Talk:gezellig

This word and cozy are the only words listed as untranslatable, yet cozy lists this word as being its translation. Screwy? 129.237.90.24 01:36, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

Ask a Dutch speaker. They will tell you that cozy is insufficient to translate gezellig... but it's the closest we have. — Hippietrail 05:59, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

Yes, but it is an adjective, and two of the definitions are for nouns! SemperBlotto 08:13, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

Aha well that's something different. It seems a Dutch speaker with poor English did their best. I'd say the definitions are not "for nouns" but "worded as if they were for nouns". Somebody should be able to fix them up. Preferably somebody with a good control of both languages. — Hippietrail 04:21, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

Allow me to amend: ask a Dutch speaker from the Netherlands, and they will make that claim. A Fleming like myself would translate it by "cozy" and be done with it. As such, I think the first translation should be quite simply "cozy", and then the second can be the whole "intranslatable" thing. Paul Willocx 17:49, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

As a native Dutch and near-native English speaker, let me try to clarify. One possible aspect of gezellig can be translated into cozy, but it is most definitely not the entire meaning of the word gezellig. Cozy would in turn best translate into the Dutch knus. However, depending on the context, cozy could sometimes better be translated into gezellig. Maybe something to add is that gezellig is a description of an atmosphere or ambiance, in the company of others, which is friendly, fun, pleasant, cozy, sociable. I would have to add though that even this attempt at translation is inaccurate, as these English words have a more implicit meaning. TheQz 18:38, 11 November 2007 (UTC)