Isn't “kio la fek” grammatically wrong?

Question

I’ve heard this phrase used a lot by Evildea, and also in writing in various places (Reddit, Telegram, etc.). If I’m assuming correctly, this is a pretty straightforward word-for-word translation of the English “what the f?ck” (even though fek is not the same word). However, I’m not a native English speaker and leaning upon my knowledge of Esperanto (although still considering myself a komencanto), this seems grammatically awkward to me. As in, there is no verb, there is la that feels out of place…

So, am I correct at thinking that this is wrong use of the language and an Anglicism, or am I missing something here? I’m tempted to ask for alternatives but that that is not a good use of the site and should be the subject of another question.

Answer 1

To me this is a clear anglicism. These kinds of anglicisms sometimes gain some popularity quite fast, because their English equivalents are vastly understood also by non english natives. The people who used it first might have even meant it as a joke but then people came to use it as if it was normal language use.

German natives some years ago made such a joke and said "Sed saluton!" which literally translates to german "Aber hallo!" But only german natives or people who are very experienced in colloquial German have a chance to get the meaning. So the expression "Sed saluton!" remained on this joke level.

Answer 2

Seems (to want) to say

Kio estas tiu fekaĵo?

And yes, in English "the" often should be translated "tiu". However this is a minor thing, happening in several languages. Dutch "ik weet het niet" = "mi ne scias ĝin" has the same reference problem. "La tago estas suna" = "The day is sunny" has also a dangling "la".

So it (grammatically) seems acceptable.

Answer 3

You could also ask what, exactly, the word damne is doing in Damne, ĉu eblas?

All that is happening is that a "rude word" is being thrown into the sentence as an interjection. Consider for example Kio—la fek!—okazas ĉi tie? The question is interrupted by an exclamation of annoyance. Remove the latter part of the question and you have Evildea's expression.

So it is an Anglicism, and "ungrammatical", but marking it wrong is like marking Damne! wrong or insisting that Argh! isn't a real word and that people should stop saying it.

Answer 4

I'm also skeptical of this phrase, so you aren't alone here. Although I am a native English speaker, it feels off in Esperanto. I'm not sure exactly if it's grammatically incorrect because I'm far from proficient in the language as of yet, but it sounds awkward to me, mostly because of "la" so it's more than likely. If the phrase was instead "kiu fek", it probably wouldn't bother me as much (though the lack of "o" at the end of it is a personal gripe).

Answer 5

Kio la fek’! – Ĉu havas ian sencon diskuti pri "gramatika ĝusteco", kiam iu eligas ekkrion de konsterno, surprizo, malŝato, naŭzo aŭ feliĉo aŭ ŝerco aŭ simple volas ŝoki?

Ŝajnas esti interesa vortigo por aldoni emocian forton al ia ajn frazo. Se oni volas trovi ion gramatikan, oni povas laŭ sia plaĉo aldoni vortojn ellasitajn kaj subkomprenendajn por fari kompletan, belan, laŭgramatikan frazon. Kompreneble, post tia filozofiumado, la trivortaĵo estos perdinta sian tutan esprimpovon kaj eblan ĉarmon.

Answer 6

I would say it is, and it started popularity as a joke, like many elements of living language usage. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

There is a whole subgenre of this kind of jokes that some Esperantists on the internet decided to call "salamandri", in the range of reptile words of krokodili and aligatori, which means to say something with Esperanto words but which is only really understandable with context from another language. For example with my native Dutch we have jokes like Sinjoro Kadavro for bongusta (heerlijk = very tasteful, where split up heer = mister, lord and lijk = corpse) and Iru vian koridoron (ga je gang, do as you like, where gang is dutch for hallway).

Answer 7

Komencanto tie.

Perhaps "Kio la fekas" ? I suggest this as often times the work is used in expression to an action. The reason it looks off in Esperanto when compared to English is that English is very ambiguous outside of context if a word is a verb, noun, adjective or adverb. And as a result the word f**k doesn't work as just a word in the case of translation into Esperanto.

I will admit that the use of "kio la fek" as just word translation of the express. As vague and missing context as it's English equivalent.

-NIK