# To talk nonsense



## 123xyz

Hello everybody, 

Could you provide me with idiomatic ways of expressing the notion of talking nonsense or saying disagreeable things (e.g. things that offend one because they contradict one's preconceived notions) in general in the different languages you are familiar with? I'm not interested in literal translations of "to talk nonsense" - I'm looking for something figurative. I would like the literal translations of the figurative expressions in English, though.

Some expressions in Macedonian meaning "to talk nonsense", followed by literal translations:

тресе - to shake
тресе глупости - to shake nonsense
тресе зелени - to shake green ones (unclear as to what "green" actually refers to)
треска - to bang/pound 
треска глупости - to bang/pound nonsense
тропа - to bang/knock
тропа глупости - to bang/knock nonsense
јаде гомна (vulgar) - to eat shit

As you can see, "nonsense" (глупости) may be omitted with the three verbs associated with it, but the meaning would still be implied. 

Thank you in advance


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## rusita preciosa

A couple of Russian expressions come to mind (I'm sure there are more):
Болтать глупости / ерунду - stir stupidities /nonsense 
Нести глупости / ерунду - carry stupidities / nonsense


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## ThomasK

Dutch: 
- uit zijn nek kletsen (chat/slap from his neck)
- (Flemish) zeveren (salivate)
- onzin uitslaan (beat out nonsense/ crap)

Whereby you might notice that speaking in a negative sense mainly is compared to slapping, beating... 
...


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## apmoy70

In Greek:

Literal: *«Λες/λέτε ανοησίες»* [les ano.iˈsi.es] (2nd p. sing. or informal)/[ˈlete ano.iˈsi.es] (2nd p. pl. or formal) --> _you're saying/talking nonsense._
Idiomatic:
-*«Λες/λέτε βλακείες»* [les vlaˈci.es] (2nd p. sing. or informal)/[ˈlete vlaˈci.es] (2nd p. pl. or formal) --> _you're saying/talking stupidities_.
-*«Πετάς/πετάτε μαλακίες**»* [peˈtas malaˈci.es] (2nd p. sing. or informal)/[peˈtate malaˈci.es] (2nd p. pl. or formal) --> _you're throwing wanks_.
-*«Πετάς/πετάτε κοτσάνες»* [peˈtas koˈt͡sanes]]/[peˈtate koˈt͡sanes] --> _you're throwing corncobs_.


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## bearded

In Italian:

- dire delle sciocchezze (to talk nonsense)
- dire delle stupidaggini (to say stupid things)
- dire delle cazzate (as above, but vulgar, because it hints that you reason with...another part of your body)
- non sapere quello che si dice (not to know what one is talking about) ex. 'non sai quello che dici!'' you don't know what you're talking about!
(and many other expressions)....


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## Sempervirens

Aggiungo " A vanvera". http://www.wordreference.com/iten/vanvera

Un verbo che contiene sia il significato di "_parlare a vanvera"_ sia il perdurare dell'azione del parlare è il verbo italiano _blaterare_.

http://www.wordreference.com/iten/blaterare

S.V


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## mataripis

Nonsense in Tagalog is walang katuturan or walang saysay..


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## 123xyz

Mataripis, could you provide the literal translations as well as the associated verbs?


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## bazq

In Hebrew:

Formal way - לומר דברי הבל [lomar divre hevel] lit."to say things (of) breath".
"הבל" is "nonesense", also "breath", generally "gas". The idea is "to say something as temporary as breath", something that will disappear the next second. "הבל" is mostly "nonesense" these days.

Common way - לומר/לדבר שטויות [lomar/lehagid shtuyot] - "to say/speak nonesense or stupidities"
שטויות.

Colloquial ways (may seem vulgar, but they are very common, and are used with anyone you know) -
לזיין את השכל/המוח [lezayen et hasekhel] "to fuck the brain" , literally.
לבלבל את המוח [levalbel et hamo'akh] "to confuse the brain"
לבלבל למישהו את הביצים [levalbel le-X et habetsim] "to confuse to X the balls (testicles)".


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## 涼宮

In Spanish there are many equivalents depending on the variety.

In *Venezuelan Spanish*:

Hablar pendejadas= to talk asshole things

Hablar güevonadas/webonadas = to talk cock/egg things

Hablar mariqueras = to talk gay things

Hablar tonterías = to talk silliness

Hablar basura= to talk trash (this one is more aggressive)

Hablar paja = to talk straw (has also the connotation of lying)


In *Japanese*:


寝ぼけたことを言う _neboketa koto wo iu_ = to say half asleep things

くだらない話をする _kudaranai hanashi wo suru_ = to do ridiculous talking

たわ言を言う　_tawagoto wo iu_ = to say lie speech

出鱈目を言う _detarame wo iu_ = to talk bullshit (it lit. refers to a type of fish, gadid)

碌でもないことを言う _rokudemonai koto wo iu_ = to say worthless things


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## SuperXW

In Chinese (simplified):
说胡话 - speak nonsense words
胡说八道 - an idiom to mean "taking all the nonsense or lies"
There are more.


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## Sempervirens

Ciao, Suzumiya! Mi chiedevo se l'espressione くだらない話をする (_kudaranai hanashi wo suru) _fosse sostanzialmente simile a quest'altra:
くだらない事を言う　_(kudaranai koto wo iu).

_Considerando i verbi che sono implicati, nella prima frase 話す e nella seconda 言う, mi verrebbe da pensare che con il verbo 話す　
la situazione sia più persistente, mentre con il verbo 言う si tratterebbe di una cosa meno persistente, nel senso di durata dell'enunciato.

