# słabo?! (PL)



## BigBigoz

Hello, 

I'm Polish and if here is someone who know russian and polish, I'll be glad. But if someone, not Polish or Russian, have some ideas, please post it.  I'm looking for russian youth slang term for polish youth slang word "słabo!?". I mean expression on the end of story, anecdote, narration etc. For example:

"Have you seen this accident? It was thrilling! [słabo!?]"

or

"Have you seen this movie on youtube? It's awsome [słabo!?]"

or 

"I walked into the classroom, and I saw our teacher kissing Marie! Cool, huh? [słabo!?]"

It is difficult to me to find equivalent in english, but this examples should be enough, I think. If not, please tell me, I try to explain it better.

greetings,
Igor


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## Christiano27

I'm not 100% sure what you are asking but by translating "słabo" as "poorly" I figured it could be used as an English equivalent to "ill" or "sick" as in something being awesome?

I'm not a native so you will get a better answer soon but maybe the word you are looking for is "круто"?


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## rushalaim

BigBigoz said:


> "I walked into the classroom, and I saw our teacher kissing Marie! Cool, huh? [słabo!?]"


1. Who is Mary?
2. Why your teacher kissed her? 
3. Why it's cool?
4. Don't you know to spread gossips is very bad?


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## BigBigoz

Big thanks, your proposition is very close to meaning "słabo", I think. Generally it could be "sick" or "ill" ("круто"), but I haven't noticed that "słabo!?" is related with interrogative form, with slight disbelief in voice of speaker. Maybe this changes something. If you know expressions only in english, please write them - everything could help in my situation.

Maybe exist word "слабо" for this meaning. It'll resolve everything because in polish it have double meaning. Beside "sick" or "ill" it is also "poorly, as you noticed. This ambiguity is necessary in translation to russian.


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## BigBigoz

rushalaim said:


> 1. Who is Mary?
> 2. Why your teacher kissed her?
> 3. Why it's cool?
> 4. Don't you know to spread gossips is very bad?



1. Ronald McDonald's wife.
2. Hmm, really, there is no reason to kiss young, attractive woman.
3. Because he was in clown costume and she was juggling fishes.
4. Do not tell anyone!!!



Ok, seriously it's hypothetical example. I'm writing bachelor thesis (this term is good?), I translate "słabo" as "слабо", but my promoter requires confirmation or source of this translation. Generally I don't know russian youth slang as well as polish and I don't know how to search it in russian internet.


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## estreets

To say the truth "слабо" in Russian means "can you do this?"
In the above cases I would say (in addition to "круто"): клёво, да? О как!
But none of them implies "slight disbelief".
I hope others will be of more help.
I've just recollected. There's something of this kind:
"Не сл*а*бо (, да)?" or
"Ну не слабо!"


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## BigBigoz

estreets said:


> To say the truth "слабо" in Russian means "can you do this?"
> In the above cases I would say (in addition to "круто"): клёво, да? О как!
> But none of them implies "slight disbelief".
> I hope others will be of more help.
> I've just recollected. There's something of this kind:
> "Не сл*а*бо (, да)?"



Thanks, it clear the situation. Do you know some sources, on internet or in books, wchich confirms meaning "слабо" as "can you do this"?


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## estreets

They are so many...
Can the title of a tv show be an example?
If yes, then
http://www.rutv.ru/tvpreg.html?d=0&id=1183
"Для участия в конкурсе любительского видео и конкурсе "Слабо?" принимаются:"
Their slogan is something like this
"А вам слаб*о*?"


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## BigBigoz

Thanks a lot, it's very, very helpful and generally resolve my problem


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## rusita preciosa

Cлаб*o* (stress on the last syllable) is a slang word for "I dare you!".
Cлабо [тебе] поцеловать жену Рональда Макдональда? = I dare you to kiss RM’s wife! (literally: “[I think] you are too weak/scared to kiss RM’s wife – [prove otherwise]”).
Cлаб*o* is not used in the meaning of “cool”, “sick”, “awesome”, “unbelievable” as it seems to be used in Polish.
 
Cл*а*бo (stress on the first syllable) is simply an adjective “weak” or an adverb “weakly”. 
 
Sorry I do not have any refs for you.


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## morzh

i couldn't explain it any better than Rusita just did.


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## BigBigoz

Hmm, the next helpful note _rusita preciosa_ - many thanks. Yes, cлабo in Polish is used rather as "unbelievable" or to highlight unreliability of story of speaker. But translation of cлабo is not a essence of my thesis, so I'll write about discrepancies in the footnote and it will be enough, I think.


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## cyanista

estreets said:


> I've just recollected. There's something of this kind:
> "Не сл*а*бо (, да)?" or
> "Ну не слабо!"


I agree that it seems to suit the abovementioned situations. However, I believe that it should be written as one word: неслабо. My example:

_- А вот в Швеции в прошлом году ограбили денежное
хранилище, хапанули миллиард крон и скрылись на вертолете.
- Вот это да! Неслабо!
_


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## morzh

cyanista said:


> i agree that it seems to suit the abovementioned situations. However, i believe that it should be written as one word: неслабо. My example:
> 
> _- А вот в Швеции в прошлом году ограбили денежное
> хранилище, хапанули миллиард крон и скрылись на вертолете.
> - Вот это да! Неслабо!
> _




В 70-е - 80-е (и это даже нашло свое отражение в творении БГ, из которого я как-то здесь цитировал) приобрело полулярность выражение "круто и несл*а*бо". 
И, да, "неслабо" пишется, я думаю, вместе.


