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There are two childish expressions that came to mind recently. I wonder if they are untranslatable?

  1. "so there" Interjection

from wiktionary:

(idiomatic, childish) Used to express one's defiance. 
2007, Curious George:
Oh, yeah? Well, that's not physically possible for me to do! So there!

Notice that even the dictionary is unable to directly translate and only says "to express one's defiance".

A literal translation could be: "So, that is the situation. (And by the way, you can go to hell.)"

  1. "you're mean"

Example:

"Stop interrupting our game, and throwing water on us! You're mean! Get out of here!"

The reason this one is confusing, is that the dictionary lacks a reciprocal entry. It points to злой and зло́бный. However, those words don't have definitions of "mean", which does signify "malicious", however in a basic, simple, childlike way.

Would you use злой or зло́бный in these cases? Maybe they are correct.

In English, we would not say any of ["evil", "spiteful", "malicious", "malignant", "bitter", "wicked"], as they would all be too strong.

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I can see "So there!" being translated as "Вот так!" or "Так что вот (так)!" in some context.

For the second, the more "childlike" (less spiteful) version of "злобный" would be something like "вредный"/"вредина" (the one who вредничает).

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  • Yes, I was wondering if "вот" (and "так") could be used. This word "вот" is especially confusing because it can be "used in set phrases" "used as a filler word" "used to express emphasis". Those may not be directly translatable.
    – Sam
    Commented May 22 at 16:22
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    Other similar alternatives to "Вот так!" can be "Так-то!" or "То-то же!"
    – Arthur Khazbulatov
    Commented Jun 17 at 14:28
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I would translate second as something like "ну ты даёшь!" - expressing frustration with someone's actions yet not spiteful!

First one most probably is expressed through articulation and pronunciation

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  • Thanks for the answer! Investigating more, here is an explanation from reddit about даёшь: "It might be interpreted either in a negative or positive way. The idea is to convey a surprise of one's actions, like "I didn't expect you are capable of that". It conveys surprise. Wow! On the other hand, what I am asking about is the word "mean". That signifies a person is malicious. While it might be an "exclamation", it could also be a "statement", and not be surprising, or "wow!". Perhaps there is some overlap...
    – Sam
    Commented May 21 at 12:24

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