"Han har en hvit elefant."
Translation:He has a white elephant.
23 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
"A white elephant is a possession which its owner cannot dispose of and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_elephant
Also see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_elephant_gift_exchange
In American English (i can't speak for others) white elephant is a type of gift exchange activity where everybody brings a present (usually an undesirable one as a joke) and people take turns choosing from the pile on the middle or stealing from others who have already chosen. Does this exist in Norway?
I'm american and we do this every year! Well, kind of... We try to at least xD
I'm super late to this, but I just finished a literature class and we studied a text called "Hills Like White Elephants" and it has similar meaning. It's by Ernest Hemingway!
Does BillEvertt's first, figurative meaning apply in Norway: a possession which its owner cannot dispose of and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness? e.g. "After the Olympic games, the city was left with a white elephant (of a) stadium."
There seems to be a(n Norwegian) Wikipedia article on the expression, but I cannot recall hearing it, so I'm not sure of how common it is.
In Portuguese a white elephant (elefante branco) is a structure or device that is disproportionate for its intended use and is costly to maintain
"Hvit" is used with masculine and feminine (indefinite singular) nouns.
"Hvitt" is used with neuter (indefinite sungular) nouns.
Can anybody explain why the most frequent animal in those sentences is the elephant ? Is it really common in Norway or is it just Duolingo that has a weird obsession with it ?
