Talk:preach to the choir

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Latest comment: 2 years ago by Vininn126 in topic Inaccurate translations?
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Kick in an open door[edit]

I don't know if this is an English saying, but it is a direct translation of the Dutch one, een open deur intrappen, which was the translation. This is used when someone stated something obvious, or sometimes when someone stated an overly simple—often not very useful—solution to a problem. Preaching to the choir means something different. So I removed the Dutch translation.

The Norwegian (Bokmål)—slå inn åpne dører—and French—enfoncer une porte ouverte—translations are the nearly literal translation from the wrong Dutch translation. It's probably best if someone with a Norwegian and one with a French mothertong look at this before, possibly, removing those translation. Hulten (talk) 09:13, 17 October 2018 (UTC)Reply

Inaccurate translations?[edit]

@Vininn126: I tend to agree with the above; imo, French enfoncer des portes ouvertes means "to state the obvious", which isn't quite the same thing as preaching to the choir. ru.wikt glosses Russian ломи́ться в откры́тую дверь (lomítʹsja v otkrýtuju dverʹ) as "настойчиво утверждать, доказывать то, что всем непосредственно очевидно, против чего никто не спорит", which seems to encompass both ideas. What about Polish wyważać otwarte drzwi? How would you gloss/translate it? PUC23:44, 24 April 2022 (UTC)Reply

WSJP gives the definition of "to unnecessarily come up with something already known", so I can kind of seeing it both ways, but I suppose they'd be better as "state the obvious". Vininn126 (talk) 07:48, 25 April 2022 (UTC)Reply