The Spanish version is my favourite: la derecha oprime y la izquierda libera (the right oppresses and the left liberates)

The right oppresses, the left liberates

"La derecha oprime y la izquierda libera"

The right oppresses, the left liberates

In austrian german dialect, "Mit da Ua, draht ma zua." which in standard german would be "Mit der Uhr, dreht man zu." and in english "With the clock, turn it closed." or something like that.

I never really got that one, because "left" vs "right" only works when you are looking at the top of the screw. At the bottom, left tightens, and right loosens. So the one I remember is "clockwise to close".

Edit: the image on the post is actually a good example. If I'm off the screen to the right holding the spanner, then from my perspective, "left" would tighten.

In Dutch we have DROL, Dicht recht, open links. So close right, open left as a very strict translation. But DROL is also Dutch for turd.

Not for screwing/unscrewing but in France we have a satire mnemonic for remembering right and left:

The right hand is the one with the thumb pointing left.

Works only if you look at the back of your hands, and obviously not useful. We use it mainly to mock someone who mix right and left

I'm Norwegian. I never learned a rule in my language and always just went by instinct. Until ~3rd year of university in physics where someone told me tha the right-hand-rule applies to screws. Now I use that everywhere for screws in strange positions.

You know this has always confused the fuck out of me. You are going around a circle, how is there left and right? There is up-and-left, down-and-left, either way is left. If I am starting on the right of the circle (assuming I'm looking at it) which way is right? Up or down?

The German version as actually survived its original time frame: "So lang das Deutsche Reich besteht, wird Schraube fest nach rechts gedreht" - "As long as the German Reich exists, a screw is tightened by turning right"

Solang das Deutsche Reich besteht, wird die Schraube rechts gedreht.

This phrase has never made any sense to me. It’s a circle. If one side is moving right, then the opposite side is moving left. So the phrase only makes sense if you specify which side we are talking about, which nobody ever does. Therefore it’s completely illogical to me while everyone else just gets it. Side note: Autism can be a real bitch sometimes.

Edit:

1. Some people don’t understand how I can see a problem. That’s cool, but don’t be a dick. We all look at the world through different lenses.
2. This is when I was a kid “helping” my grandfather in the garage. I’m older now and understand that “righty tighty” references the top of the rotation.
3. Some people rotate their perspective 90° and imagine themselves standing on the screw. Therefore when your face rotates to the right the screw is tightened. I hadn’t ever thought of that. But I had imagined rotating my perspective 90° the other direction –the top of my head as a screwdriver. In that case, “lefty tighty”

The Right Hand Rule (RHR). Point the thumb of your right hand in the direction you want something to go. Curl your fingers. That is the direction of rotation. Translate to any language which has hands.

Finnish doesn't have one. We just learn it by instinct and use the time saved to warm up the sauna.

A nice thought until you run into a left handed thread........

I'm from back in the generation when we had volume knobs.

My dad told me turn the volume up to tighten it, turn it down to loosen it.

I've never had a problem.

"Lefty Loosey righty tighty"

One arrow points up to the left, one points down to the left.

It depends which bicycle pedal you're screwing in. They have opposite threads, designed where they're self tightening on each side.

The only one I know of is "open counter clockwise", but after consuming too much media in English I use "righty tighty...".

I can't think of an equivalent phrase in Bulgarian for that, but it's known that [most] threads tighten when turning clockwise... and if you don't know what direction the clock goes, what are you even doing with screws or bolts...

And again there are special cases even outside of threads - for example in plumbing there are some valves that are open when the handle is parallel to the pipe and closed when the handle is perpendicular - and it might just happen that the closing motion happens counterclockwise.

We have: "Nach fest kommt ab"

The phrase "Nach fest kommt ab" is a German saying that translates to "After tight comes off" in English. It's typically used to describe the idea that if you tighten something too much (like a screw), it will eventually break or come loose. It’s often used to remind people to not overdo things.

Nope. Polish doesn't have one.

We have that in Gujarati "navde nokhu satde sajjad"