S.V


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## 涼宮

While it indeed makes sense to treat say vs. speak like a matter of recurrence it seems this is more of a fixed expression case. Never heard of 寝ぼけたことを話す or たわ言を話す. But If we were to truly make such distinction I think it'd sound better to say 寝ぼけた話をする. 

Regards!


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## Sempervirens

分かりました。答えてくれてありがとう。

Saluti da Tokyo!


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## momai

In Syrian Arabic 
teħki ħaki sharawi gharawi/literally:to talk easterly westerly 
or maybe teħki ħaki bala ta3me/literally: to talk (about something) tasteless


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## SuperXW

momai said:


> In Syrian Arabic
> teħki ħaki sharawi gharawi/literally:to talk easterly westerly
> or maybe teħki ħaki bala ta3me/literally: to talk (about something) tasteless


This reminds me some similar expressions in Chinese.
1. 东拉西扯 or 扯东扯西, literally: "easterly pull westerly drag", or "drag east drag west", meaning: to talk unrelated things, bullshitting.
2. 无味 "tasteless - no flavor", is often used to mean the talk is uninteresting, uninspiring.
3. 无品味 "tasteless - no understanding and appreciation", can describe words or anything which are vulgar, not stylish.


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## ThomasK

How come we have these very strong expressions with regard to non-sense?


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## M Mira

SuperXW said:


> This reminds me some similar expressions in Chinese.
> 1. 东拉西扯 or 扯东扯西, literally: "easterly pull westerly drag", or "drag east drag west", meaning: to talk unrelated things, bullshitting.
> 2. 无味 "tasteless - no flavor", is often used to mean the talk is uninteresting, uninspiring.
> 3. 无品味 "tasteless - no understanding and appreciation", can describe words or anything which are vulgar, not stylish.


Also, other expressesions WRT OP in Chinese:
扯(drag)-related:
扯蛋: literally "to drag an egg"
瞎扯: literally "to drag blindly"
胡(confusing, nonsense)-related:
胡說、胡言亂語: literally "to talk nonsense"
Both:
胡扯: literally "to drag nonsense"

All means "to talk nonsense"


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## ger4

Some German expressions from (1)(relatively neutral) to (5)(agressive, insulting):

(1) _Unsinn_ - lit.: 'nonsense'
(2) _Blödsinn_ - lit.: *'stupid_sense' 
(3) _dummes Zeug_ - lit.: 'stupid stuff' ~ 'stupidities'
(4) _Quatsch_ ~ 'rubbish'
(5) _Schwachsinn_ - lit.: ~ *'weak_sense' ~ 'bonkers'
...

The verb used is normally either _reden_ ('to talk', neutral) or something a little bit more aggressive like _quatschen_ ('to talk rubbish'), _labern_ (~'to babble, prattle' etc), _schnacken_ (Northern Germany for 'to talk', colloquial but neutral), _schwätzen_ (Southern Germany)...


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## nimak

123xyz said:


> *јаде гомна* (vulgar) - to eat shit


Also *јаде лајна* (jáde lájna) - _vulgar too_ - to eat shit

And you forgot to mention the less vulgar variant:
*јаде трици* (jáde tríci) - to eat bran

Trici in Macedonian is one of the ingredients people use to feed pigs, cows etc.


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## ThomasK

mataripis said:


> Nonsense in Tagalog is walang katuturan or walang saysay..


 According to Google T this is something like (a) not logical and (b) without saysay [saying something]? Of course...


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## Penyafort

In *Catalan*:

*dir *'say'
(+ terms simply deriving from a word for 'stupid')​*ximpleries *(from _ximple _'fool' < _simple _< Latin _simplex_)​*estupideses *(from _estúpid _'stupid' < Latin _stupidum_)​*bajanades *(from _bajà _'fool' < Latin Baianus 'someone from the ancient town of Baiae, near Naples')​​(+ terms deriving from a word for 'stupid' related to animals)​*bestieses *(from _bèstia _'beast' < Latin _bestia_)​*rucades *(from _ruc _'donkey', 'dumb')​*animalades *(from _animal_ < Latin)​​The latter implies non-sense in an exaggerated way, against all reason. Three more of this type are:​*barbaritats *(from _bàrbar _'Barbarian' < Latin _barbarus _'foreigner, ignorant, someone with unintelligible speech')​*barrabassades *(from _Barrabàs _'Barabbas', Biblical figure, prisoner freed (against all reason) instead of Jesus)​*despropòsits *(from neg. prefix _des-_ + _propòsit _'purpose')​​With the word *solta*, a word difficult to translate meaning 'logical sense' and the 'ability to do things according to logical sense':

*parlar sense solta (ni volta)* 'speak nonsensically' (speak without _solta_)​*dir poca-soltades* 'say absurd things' (from _poca-solta _'shameless crackpot')​
Similar to the last one, another idiom:

*dir coses sense cap ni peus* 'say non-sense things' (literally, say things without head or feet)​​And in vulgar speech:

*dir collonades* (from _colló _'testicle _vulg_.')​


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## jazyk

There'a colorful one used in Brazil: falar abobrinha, literally: to talk zucchini/courgette.


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## KalAlbè

Haitian Creole:


*Radote *(verb) to talk nonsense, talk aimlessly, or to ramble. The noun is *radòt*. E.g. *Di radòt* (lit. to say nonsense)
*Pale pawòl tafya* - to talk nonsense (literally to talk words of a drunkard) 
*Pale kakachat* (literally to talk cat poop)
*Pale tenten* (tenten means junk or crap here)

There are many others, though.


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