Talk:off the top of one's head

French

@Canonicalization de tête? – Jberkel 16:06, 20 January 2020 (UTC)

@Jberkel: I think it fits, yes. 31.173.87.21 16:23, 20 January 2020 (UTC)

@31.173.87.21 I don't. There's an element of "without thinking much about it" that doesn't seem to be part of de tête. I might be able to come up with all sorts of things from my memory or mental calculation if I spent a good amount of time on it, but something that's "off the top of my head" is only a very small subset of that. Chuck Entz (talk) 17:59, 20 January 2020 (UTC)

Yes, from the usexes at de tête it seems to mean more "calculate in your head", "known by heart" etc. – Jberkel 20:25, 20 January 2020 (UTC)

@Jberkel, Chuck Entz: Maybe it's not a good, all-purpose gloss, but I'd say it definitely can be translated like that in certain contexts. de tête is often used at the head of a sentence ([1], [2], [3]), in a similar way to off the top of one's head. 31.173.81.54 20:42, 20 January 2020 (UTC)

"off the top of one's head" seems to combine various aspects in a single expression, which makes it hard to translate. there's the quick, spontaneous, improvised aspect, and the implied disclaimer: "I really know this (but perhaps not right now)". The German translation (aus dem Stegreif) conveys this more or less, but I'm unsure about the other languages. Another option could be sur le coup. – Jberkel 20:57, 20 January 2020 (UTC)

See also this thread. 93.185.28.113 07:24, 22 January 2020 (UTC)

@Jberkel: I think comme ça (especially when prefixed with là: "là(,) comme ça") could also fit in some cases. And "comme ça(,) de mémoire", "comme ça(,) de tête" or "comme ça(,) à froid" yield relevant results too. PUC – 15:07, 16 June 2021 (UTC)