# My two cents



## Thomas1

I was wondering if _my two cents_ (or alternatively _my two cents' worth_) has its equivalents in other languages. If so could you please give them?

In Polish we say:
moje trzy grosze (my three pennies)

I know that in British English exists the following:
my tuppence(worth)

How about your languages? What does the equivalent mean?

Many thanks,
Tom


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## Whodunit

In German we often say "*Um meinen Senf dazuzugeben*" (to add my mustard).


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## cyanista

In Russian there is вставить/добавить свои пять копеек (add one's vive copecks). It is also used in a negative sence, e.g. Вечно ему нужно свои пять копеек вставить! (app. He doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut.)


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## Ilmo

In Finnish we were used to say *se ei ole puolen palaneen puupennin arvoinen*, it isn't worth a woode n burnt halfpenny, but it was when we still had our own currency, markka and penni. Now we have to change the pennies to cents.


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## spakh

Thomas1 

Does my two cents mean worthless? Correct me if I'm wrong.
If so we use Turkish idioms 'beş para etmez', 'on para etmez', kırk para, yüz para.
beş para etmez means it isn't worth five para. on para is ten para
kırk para is 40 para, yüz para is 100 para*

There is a sentence. 
"Bu kitap beş para etmez." This book is worthless. (that means that book is both useless and worthless)

*para and kuruş were subunits of lira. 40 para was worth 1 kuruş in past and 100 kuruş was equal to 1 lira. Kuruş became obsolete due to the chronic inflation in Turkey in the late 1970s. But currency reform in 2005 provided its return as yeni kuruş(new kuruş).


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## linguist786

spakh said:


> Does my two cents mean worthless? Correct me if I'm wrong.


No! It almost means the complete opposite 

"To give your two cents" is to make a contribution to something. 
And after all, no small contribution is worthless - which is why, I suppose,  we say "two cents" - because it may _seem_ small, but is not


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## Namakemono

In Spanish I would say "mi granito de arena" ("my little grain of sand"). I'm not exactly sure about the meaning of the English expression though. Does it mean to make a contribution as in helping/doing your part or is it more like stating your opinions/ideas? The Spanish expression only refers to the former.


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## linguist786

Namakemono said:


> Does it mean to make a contribution as in helping/doing your part or is it more like stating your opinions/ideas? *The Spanish expression only refers to the former*.


En ingles, es así también


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## DrWatson

I was also wondering whether this discussion was about the idiom meaning "making a contribution to sth" or the idiom meaning "worthless". 

In the former case a Finnish idiom would be *kantaa kortensa kekoon* "to carry one's straw into the pile/heap". I don't know if it needs explaining, it's got basically the same idea as the German and Spanish one.


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## aslan

spakh said:


> Thomas1
> 
> Does my two cents mean worthless? Correct me if I'm wrong.
> If so we use Turkish idioms 'beş para etmez', 'on para etmez', kırk para, yüz para.
> beş para etmez means it isn't worth five para. on para is ten para
> kırk para is 40 para, yüz para is 100 para*
> 
> There is a sentence.
> "Bu kitap beş para etmez." This book is worthless. (that means that book is both useless and worthless)
> 
> *para and kuruş were subunits of lira. 40 para was worth 1 kuruş in past and 100 kuruş was equal to 1 lira. Kuruş became obsolete due to the chronic inflation in Turkey in the late 1970s. But currency reform in 2005 provided its return as yeni kuruş(new kuruş).


 
I think There is a misunderstanding here... 

I don t remember any exact equivalent  to" _my two cents' worth"_ with money cents or something related to money 

We simply say;
"Çorbada benim de tuzum var" literally means; "there are my salt too in the soup "
"Çorbada benim de tuzum olsun istedim" "I just wanted to have my salt in the soup"


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## Outsider

It's easy to translate the phrase literally into Portuguese, for example _os meus dois centavos_, but I don't think we have this idiom, or a reasonably similar one.


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## Thomas1

Thank you all for your contribution worth definitely a lot more than two cents!


linguist786 said:


> No! It almost means the complete opposite
> 
> "To give your two cents" is to make a contribution to something.
> And after all, no small contribution is worthless - which is why, I suppose, we say "two cents" - because it may _seem_ small, but is not


This is exactly what I have in mind when using the phrase in question and am trying to find out its equivalents in other languages. Sorry but I didn't realize it might cause problems, thanks for clarification Linguist. 




Outsider said:


> It's easy to translate the phrase literally into Portuguese, for example _os meus dois centavos_, but I don't think we have this idiom, or a reasonably similar one.


So you'd rather use something _normal_ as _my opinion/view/point/etc._?


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## Outsider

Yes, I can't think of anything else I've heard in this context.


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## I_Love_Lamp

linguist786 said:


> En ingles, es así también



 I've always heard "my two cents" as an opinion on anything, and not necessarily a contribution to anything.  "I think it's a bad idea to build a house in Los Angeles out of ice.  But that's just my two cents."  for example.


