I was watching a movie in Russian and came across a phrase for which I cannot find a match in English.
"Нехорошо получилось"
This was said after some misunderstanding between two men that led to a fight.
1 Answer
"Нехорошо получилось" is a half-veiled expression of regret. The person regrets having done something, but does not go as far as to acknowledge his guilt. The upside is that the phrase also evades putting the blame on the opponent.
It's as if the mishap happened by itself. "We only wanted to have a little argument, to exchange opinions, and look what has happened."
I'm finding it hard to come up with an idiomatic everyday equivalent in English. I recall the expression "Just my luck!", but that has a single person as subject. Interjections like "Oops!" and "D'oh!" also come to mind.
Could it be translated as "We've gone a bit too far with this" or something like this, I wonder.
From a morphology standpoint, the verb 'получилось' is ambiguous as to the character of the implied subject: it could be "Нехорошо получилось у меня" (I'm the culprit) or "Нехорошо получилось у нас" (we are both culpable).
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2Maybe it could sound something like "Things have not gone well". Commented May 8, 2016 at 15:25
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@BillyLogan - a nice one! I'm not a native speaker to judge, but it sounds good. Commented May 8, 2016 at 15:26
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I guess interjections like "Oops!" and "D'oh!" don't really match up with the phrase, as the phrase can be easily used in formal conversations. Commented May 8, 2016 at 15:33
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2@BillyLogan - yes, the interjections express a similar feeling but are more limited in their field of application. When Viktor Chernomyrdin was saying his famous "Хотели как лучше, получилось как всегда", he could not have used "Ой" or "Блин" as substitutes. Commented May 8, 2016 at 15:37
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1I'm pretty sure it means "it didn't work out so (too) well". получиться is something like to work, come out—well, poorly, etc. Literally something like—it didn't receive itself well.– VCH250Commented May 8, 2016 at 15:53