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    English missing

    Rostige Gießkanne (nicht singen können)

    Subject

    Rostige Gießkanne (nicht singen können)

    Sources
    Der Gesang klingt wie eine rostige Gießkanne.
    Comment
    Was wäre die beste umgangssprachliche Übersetzung? Gibt es was passenderes als 'can't hold a tune'?
    AuthorSusieq20 Aug 09, 22:08
    Comment
    He sounds like a moose in heat!
    #1Author dude (253248) 20 Aug 09, 22:29
    SuggestionThanks dude!
    #2AuthorSusieq20 Aug 09, 22:30
    Comment
    Sounds like a cat being strangled.
    #3Authorlaalaa (238508) 20 Aug 09, 22:42
    Comment
    A moose in heat? Do we really say that?
    #4Author Bill (US) (236753) 20 Aug 09, 23:00
    Comment
    @Bill: do all Americans always say the same thing for everything? I think not.
    #5Author dude (253248) 20 Aug 09, 23:05
    Suggestioncan't carry a tune in a bucket
    #6Authordoubledutch20 Aug 09, 23:58
    Comment
    That's it! I couldn't think of it for the life of me, but #6 really is a common phrase.

    However, it's more about not having an ear for music than not having a good voice. In that sense you can also say that someone has a tin ear.

    To me the idea of someone being a singer, able to carry a tune, but having an awful voice is a slightly different concept. You could maybe say that someone's singing voice is just a rusty croak. Or maybe raspy. I'm trying to think of singers, or more often, songwriters, who are known for really bad singing voices, so you could search for other examples. Leonard Cohen? Actors who have half-spoken their songs in musicals, like Rex Harrison, Richard Burton?

    You could probably think up any number of other picturesque comparisons; a rusty hinge or a rusty door might sort of work.

    But in all these cases, in English you would usually say it about the singer or the voice, not the song.



    #7Author hm -- us (236141) 21 Aug 09, 00:10
     
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