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## linguist786

I_Love_Lamp said:


> I've always heard "my two cents" as an opinion on anything, and not necessarily a contribution to anything. "I think it's a bad idea to build a house in Los Angeles out of ice. But that's just my two cents." for example.


That also makes sense. And I would also use it like that.

But think about it - if you give your opinion in something, then you're _contributing_ your thoughts to it. So it's all one and the same thing, n'est-ce pas?


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## I_Love_Lamp

linguist786 said:


> That also makes sense. And I would also use it like that.
> 
> But think about it - if you give your opinion in something, then you're _contributing_ your thoughts to it. So it's all one and the same thing, n'est-ce pas?



 Sort of, but I would never use "my two cents" to refer to a physical action I took to contribute to something.


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## linguist786

I_Love_Lamp said:


> Sort of, but I would never use "my two cents" to refer to a physical action I took to contribute to something.


Actually, I wouldn't either. For example, if I helped somebody build a house D), I wouldn't exactly say "I gave my two cents". I suppose this is because it's a bit _more_ than just "two cents"! Like you, I would use it more with stating opinions and giving one's thoughts on something.


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## valerie

En Français: Si je peux ajouter mon grain de sel (If I can add my grain of salt, I' say...)

You use it if you want to contribute to a discussion, without being one of the most involved participants. It is much less used than the 'my 2 cents'


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## jazyk

> It's easy to translate the phrase literally into Portuguese, for example _os meus dois centavos_, but I don't think we have this idiom, or a reasonably similar one.


Yeah, I can't think of anything, either.


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## spakh

linguist786 said:


> No! It almost means the complete opposite
> 
> "To give your two cents" is to make a contribution to something.
> And after all, no small contribution is worthless - which is why, I suppose, we say "two cents" - because it may _seem_ small, but is not


 

  huh, two cents seemed to be little enough to be thought worthless for me


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## Chazzwozzer

I believe beş kuruş is Turkish version of two cents.

lira equals to dollar
kuruş equals to cent

Beş, of course, means five.


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## Joca

jazyk said:


> Yeah, I can't think of anything, either.


 
In Brazilian Portuguese, we say when we are giving our opinion about something: 

"É o meu palpite." 

A rough translation would be: "This is my guess."

JC


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## jazyk

Good choice.


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## Josh_

I'm not sure the idiom "two cents worth" is being completely understood.  'To give one's two cents' usually means 'to give unasked for, and often unwelcome (but not always), advise or opinions'.

To my knowledge there is not an idiom for this in Arabic, but if I were to translate the meaning into Arabic I might use رأي غير مطلوب ( ra'i ghayr maTluub) and نصيحة غير مطلوبة (naSiiHa ghayr maTluuba) -- literally 'an unasked for opinion' and 'unasked for advise', respectiviely.


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## Anatoli

I saw Russian usage of "my two kopecks" - "мо*и* две коп*е*йки" [ma-*i* dv'e kap*'e*yki], an obvious borrowing from English.


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## Outsider

Josh Adkins said:


> I'm not sure the idiom "two cents worth" is being completely understood.  'To give one's two cents' usually means 'to give unasked for, and often unwelcome (but not always), advise or opinions'.


Oh! I thought it was a form of offering one's opinion with modesty. I've been using it the wrong way all this time.


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## olivinha

Instead of the money metaphor, I've heard in Spain "mi granito de arena," as if adding, or contributing with, a bit of sand to some sort of on-goning, collective construction.
O

PS: "_*unasked for, and often unwelcome* (but not always), advise or opinions_" 
Really? Well, that's good to know cuz I'm never offering my 2 cents again!


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## Etcetera

Anatoli said:


> I saw Russian usage of "my two kopecks" - "мо*и* две коп*е*йки" [ma-*i* dv'e kap*'e*yki], an obvious borrowing from English.


I only heard мои пять копеек (my five kopecks). It's a rather common expression.


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## Anatoli

I heard both actually, you reminded me.

Try googling for "мои две копейки" to see the other one.


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## samanthalee

In chinese we say 依我拙见, which literally translates to "in my humble opinion".
And we do have young people deliberately translate it to 我的两分钱 (my 2 cents) in a kind of teen lingo, which is totally nonsensical to most adults or those who doesn't understand English.


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## Thomas1

Outsider said:


> Oh! I thought it was a form of offering one's opinion with modesty. I've been using it the wrong way all this time.


I think it can be an offering of your (humble) opinon too as in: _if I can add my two cents_. Otherwise, it indeed means what Josh wrote.

Tom


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## obelladoblejeixo

in catalan there's the expression "fes-me'n cinc cèntims" (make me five cents :/), that means to explain something.

It's curious, all the languages have similar expressions about the cents, but with different meaning...(this is a stupid post, sorry)


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## parknmart

For those careful observers of the Simpsons, the newscaster, Kent Brockman, gives his opinion with My Two Cents behind him.


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## Nizo

This idiomatic expression, at least in American English, is always used in reference to someone's opinion.  The Wikipedia article is good:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_two_cents_(idiom).


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