http://www.englishforums.com/search/pro.htm?q=tag%3aNouns+tag%3aExpressions+tag%3aTranslationSearch results for 'tag:Nouns tag:Expressions tag:Translation' matching tags 'Nouns', 'Expressions', and 'Translation'en-USCSMOD (Build: 3273.32735)http://www.englishforums.com/English/TranslationIntoEnglishTextPatrick/gzkpq/post.htm#528852Tue, 17 Jun 2008 23:10:37 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:528852mrpedanticHello Hela yes it s nice to see you too I m not posting here much at the moment because my pc is defective but I hope to be re kitted out shortly quote user Hela Actually I wrote he was leaving for Ireland for work is it wrong too quote I think that would be ok too quote user Hela 2 Do you accept a he was going to work in Ireland as soon as his exams were had been wrong over he finished had finished his exams quote Yes all fine except had been quote user Hela b he was goint to work in Ireland right after he finished had finished his exams he would finish would have finished his exams his exams would be would have been over Is it also possible to use the present even though it s reported speech since the period referred to has not happened yet quote Only the first two versions The present would be fine quote user Hela a he called me to say that he is going to Ireland as soon as his exams are have been over OR he finishes has finished his exams quote All ok except have been over quote user Hela b he called me to say that he is going to Ireland right after he finishes has finished his exams his exams will be over he will finish will have finished his exams quote Only the first two quote user Hela 3 Je ne me rappelles pas l avoir entendu dire Are hearing and having heard both possible here What s the nuance betwenn them I don can t remember ever hearing having heard him talk about such daring plans quote I think it s a difference in focus hearing is more immediate having heard more remote But I don t think it s a significant difference for most users quote user Hela Moi aussi j aimerais beaucoup aller travailler en Irlande Which tenses should be used here please a I would quite really like to work in Ireland as well possible b I wish I could work I wish I worked in Irelandc I wish I went to Ireland to work as well too quote Not quite and I would change it to go to work in Ireland and for me b and c wouldn t quite capture the original Expression of a wish rather than a desire quote user Hela 5 Is this use of pronoun acceptable One doesn t want to let everybody know what they want to do Is they ambiguous or incoherent here or is it all right quote If they refers to one it s a little unusual I would repeat one quote user Hela On se connaît depuis si longtemps lui et moiEven though it is not necessary to translate lui et moi in English would you say It has been a such a long time since we have known one another he and I and not him he and me quote Not it has been a such a long time perhaps We have known each other for such a long time If you had to translate lui et moi he and I would best suit the register quote user Hela 7 Il n est pas nécessaire de mettre tout le monde au courant de ce qu on a envie de faire Il y a des tas de gens qui rêvent bruyamment d accomplir de grandes choses et ne sortent jamais de chez eux Quant à son niveau d anglais un séjour de deux mois ne peut que l améliorer a Would you translate this passage this way you don t have to you needn t there s no need to tell everyone what you re up to want to do feel like doing all the time Lots of people dream aloud about accomplishing achieving great things they re going to do and then never give it a try make it real As for his English a two month stay sojourn in England can but just improve it quote That s a bit too difficult to answer in that form there are so many permutations quote user Hela b What you meant by the following quote My idea would be as yours except to keep everyone posted have grandiose ideas about accomplishing great things but never leave home can only improve it quote is that you would not use to keep everyone posted have grandiose ideas and can only improve it quote Sorry I meant I would use those phrases instead in the relevant parts quote user Hela What s the meaning of to harp on about something then How would you use it quote If I say that you re harping on about X I mean that you are obsessively talking about X in an irritating and excessive way It sounds quite tetchy Have a good Wednesday MrPhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/GoogleTranslation/gdnjr/post.htm#519775Tue, 27 May 2008 20:37:12 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:519775kooyeen quote user CalifJim The student looked up fly and found mosca in the dictionary Not realizing it was the insect fly he then constructed a sentence in Spanish intending to say that on his next vacation he was going to fly to Madrid If you know Spanish it may be funnier because he actually attached the correct verbal ending on the noun Voy a moscar a Madrid quote LOL that s what happens when you don t have the slightest idea how to express a certain concept in another language Dictionary direct translation total nonsense That s why I believe every learner should use a monolingual dictionary for learners where everything is explained simply and there are plenty