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Language brain teasers are those that involve the English language. You need to think about and manipulate words and letters.Language
I have a common English phrase. I feed this phrase into a computer translation program. This translates it into a foreign language then back into English again. Unfortunately, because computers do not understand idiom and sarcasm, the phrase has been changed. It now reads:
BLIND, INSANITY.
What was the original phrase?
BLIND, INSANITY.
What was the original phrase?
Hint
The phrase is six words long: three before the comma and three after.Answer
Out of sight, out of mind.Hide Hint Show Hint Hide Answer Show Answer
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Comments
Very clever!
I like it alot!!

How about "I'm so mad, I can't see". That also fits your hint.
that wouldn't work because blind comes before insanity.

also i've never heard of "i'm so mad in can't see" before
This will be one of my favorites. Thanks.
Now that one I like.

That was real good. Got anymore?
Very Good, well thought out.







To what language has it been changed to before it was changed back into english? I cannot think of any language that has a phrase with both 'out of mind' and 'insanity' as meaning.
Very clever
I could've never thought of that
but keep 'em comin'



this was pretty good.. it was kinda easy..
Yeah ok Step.. we all know you wish you'd got it...
I thought it might be "Don't be religious, you'll go insane." :-)
Great teaser.. wish I'd thought of it lol...
I thought it might be "Don't be religious, you'll go insane." :-)
Great teaser.. wish I'd thought of it lol...
great one, one of my favorites...

I think the answer is actually one word:
Blind Insanity = MARRIAGE!
Blind Insanity = MARRIAGE!
Very clever.

I heard this years (25) ago, where translating this to Russian and back to English resulted in "invisible idiot"

This was a good one. I didn't get it, but it was very clever.

Fun teaser. Only way I got it was by using the hint.
Fun teaser. Only way I got it was by using the hint.
After a little thought it popped in to my head.Good teaser



Very clever indeed. I like this one, didn't get it, but find it fun anyways.

Loved this one, it is really clever, and cute.


That was really good!

That one made me laugh out loud, my husband thought I was crazy. It's one of the better ones I've seen lately. Thanks so much for posting.
Monday~
Monday~

Nov 18, 2007
Bad. First, it's mixing and adjective (blind) before the comma with a noun (insanity), after it, when the original structures are the same ("out of..."). A correct answer should be "blind, insane" or "blindness, insanity." Both should preserve the comma since nothing in the formulation of the quiz tells you to get rid of it. Second, the supposed foreign language translation makes no sense. In any translation, the "out of" structure would be preserved. Can I give it zero stars?
Wow, someone above me has had too much coffee, relax, it's a quiz!
liked it... when I send an email to our 'helpdesk', the sofware suggest 'Helpless' which is sometimes very appropriate...I think I will give some cheese to this mouse on my desk !



Sorry, I have to agree with Roboso. The prepositions of a phrase still hold weight in a computerized translation. This happens way too often on Braingle; people need to do some research before they think they've come up with a clever teaser, when in fact it's really obscure.
I first heard this gag in 1978, and I didn't like it then.
It ahsn't improved.

good teaser... took me a couple minutes but i got it with ease (once my coffee woke me up a little bit)...
Ah ha ha! I loved it!

I probably would've had trouble with this if I hadn't heard the answer somewhere else recently...
Great teaser, though!
Great teaser, though!





As a matter of Fact, this Teaser is Not a good teaser. This Teaser is a lie. And as I read the comments, I see how many people were taken in by this bogus saying. I am sorry, Out of Sight, Out of Mind is such a widely used idiom that seeing it in this guise lets me know just how people change the meaning of things without consideration for the true creator. This is why Copyrights are so important....






Yeah, I didn't get the answer either

If the computer does not recognize idiom, it would not know that "out of mind" is an idiom for insane, so it would not translate it that way.
Thank you, Kwelchans. Precious obviously has no idea what an idiom is. By definition it does not translate word for word from language to language, not even WITHIN a language! It's the expression as a whole that has the meaning, not the individual words. Understanding that, I got the answer immediately, no hint, no thinking needed. (and no coffee yet!) And thanks to the submitter!

What was Precious babbling about in her follow-up post???
I liked that! That was awesome! I'd love to see more like this :-)
I thought we are not supposed to suggest spelling or grammar corrections. To those who are quibbling about blind being a being an adjective and insanity a noun--O.K. maybe "blind; insane" would be more grammatically correct, but I believe the teaser makes sense anyway and some comments are quite petty.
I think this was a great teaser...even though I didn't get it!
Good job!


good!! you could also have used unseen idiot.
I did not get it, but I liked it. Picky, picky people always got something to correct. They just can't let a teaser be fun and let it go at that. Mr. Vain is wrong also. I was married for 42 happy wonderful years of married life. So sad for him!
Got it because I've seen it before. Still a great teaser. Hi GW.



I agree with Babe, some folks are being entirely too critical. Brain Teasers are supposed to be fun - hence, "teaser". The creator wasn't trying to win any contests here, but I thought it was just fine all the same.
I think most of the people being critical don't understand what the teaser is saying. They seem to be thinking that the teaser amounts to: "What common English phrase means 'Blind Insanity'"? It's totally over their heads. But anyways, I really liked this one. But is there any language that you could truly translate this to, and back, to get "Blind, Insanity"?
absolutely excellent!! Very simple!!
This was a very clever teaser. I liked it.
I'd like to apologize to doehead. Yesterday I left a sarcastic message to him/her and it was rude. So I am sorry.

I don't like the critical messages I sometimes see her in the comments. It won't happen again!
I'd like to apologize to doehead. Yesterday I left a sarcastic message to him/her and it was rude. So I am sorry.


I don't like the critical messages I sometimes see her in the comments. It won't happen again!

"her" should read "here"

Fun. Unique. Good free-association thinking challenge.
I'm also with Babe on this, very clever!

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