# What's the catch



## dihydrogen monoxide

How do you say catch in your language. Context being this:
You are trying really hard to figure out something and you see no sense in it,but the sense is supposed to be there and you would ask What's the catch. How would you translate catch in this sense/context?


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## Tagarela

Olá,

I didn't understand it very well. Could you kindly give us an example? 

Até.:


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## dihydrogen monoxide

An example would be: It's fictional, it's not supposed to be exactly true.
A: Why are we fishing in the North Pole? 
B: We want to catch some fish?
A: But there's no fish in North Pole, what's the catch?
(This what's the catch asks for logical explanation for fishing in North Pole, which seems illogical to you.)

I hope I've made myself clear. Well, in this case what's the catch, given the example above, how would you translate it in your native language?


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## sokol

With fishing this works, but I am not quite sure if "what's the catch" really exists as a _generalised _idiom of English which you could use in any context; but anyway, I think the meaning is clear now.

A typical way to express this in German (which definitely works with any context be it fish or not) would be:
"(Aber es gibt doch keine Fische am Nordpol),_ was soll das also?"_


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## dihydrogen monoxide

sokol said:


> With fishing this works, but I am not quite sure if "what's the catch" really exists as a _generalised _idiom of English which you could use in any context; but anyway, I think the meaning is clear now.
> 
> A typical way to express this in German (which definitely works with any context be it fish or not) would be:
> "(Aber es gibt doch keine Fische am Nordpol),_ was soll das also?"_


 
On a sidenote, would it make much difference if you'd say Aber es gibt keine Fische am Nordpol?


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## sokol

dihydrogen monoxide said:


> On a sidenote, would it make much difference if you'd say Aber es gibt keine Fische am Nordpol?


No.

You could replace the main clause with almost any sentence fitting within the logic of the subordinate clause I guess.


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## mcibor

In Polish there is a very similar saying:

Gdzie jest haczyk?
or
Gdzie tkwi haczyk?

it translates almost directly:
gdzie - where
jest - is
haczyk - hook, angle

Though after thourough reading, this Polish saying is equivalent of English. But... it doesn't really mean what you need - 
Gdzie jest haczyk is used when you e.g. see a contract that seems fishingly too good to be true
so you ask - what's the catch - where is the hidden "small print"... I'm not sure how to put this into words...


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## tenseconds

dihydrogen monoxide said:


> An example would be: It's fictional, it's not supposed to be exactly true.
> A: Why are we fishing in the North Pole?
> B: We want to catch some fish?
> A: But there's no fish in North Pole, what's the catch?
> (This what's the catch asks for logical explanation for fishing in North Pole, which seems illogical to you.)
> 
> I hope I've made myself clear. Well, in this case what's the catch, given the example above, how would you translate it in your native language?



Actually, I think "What's the catch?" would not be used in this situation.  People would say "What's the catch" when they are about to receive something really good, for example, but they expect to have to give up something in exchange.  I don't know if I'm explaining myself.  For example:
A:  Do you want me to help you clean your room and give you a million dollars?
B:  What's the catch?

In this case, it seems to good to be true, and B thinks that A will expect something big out of them.


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## mcibor

I agree with TenSecondS

The example you provided could be translated to Polish as:

A: Czemu łowimy tu na biegunie północnym?
B: Bo chcemy złapać trochę ryb?
A: Ale tu nie ma ryb, o co ci naprawdę chodzi?

O co ci naprawdę chodzi - what do you really want

So... please either give a better explanation of what you want from us, or a better example 

PS. How it is in your mother tongue? Maybe it will give us, or someone speaking Slovene some insight


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## ajo fresco

mcibor & tenseconds,

You've both expressed it very well.  That's exactly what it means to me.  

Ajo Fresco


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## Encolpius

It seems H2O meant *the clue* and not *the catch*.


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## Namakemono

In Spanish you would say "¿Cuál es la pega?" (pega being 'flaw' or 'defect') or "¿Dónde está la trampa?".



sokol said:


> A typical way to express this in German (which definitely works with any context be it fish or not) would be:
> "(Aber es gibt doch keine Fische am Nordpol),_ was soll das also?"_


I've seen "Wo ist der Haken" or something to that effect before. Is that correct?


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## bibax

In Czech I should say:

V čem je pointa? (= What's the point of it? Where's the punch line?)


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## phosphore

Serbian:

U čemu je fora/fazon/trik? (literally: what is the trick in?)


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## DearPrudence

Namakemono said:


> In Spanish you would say [...] "¿Dónde está la trampa?".


Almost as in Spanish, in French, I would say something like:
*"C'est quoi, l'embrouille ?"*


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## Favara

And Catalan is similar to French: _Quin és l'embroll_?


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## RaLo18

In Hebrew, catch is transliterated to קץ'.
What's the catch? - מה הקץ'? (_mah haketch_)


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## apmoy70

In Greek I'd say:
Πού είναι η παγίδα;
P*u i*ne i paɣ*i*ða?
(lit. "where's the trap?")
or
Ποιά είναι η παγίδα;
Pç*a i*ne i paɣ*i*ða?
("What's the trap?")


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## rusita preciosa

I can't think of an equivalent expression in Russian, but in similar situations we say: 
бесплатный сыр бывает только в мышеловке [besplatnyi syr byvayet tolko v myshelovke] - free cheese exists only in mousetraps

_(I have a good lawyer joke that illustrates very well the English expression, but it is in bad taste, so I can't post it here. I can send it in private to whomever wants it)_


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## sakvaka

Finnish: *Mikä idea/pointti siinä on?* What's the idea/point in that?

_Pointti_ is colloquial and should never be used in official written language.


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## Δημήτρης

apmoy70 said:


> In Greek I'd say:
> Πού είναι η παγίδα;
> P*u i*ne i paɣ*i*ða?
> (lit. "where's the trap?")
> or
> Ποιά είναι η παγίδα;
> Pç*a i*ne i paɣ*i*ða?
> ("What's the trap?")


Most of us would say "Κάποιο λάκκο έχει η φάβα".


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## apmoy70

Δημήτρης said:


> Most of us would say "Κάποιο λάκκο έχει η φάβα".


Of course, I forgot about that idiomatic expression...now the problem is how to translate it


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## shawnee

apmoy70 said:


> Of course, I forgot about that idiomatic expression...now the problem is how to translate it



Literally, "there's a ditch in the split pea patch." Otherwise: I smell a rat or there's a catch somewhere.


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