: Re: Can non-English-speaking characters use wordplay specific to English? Would it be jarring if in an original (non-translated) story, the characters, who don't speak English in-universe, use "untranslatable"

@Candy753

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One of the fun parts of learning a language is learning vocabulary, puns, turns of phrase, etc that just don't translate to your mother tongue.

Any English learner (any learner of any language) is going to listen for those special things and use them as soon as the opportunity comes up (as long as s/he feels comfortable enough to try).

Part of the fun for a native speaker who is friends with a non-native speaker is listening for the times when the latter gets these phrases just a little bit wrong. There's even an American cartoonist married to a German woman who delights in periodic strips gently poking fun at her errors (presumably with her approval).

When we learn other languages, we dutifully memorize vocabulary and grammar. But we don't really know the language until we can say things you just can't say in any other language (and until we have dreams in the new language, but that's for another question).

Your near-fluent characters will not only use the words and phrases you ask about, but likely go out of their way to learn about them and to work to master them. How they do this will vary by each speaker's personality, the natives they speak with, and context. But it will happen.

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