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## dec-sev

BigBigoz said:


> "Have you seen this accident? It was thrilling! [słabo!?]"
> 
> or
> 
> "Have you seen this movie on youtube? It's awsome [słabo!?]"


Has anybody got the meaning of the Polish word? I have an impression that it's somewhat different from our _слаб*о*_. I don't think that  Iwould use _слабо _in the situations above. May be słabo is a sort of a universal  word that expresses a wide range of feelings and emotions


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## morzh

BigBigoz said:


> Yes, cлабo in Polish is used rather as "unbelievable" or to highlight unreliability of story of speaker.



This is the explanation above by BigBigoz.


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## Valvs

If the Polish word is used to express disbelief, one or more of the following Russian expressions may be what you are looking for:

"Да ну!"
"Гонишь!"
"Правда что ли?" (This one should be uttered with a proper intonation, otherwise it may come across as an exclamation of honest surprise.)

There are more colloquial and/or slang expressions like that.


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## dec-sev

> Yes, cлабo in Polish is used rather as "unbelievable" or to highlight unreliability of story of speaker.





> "Have you seen this accident? It was thrilling! [słabo!?]"


 Как я понял, это говорит один человек, и нет никого, кто бы мог "highlight unreliability of story of speaker" Впрочем, какое мне дело до польского молодежного сленга?


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## morzh

Ну, да, это говорит один человек, но его родной язык - польский, поэтому у меня оснований не верить ему нет.


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## BigBigoz

dec-sev said:


> Как я понял, это говорит один человек, и нет никого, кто бы мог "highlight unreliability of story of speaker" Впрочем, какое мне дело до польского молодежного сленга?



The thing is the speaker highlight story of speaker  Himself his story. I know, that not only for polish slang is neutral at least, but I meant the russian equivalent. 
Thanks for all ideas. I see that is little divergence. To be precious I translate description of this expression from "Cool dictionary of the youngest polish language" of Bartek Chaciński. I see there is most of Russians, so I write it down in russian language. This is not an encyclopaedic definition and it have many colloquial words (and slang, but it could hard to me to translate it). If someone would like to english definition please ask.
I've translated  "słabo" as "слабо" because it is universal form among others, posted here. Sorry for my mistakes, but ortography isn't my strong side.

*<...>* Окончательное "слааабо!?" должно иметь вопросительный характер (легкое недоверие) и протянутый первый слог (с ударением на вытянутое, шипящие "с"). *<...> *
Тина определяет "слабо?!" таким образом: "Добавляется его в конце истории, анекдота и т. д. Обозначает не что иное, что 'представляешь себе?'. К сожалению 'представляешь себе?' не несло в себе столько эмоции и не подчёркивало необыкновенности ситуации так сильным образом как 'слабо?!'". Моя корреспондентка пишет также, что "слабо?!" происходит из домемуравейников, друге говорят, что присходит из русских домемуравейников (где иммет свой эквивалент), но надо подчёркнут, что это следующие словечко, использованные всеми ознакомленными и могущие найтись в частном словаре каждого - несмотря на возраст, социальное положение и местожительство. я тоже питаю слабость к нему - хотя чаще его слышу, чем употребляю. 
*<...>*

So?
Is it clearing up anything?


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## Valvs

BigBigoz said:


> The thing is the speaker highlight story of speaker  Himself his story.



Aaaah, that makes all the difference in the world, and that wasn't obvious from your earlier posts. Well then, what about "Веришь, нет?" or "Представляешь?" or something like that?


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## dec-sev

BigBigoz said:


> Тина определяет "слабо?!" таким образом: "Добавляется его в конце истории, анекдота и т. д. Обозначает не что иное, что 'представляешь себе?'.


I would use "прикинь":
_Я вчера в боулинге Анжелину Джоли встретил! Прикинь!_


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## cyanista

Согласна с вами, Valvs, потихоньку становится ясно, где собака зарыта. 

Распространенный сленговый эквивалент "представляешь?" - это "прикинь!(?)"

P.S. dec-sev, и с вами совершенно согласна.


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## BigBigoz

Ups, indeed I didn't mentioned it... 

dec-sev, Valvs, cyanista yours answers are giving me a wide spectrum, and now I could fully explain meaning of translation and related problems. I translate advertsiment headline - ambiguity of this word is large and related with context (among others with word "słabo" ["слабо"], which is used in straight meaning).

Big thanks - if you will be in Poland please call to me, I buy you a drink


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## morzh

Единственное, ансчет "прикинь!" - мне отчего-то кажется, что его употребляют в начале предложения, как вводное, а не в конце. Т.е. это мой личный опыт - сколько встречал, столько было всегда в начале.

А так, да. наверное именно это.


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## Householder

"Не слАбо?" (не путать со слабО)
Именно так говорили в моем детстве. Вроде как в точности подходит...  
И еще вариант:
"Как тебе такое ?"


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