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"It can't be helped"

by tlacuache, May 25, 2011

Messages: 11

Language: English

tlacuache (User's profile) May 25, 2011, 1:52:31 PM

Saluton everybody. I have doubts with this expression. How can I say "It can't be helped" in esperanto or are there a word or phrase in esperanto with the same meaning??

Miland (User's profile) May 25, 2011, 2:27:05 PM

If you mean that something is inevitable, you could say Estas neeviteble. If you mean that nothing can be done, you could say Estas nenio por fari.

erinja (User's profile) May 25, 2011, 2:30:58 PM

"Estas neeviteble"

Miland (User's profile) May 25, 2011, 2:35:08 PM

erinja:"Estas neeviteble"
Dankon; that's a correction not only for my message but also for Felix Woolf's "English phrases and expressions in Esperanto".

ceigered (User's profile) May 25, 2011, 4:19:06 PM

Ne estas helpeble?/Estas nehelpeble lango.gif

sudanglo (User's profile) May 25, 2011, 10:56:11 PM

The trouble with finding an equivalent would be that such a phrase can cover multiple meanings and nuances as Miland points out.

For the sense that we have to accept what happened (as there is no way to put the toothpaste back in the tube), you might say 'Kio okazis, oni ne povas ŝanĝi'

There might be a snappier way of saying this in the Proverbaro.

What about 'Okazinta, akceptota' for a proverb style rendering.

Chainy (User's profile) May 26, 2011, 6:38:09 AM

sudanglo:
For the sense that we have to accept what happened (as there is no way to put the toothpaste back in the tube), you might say 'Kio okazis, oni ne povas ŝanĝi'
How about "Nu kion oni faru?", the idea being that there's nothing you can do about it now and the fact that it actually happened, well that's just the way it goes. Could be ok in some circumstances.

tlacuache (User's profile) May 26, 2011, 6:39:03 PM

Thanks a lot, I think I know have an idea. I like "estas neeviteble" but I like to know the other options too.

Thanks a lot to all!

By the way, is there a way to get that book you're talking about?

Miland (User's profile) May 26, 2011, 8:29:40 PM

tlacuache:By the way, is there a way to get that book you're talking about?
Unfortunately the UEA catalogue lists it as nehavebla. The Canadian publisher (Esperanto Press, Baillieboro) consisted of a couple (Rudiger and Vilma Eichholz) who have both passed on. So the only way to get it now may be to come across a used copy. I suggest that you go to the next Mexican national congress, if circumstances permit, and if you are lucky you may find one at the libroservo there.

geo63 (User's profile) May 27, 2011, 8:23:52 AM

ceigered:Ne estas helpeble?/Estas nehelpeble lango.gif
"It can't be helped" is an English idiom, so there is no reason to translate it with "help". In other languages this frase uses quite different verbs to express the idea, so a foreigner is confused.

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