HolyBrat  +  731282 Fri, 15 May 09 03:11 PM Hi, which relative pronoun do I use in this case: "The moments when(?)/in which(?)/that(?) something good happens ..." Thanks! HolyBrat Joined on Wed, May 13 2009 New Member 22 Having an orgasm, in nineteenth-century English slang, was not 'coming' but 'spending'. (Susan Sontag) Pronouns, Relative Pronouns

	Yankee  +  731403 Fri, 15 May 09 04:34 PM Hi HolyBrat I'd say you could use any of those. The choice will depend somewhat on the rest of the sentence. Do you have the rest of the sentence? Generally speaking, the use of "in which" would tend to sound more formal than the other two. Yankee Joined on Sat, Apr 15 2006 Connecticut, USA Veteran Member 6,491 Amy "You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." - Mark Twain Sentences, Speaking, Chat, Friendships

	HolyBrat  +  731509 Fri, 15 May 09 06:12 PM Hello Yankee, thank you so far! The actual sentence is: The moments when/in which/that I don't wanna live have become seldom. I'm subtitling a documentary and this is an excerpt from a diary entry. HolyBrat Sentences

	CalifJim  +  731521 Fri, 15 May 09 06:26 PM Why wanna?  Is the style of the diary very colloquial in the original language? CJ CalifJim Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004 California Veteran Member 22,379 "There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche Styles, Languages

	HolyBrat  +  731578 Fri, 15 May 09 07:21 PM No, actually, no. It's a little difficult to detect what is considered colloquial or just inadecuate for certain situations in a foreign language. Thanks for the notice! HolyBrat Languages

	Yankee  +  731709 Fri, 15 May 09 08:53 PM Hi HolyBrat I take it the wording of your subtitle is a fairly direct translation. Does the original sentence end with the words "sind selten geworden" by any chance?  I would suggest using "rare" rather than "seldom". Is the speaker referring to moments at which thoughts of ending his life have come? And that those sorts of thoughts used to come fairly often, but have now become rare? Yankee Translation, Sentences

	HolyBrat  +  732650 Sat, 16 May 09 09:31 AM Hi Yankee you speak and/or understand German? Maybe you should be translating the subtitles! A Yankee who speaks German... man, that's rare... or seldom... or whatever ;) The original sentence is: Die Momente, in denen ich nicht mehr leben will, sind seltener geworden. It's a really excellent documentary on teen suicide. HolyBrat Sentences, Languages

	CalifJim  +  734689 Sun, 17 May 09 08:29 PM Where did Amy go? Until she comes back, I'd suggest trying something like these: Thoughts of not wanting to live occur to me less often now. / rarely occur to me now. I don't have those feelings of wanting to die as often as I used to. I [hardly ever / rarely] experience those times anymore when I don't want to live. (I am not a fan of literal tranlations.  That's why I think it's nearly impossible to translate from one's native language to another, but not so difficult to translate to one's native language from another.  ) CJ CalifJim Languages

	Yankee  +  735025 Mon, 18 May 09 01:09 AM Hi HolyBrat HolyBrat “A Yankee who speaks German... man, that's rare... or seldom... or whatever ;)” I might call what I speak "Hochdeutsch with a Schwaebisch slant that has a distinct English flavor". (I taught Business English and did translation work in Schwabenlaendle for 18 years.  I'm back home in Yankee-land now, but my years in Germany are still very much with me.) Your sentence uses "seltener", so some sort of comparative form in the translation might be better. I like Jim's suggestions, and this one in particular: I don't have those feelings of wanting to die as often as I used to. A more direct translation might be: The moments when I don't want to live anymore come (much) less often now. I agree with Jim about translations. They can be very tough to do, and even when you translate into your mother tongue, it's often quite a challenge to avoid too direct a translation. Yankee Business English, Translation, Sentences, Business, Countries, United Kingdom, Great Britain, Careers, Languages