could be translated as “you are burying me”. And it's far from being pejorative:it expresses the hope of seeing those we love stay on earth longer than ourselves, so as not to have to know the pain caused by their absence.
In Norwegian, it means the feeling of euphoria you get when you start to fall in love.
Expression used by the Inuit people of Greenland which corresponds to the feeling of excitement when waiting for someone to come to your home.
Indians who speak Hindi use this term to refer to the sadness felt when one is far from the loved one.
This Portuguese term used by Brazilians describes the gesture of running your hand through your loved one's hair.
In Tamil (spoken in particular in Sri Lanka), it is the moment when one pretends to sulk after an argument with his/her partner.
In Tagalog, a dialect of the Philippines, this term refers to the urge to gently pinch or squeeze something/someone infinitely cute.
The Spaniards use this expression to talk about the feeling of having been touched by Cupid's arrow, in other words having a strong connection with a person.
Note that in French, we also have our untranslatable expression in other languages:it is “reunion”! That's it, you know everything, all you have to do is impress your better half when you get home...