of examples to learn from That way you are much less likely to use a simple verb or word the wrong way because the most common usage patterns are highlighted Direct translation is what most automatic translators do so as long as there are no machines with artificial intelligence that are able to learn a language like a human automatic translations will always be of bad quality I tried translating that text with Google In Italian you would understand the general meaning what they are talking about but some expressions are almost meaningless Not too bad anyway I thought it would come out worse LOL And Employs was translated as gives work to in Italian too EDIT Ok I m going to post the translation in case some Italians come across this thread L autore N Taiwo dà lavoro a un approccio molto singolare che svela le cause alla radice fattori che producono o erodere il rispetto tra le persone Il risultato è un potente rivelazione che offre una profonda esaminare comportamento umano e processi di pensiero che rimodellare il lettore sta pensando Il concetto di rispetto è presentato in una nuova luce e prospettiva e una forte caso è fatto sul ruolo rispetto svolge nella definizione e promozione di successo nella vita Genitori giovani adulti e giovani professionisti stand trarre enormi benefici da questo innovativo e intrigante all autoresponsabilizzazione libro sul rispetto The underlined parts are where there is something wrong either the term or the grammar or something missing http://www.englishforums.com/English/MostVsAlmost/zjlmz/post.htm#465210Thu, 17 Jan 2008 02:10:35 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:465210anonymousHere s an interesting article with regards to the confusion amongst Japanese learners of English Almost a Problem In What s in a Word In Japan Currents July 1997 http www trussel com jap almost htm I m often struck by errors in non native English which arise from the confusion of the words most almost and mostly Some cause unexpected ambiguity when I find that I can t quite guess what the speaker is trying to say Others often convey strikingly comical images Both may provide potentially useful examples for revealing the native speaker s sense of these words When I hear that almost my friends are going to Hokkaido assuming that the error is with the use of almost I m faced with the dilemma of whether she means that most of her friends are going though some aren t or that they ll spend their time mostly in Hokkaido but will also go to some other places What should have been most of or mostly came out as almost and left me up in the air In the case of errors like Almost Americans are fat the intended meaning is not elusive the target is no doubt Most Americans are fat Americans are mostly fat while grammatically possible is not so likely the human body is mostly water If I hear that the water is mostly hot enough for tea which should be almost hot enough it doesn t confuse me so much as conjure up a humorous image I find myself imagining little pieces of hot enough water floating among some not yet hot enough ones Historically both almost and most date back nearly 1 000 years in English with almost being formed as a compound of all most There was apparently no word mostly until late in the 16th century and until that time the meaning of almost included the idea mostly all nearly all which is quite close to the way it s often used in error by non native speakers today With the development of mostly that sense correspondingly disappeared from almost leaving it with only the slightly negative implication of very nearly all but a little less than completely Almost seems to correspond in meaning and to a large extent in usage to the Japanese hotondo and this is probably the root of the problem for Japanese speakers of English ideas which are expressed with hotondo may appear as most of almost or mostly in English a one to three or four correspondence bound to result in confusion Among these three confusables the use of most of seems the least likely to cause trouble being so close to hotondo no though in fact less experienced speakers may be bothered by when to use the of It only appears when the modified noun is preceded by the these those a possessive form or before the pronoun them So most boys or most of the boys but never most of boys or most the boys Considering the usage of almost it appears as the first choice for numerical expressions like That lesson cost me almost a hundred dollars They first settled here almost 75 years ago or Almost 1000 people showed up at the opening These suggest a basic idea of modifying something complete perfect 100 to make it less so So when almost is used with words like finished done dressed built written etc or ready full empty dead it adds that meaning of not quite nearly Almost late isn t late and almost empty isn t empty So I was almost asleep the vacation is almost over or the old song title It s almost like being in love Almost appears frequently with time expressions like I left there almost three hours ago We d better leave it s almost morning or I can t believe it s the 20th it s almost Christmas already with the similar sense of not yet With mostly the historical newcomer of the group the idea of for the most part shows up when it is used for expressing quantities