rusty

chico   Wed Jul 04, 2007 3:36 am GMT
does anyone know of a way to rusty in spanish? i mean like "i am a native speaker but my spanish is a bit rusty". sure i can say it another way, but is there an expression for it. it probably would not use the same word for rusty as in english.

maybe there is an idiomatic expression.

chico
furrykef   Wed Jul 04, 2007 4:04 am GMT
My dictionary gives two examples for "My Greek is pretty rusty":

1. Me falta práctica en griego.
2. Tengo el griego muy olvidado.

Another had this for "My Quechua is very rusty":

3. Tengo muy olvidado el quechua.

- Kef
K. T.   Thu Jul 05, 2007 4:39 am GMT
Interesting. I'd like to read what speakers of other languages have to say about "rusty"...
Franco   Thu Jul 05, 2007 5:49 am GMT
Qué querés decir? Querés saber cómo se dice 'rusty' en otros idomas?

Ruso:
Я подзабыл греческий язык.

Español:
Mi griego es muy oxidado.

ja ja.
Guest   Thu Jul 05, 2007 6:06 am GMT
Qué querés decir? Querés saber cómo se dice 'rusty' en otros idomas?-F

K. T.: Yes.

Ruso:
Я подзабыл греческий язык.

Español:
Mi griego es muy oxidado.

ja ja.

K.T.-Yes, that's funny.
chico   Thu Jul 05, 2007 7:01 am GMT
i know that oxidado is rusty.

pero yo no diria "mi espanol es muy oxidado". diria " yo hablo desde chiquito pero por usar ingles todos los dias me falta la practica. o algo asi. i was just wondering if there was an equivalent idiomatic expression to rusty. or would a spanish speaker say oxidado meaning out of practice. i wouldn't think so, but i speak more english.

perdoname por no usar los accentos. no puedo o no se como hacerlo en esta computadora.
furrykef   Thu Jul 05, 2007 7:16 am GMT
I think Franco was joking when he said "oxidado".
furrykef   Thu Jul 05, 2007 7:20 am GMT
Hmm... apparently one *can* use "oxidado" that way in Spanish, but I don't know if it would be universally understood. This post seems to indicate that the Spanish expression exists: http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=246860

My hunch is that the expression isn't universal in the Spanish-speaking world, considering that none of the three translations that the dictionaries offered used anything like "oxidado".

- Kef
Parisien   Thu Jul 05, 2007 12:04 pm GMT
En français:

"mon anglais est rouillé"
(rouille = rust)
Franco   Thu Jul 05, 2007 12:12 pm GMT
Can you say:

My Greek has oxidated?

Would people screech with laughter?
furrykef   Thu Jul 05, 2007 3:35 pm GMT
You mean in English? You could say that humorously, but if you were being serious, then people would probably fall over laughing. :)

Kind of ironic that it's actually funnier if you don't intend to be funny...

- Kef
Spaniard   Thu Jul 05, 2007 6:08 pm GMT
To me "Mi Castellano está algo oxidado" sounds fine. A search in Google reveals 161.000 pages with the expresion "Mi inglés está algo oxidado".

De nada!
K. T.   Thu Jul 05, 2007 6:17 pm GMT
En français:

"mon anglais est rouillé"
(rouille = rust)

Yes! It works in French as well. Any other phrases that you use?

Any speakers of other languages care to opine?
Guest   Thu Jul 05, 2007 6:23 pm GMT
Actually, quite a few of my students in ESL class were trying to come up with this from their own languages.

What similar phrases are there in the following languages?


Ukrainian

Serbo-Croatian/Bosnian

Korean

Romanian

Mandarin
Parisien   Thu Jul 05, 2007 10:45 pm GMT
"mon anglais est rouillé"
(rouille = rust)

Yes! It works in French as well.

It works in Swedish too: "Min engelska är lite rostig"