Turns out "beating" games is a mostly a North American phrasing. Leigh Alexander wondered what that said about us -- and ended up learning a fascinating variety of global phrases for finishing games.
One of my favorite things about living and visiting abroad is to notice the ways idioms change from place to place, even within the same language. Once I'd been in London for a while, I noticed something interesting: Here, my friends don't say they "beat" games. It figures, I thought; "beat" is probably an American conceit, rooted in our capitalistic, competitive culture. My English friends say they "finished" a game, or "completed" it. Much more demure and pragmatic, I reckon. I took to Twitter to test my theory, and ended up delighted by what I learned -- all around the world, people use different ways of saying they've beaten a game. If you're from any of these places, I'll leave it up to you to think about what it says about you. In Japan, they "clear" games. Ah, that sounds about right -- I remember the STAGE CLEAR screens from the inscrutable Japanese games of my youth.
@leighalexander In Japan, クリアした, "I cleared it" from the English loan word "clear."
— Denton Clark (@beforethesneeze) February 2, 2014Canadians "beat" games too, but they are very sorry about it:
@leighalexander Canada = beating, but now that I think about it that seems unnecessarily violent
— Jesse Sonier (@j_sonier) February 2, 2014Many Australians and New Zealanders reported this one -- interestingly, according to the responses I heard, they share it in common with South Africans and Irish folks:
@leighalexander in AUS and NZ we say "clocked" it
— Joshua Boggs (@jboggsie) February 2, 2014Sometimes there are idiomatic variations unique to one's own social groups:
@leighalexander Canadians say we 'Beat' a game too, and when I was really young (NES era) we would say we 'wrapped' it.
— Matthew Thompson (@mashuu83) February 2, 2014@leighalexander Some young kids I've talked to use 'passed' it. Like passing a class, I guess.
— Michael John (@MichaelMJJohn) February 2, 2014I wonder if Swedes have a special interest in vehicles:
@jboggsie @leighalexander In Sweden, literally translated, it's "drove" it. Like a vehicle.
— Ulf Hartelius (@UlfHartelius) February 2, 2014Finns seem disinterested in being competitive:
@leighalexander Finns say "pelasin lapi" which translates to "I played through". I like it because it doesn't care if you "won" or not.
— Joonas Laakso (@jlaakso) February 2, 2014Norwegians are tired of all that running around:
@leighalexander When I was a kid we would say we "rundet" (Norwegian; "went all the way around") the game. Fallen out of fashion now.
— Are Pedersen (@Zealuu) February 2, 2014Apparently there are a couple ways to say it in German -- the practical way, and the hoping for luck:
@leighalexander in german: durchspielen = "playing through" #superunimaginative
— raphael (@shun_geki_satsu) February 2, 2014@leighalexander The more popular version in German is "durchzocken". Direct translation is "gamble through"
— Golwar (@Golwar) February 2, 2014This Dutch term is interesting:
@tha_rami @leighalexander 'Uitgespeeld' is a wonderful word; it has like five different game-related meanings, depending on context.
— S. Keerssemeeckers (@Stiif) February 2, 2014FUCKYEAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!! skyrim uitgespeeld
— Chantie (@Chantiekills) January 30, 2014Ecuadorians are good sports:
@leighalexander in Ecuador we "win" a game. Yup, like a sport ;)
— Jose Andrade (@jandrade) February 2, 2014A few Brazilians told me that "zero" is common phrasing:
@ArabianFrost @leighalexander In Brazil we say “eu zerei o jogo”, something like “I zeroed the game”.
— Alexandre Lemke (@lemke_) February 2, 2014@leighalexander In some regions on Brazil, we "zero" the game, like a verb
— Esteban Maroto (@shingos) February 2, 2014Is it true that Argentina's phrasing of "turning" can be read as sexual?
@leighalexander Argentina: "Darlo vuelta" = "Turn it around"
— zql (@macabrofandango) February 2, 2014@leighalexander En Argentina 'Lo voltee' Which translates to 'I turned the game upside down' or 'I had intercorse with the game'.
— El negro (@negro_73) February 2, 2014China and Israel also like to beat and win:
@leighalexander In Chinese, variations of "through", e.g 打穿 "beat through" (beat=play), 通关 "passing through all passes" (passes=stages).
— Madthing in ze Attic (@cucNotes) February 2, 2014There are few different ways to say it in Hindi, it seems:
@leighalexander In Hindi, "jeet gaye", which means "we won" is used. For competitive games, it can be "hara diya", meaning "beat them".
— Arvind Raja Yadav (@arvindrajayadav) February 2, 2014@leighalexander In hindi it's खतंम । which is basically "finished" or "completed".
— Y. V. Reetesh (@Reetesh) February 2, 2014Possibly Korea would just like to see the ending:
@leighalexander The most frequent one I see Koreans write is 엔딩을 본다 (ending-eul bonda,"see the ending") past tense: 엔딩을 봤다 ending-eul boatta
— Sam Derboo (@samderboo) February 2, 2014In Egypt, they apparently "close" a game:
@leighalexander In Egypt we say "قفلت اللعبة" ('afelt el le'ba), which literally translates to "I closed the game".
— Svero ibn Amr (@ArabianFrost) February 2, 2014"Pass" is a popular way to think of it in Mexico, Venezuela and Croatia:
@leighalexander In Croatian, it is "prešao sam igru", which is literally "I passed the game", and would translate to "I finished the game".
— Nikolai Kavalerov (@kavalerov) February 2, 2014@leighalexander In Mexico:Terminar (Ended it, Finished it), Acabar (Ran out it, no more game to play) and Pasar (Passed it, like a test)
— Omar (@modoversus) February 2, 2014@leighalexander In Venezuela the common thing is to say "Pasamos el juego", which is, literally, "We passed the game".
— Daniel Aquino (@AquinoDaneel) February 2, 2014Malaysia and Indonesia are mostly "finish"-ers:
@leighalexander in Indonesia, in case you haven't heard, we say "saya sudah tamatkan game ini", means "I've finished this game". :)
— Fabi Andritto (@bumblebie_) February 2, 2014@leighalexander In Malay: Habis (Finish). Menang (Win). And we say 'finish' in English in Malaysia, not 'beat'.
— PupuCandyNoobSaga (@pUpUnoob) February 2, 2014I'm afraid I don't know how to read this, Russian friends:
@leighalexander in Russia it's usually Прошел
— Seductive Barry (@BarrySeductive) February 2, 2014And you, Spain. What do you make of this?
@leighalexander in Spain we say "petarse el juego" which can be translated as "bursting it out", roughly.
— Inakei (@InakeiStation) February 2, 2014You May Also Like
