"Get a room!"

linguoboy · Postby **linguoboy** » 2019-03-01, 21:18

This is a colloquial phrase that I don't necessarily want translated literally. It might be hard to translate in any case because of cultural expectations.

In the USA, we use it when two people are being too affectionate in a public place. The implication is that they're close to having sex already so they might as well go someplace where they can go all the way. It can also be used figuratively. Like if two people in a conversation keep complimenting or praising each other you might humourously say "Get a room, you two!"

On WordReference, I found the suggested French translation "Eh, y'a des hôtels pour ça!" Suggested Spanish translations included, "¡Váyanse a un hotel!", "¡Ya cásense!" (Mexican) and "¡Iros a un hote!", "¡Eh, dejad algo para cuando estéis a solas!" (Spain). For German, the equivalents given are "Habt ihr kein Zuhause?" and "Nehmt euch ein Zimmer!"

Can any native speakers confirm these translations and/or suggest alternatives?

Antea · Postby **Antea** » 2019-03-01, 22:43

Yo diría “Iros a un hotel”, es la expresión que me resulta más familiar aquí.

linguoboy · Postby **linguoboy** » 2019-03-01, 22:49

Antea wrote:Yo diría “Iros a un hotel”, es la expresión que me resulta más familiar aquí.

Diries "Anar-vos a un hotel!" en català?

Antea · Postby **Antea** » 2019-03-01, 23:04

linguoboy wrote:
Antea wrote:Yo diría “Iros a un hotel”, es la expresión que me resulta más familiar aquí.

Diries "Anar-vos a un hotel!" en català?

En català, he sentit més aquesta expressió: “Que no teniu casa?”

linguoboy · Postby **linguoboy** » 2019-03-01, 23:07

Antea wrote:En català, he sentit més aquesta expressió: “Que no teniu casa?”

Sou de debò els alemanys d'Espanya!

Antea · Postby **Antea** » 2019-03-01, 23:12

Prantsis · Postby **Prantsis** » 2019-03-02, 1:05

linguoboy wrote:On WordReference, I found the suggested French translation "Eh, y'a des hôtels pour ça!"

WR's suggestion sounds fine to me. As regards the figurative meaning, in the situation you described I'd rather say something like "Vous voulez peut-être qu'on vous laisse ?" ("Maybe you'd like us to leave?").

Linguaphile · Postby **Linguaphile** » 2019-03-02, 5:18

Prantsis wrote:
linguoboy wrote:On WordReference, I found the suggested French translation "Eh, y'a des hôtels pour ça!"
WR's suggestion sounds fine to me. As regards the figurative meaning, in the situation you described I'd rather say something like "Vous voulez peut-être qu'on vous laisse ?" ("Maybe you'd like us to leave?").

I've heard basically the same phrase in Spanish: ¿Quieren que los dejemos solos? ("Do you want us to leave you alone?")

linguoboy wrote:Suggested Spanish translations included, "¡Váyanse a un hotel!", "¡Ya cásense!" (Mexican) and "¡Iros a un hote!", "¡Eh, dejad algo para cuando estéis a solas!" (Spain).

Váyanse a un hotel is indeed used. ¡Cásense ya! ("Get married already!") is too, but it's limited to people who aren't married whom the speaker knows quite well. It wouldn't strike me as odd to hear someone say something like Dejen algo para cuando estén solos, which would be the Mexican equivalent of the one you quoted above from Spain, although I can't say whether or not it is a set phrase (it isn't in my own experience, but it sounds perfectly reasonable).
In Estonian it's Võtke tuba! which is almost certainly taken from the English phrase and is a direct translation of it. It is used with many of the same variations that are used in English, too: minge võtke tuba endale! "go get a room for yourselves", võtke tuba või midagi! "get a room or something" and so on. I'm pretty sure the whole concept of having a set phrase for this situation came from English. Every once in a while you'll even hear the English phrase "get a room" used instead of the translation, even when everything else is in Estonian.
For English I'd add another phrase, "too much PDA"*. (Sometimes used together: "Too much PDA! Get a room!")
*PDA = public display of affection

Edit: For Finnish I found hankkikaa huone ("get a room") and hankkikaa huone jo ("get a room already"), which are basically literal translations of the English phrase too. I can't say whether or not they are used much in spoken Finnish, but they do seem to appear on Finnish websites with the right context.

Postby **Car** » 2019-03-02, 16:44

linguoboy wrote:For German, the equivalents given are "Habt ihr kein Zuhause?" and "Nehmt euch ein Zimmer!"

They sound ok to me.

Saim · Postby **Saim** » 2019-03-02, 20:26

linguoboy wrote:
Antea wrote:Yo diría “Iros a un hotel”, es la expresión que me resulta más familiar aquí.

Diries "Anar-vos a un hotel!" en català?

En tot cas aneu-vos-en ([nɛwzən] o [ənɛwzən]) o simplement aneu.

Postby **vijayjohn** » 2019-03-03, 4:23

There's a scene in Bombay (1995) where I think roughly the same idea (the hero and heroine's landlady frowns on them smiling and whispering to each other - already pretty intimate by South Asian standards - in front of a children's school) is expressed in Hindi as "अंदर जाओ ना!" (or in Urdu "!اندر جاؤ نا") 'just go inside!'.