Ujumbe: 15
Lugha: English
david_uk (Wasifu wa mtumiaji) 16 Februari 2017 3:47:34 alasiri
This is something in "Step by step in esperanto", but I can only translate it as "We talk between four eyes", and that makes no sense at all.
nornen (Wasifu wa mtumiaji) 16 Februari 2017 4:19:40 alasiri
david_uk (Wasifu wa mtumiaji) 16 Februari 2017 5:04:00 alasiri
Can you explain why? Is that a common phrase in some other language?
I have never heard anyone say that in English.
david_uk (Wasifu wa mtumiaji) 16 Februari 2017 5:37:48 alasiri
http://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/117356/is-t...
Apparently this is a German idiom. What it is doing in a book that is supposed to teach Esperanto to English speakers I have no idea.
opajpoaj (Wasifu wa mtumiaji) 16 Februari 2017 9:18:06 alasiri
https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/entre_quatre-z-yeux
&
http://bdl.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/bdl/gabarit_bdl.asp?id=...
bartlett22183 (Wasifu wa mtumiaji) 16 Februari 2017 9:40:13 alasiri
Roch (Wasifu wa mtumiaji) 16 Februari 2017 10:13:32 alasiri
![demando.gif](/images/smileys/demando.gif)
Gestandnis unter vier Augen (released in other English-speaking countries as "Confession Under Four Eyes"), the 1954 Andre Michel West German romantic crime melodrama starring Hildegard Knef, Carl Raddatz, Ivan Desny, Werner Hinz, Franz Schafheitlin, and Stanislav Ledinek
![externalImage.png](/assets/f5b04b4f/images/layout/externalImage.png)
edit
Oh I see through opajpoaj's link that it already existed by 1921
Vestitor (Wasifu wa mtumiaji) 16 Februari 2017 10:20:04 alasiri
I agree with Bartlett. Speaking in idioms (or inventing them) in Esperanto is a disaster waiting to happen. There is no way you can be sure that another person from a different culture will recognise an idiom's structure and meaning.
And let's face the fact, it's not as if the world is teeming with virtuoso Esperantists waiting to decipher them.
noelekim (Wasifu wa mtumiaji) 17 Februari 2017 2:26:30 asubuhi
raydpratt (Wasifu wa mtumiaji) 19 Februari 2017 5:01:49 alasiri