without numbers especially when in some sense they can be counted like I don t know why they call this beef stew it s mostly potatoes or The students in that school are mostly Chinese English and Japanese seem to part ways here I m mostly at home on weekends might be a likely candidate for hotondo in Japanese but it s not a case where almost could be used in English unless it were as almost always In That garden is mostly weeds or Those boys are mostly from the neighboring town English isn t aiming for the less than complete idea and so almost doesn t fit It seems that the English almost emphasizes less than ness while the Japanese hotondo focuses on mostly ness Of course these are two sides of the same coin but there are clearly some times when they don t match well enough for translation English to succeed Like most areas of language fluency it s an area where we have to strive to somehow get in touch with the spirit of the language and put the dictionaries aside Stephen Trussel Interestingly in a short article on Correct American Usage Russell 1940 431 2 criticises Stratton s description of good usage Almost and most he writes do not mean the same things though from the numbers of supposedly educated writers and speakers who use the shorter most incorrectly for the longer almost one would almost believe that the distinction has disappeared Again the author notes that advertisement should eb accented on vert not tise even though Practice in this country seems to be about evenly divided Obviously the philosophy of language implied in these two articles may seriously affect any judgment the author makes on usage I just happen to be looking into this at the moment probably more info but hey Cheers Phil BrownTokyohttp://www.englishforums.com/English/FoughtChineseTranslationForum/zwllb/post.htmFri, 04 Jan 2008 07:25:09 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:460276lafingnHi everyone Happy New Year But I m trying to be happy I m pulled into a debate over the very English standard in a Chinese translation forum A sensible lad who crammed in China s New Oriental Language School asserts that many usages including those in nytimes com economist com native speakers blogs and more are actually non stardard and thus wrong Even some in Oxford dictionaries now become obsolete or unacceptable One of his examples is about which used as relative pronoun A student who talks about strong rain may make himself understood but possibly not without provoking a smile or a correction which may or may not matter He says which referring a circumstance here is a misuse The original sentence is from the introduction to an Oxford dictionary By the way he also laughs at the part but possibly not without provoking a smile or a correction because he thinks it s bad English maybe not very smooth for his limited reading while I don t agree Also denied is another example from American Traditional Dictionary He left early which was wise He says every teacher in New Oriental would frown on this because they were taught in school that the relative pronoun which should in no way substitute a foregoing sentence in the proceeding non restrictive attributive clause Is that true or the dictionary wrong My next question is what s your opinion about education New Oriental offers if you happen to know Since I really doubt about it He posted his comments sorry for his dirty words Should any native English speaker look at what you put down here he or she will definitely go to see a doctor as this foreigner will not only be amused but also be suffering from a nausea and vomiting disease Such trashy and junk words were put together to display how poor and messy your so called English in fact even worse than typical Chinglish is You can certainly regard me as stinky because I have been so unluckily gotten into contact with you a piece of You can rest your mind that I am far inferior to you in this regard How funny a stupid idiot like you could have an idea of building up a team Do you believe that there are many other people on this world who can be as similarly asinine as you are Just go to the hell and kiss your mom s ass Your so called dream actually a kind of deliria will never come true Otherwise our society as a whole will run into an overall catastrophe of deterioration of our population quality BTW you shall never compare yourself with violinqq as doing so is like comparing a piece of with a brillant piece of jade My reply and comments on his English he says he can t read because it s a mess while poor is my guts feeling to your lanugage a second thought is carefully given to the reasoning why it should look so awkward considering the paragraph Aurorean offered as a prototype in many aspects a thorough examination helps to identify some factors that are about the language per se and that can be quickly wiped off upon notice the rest factors however extend far beyond language due to their much deeper roots in thinking habits upon which words and patterns are selected Generally the language in question features lengthy and humdrum which is often the lesson of Chinese English On the whole Chinese tolerates more repetition than English does Oftimes parallel words and phrases or structures of like meanings in Chinese break out powerful rather than demolish the strength But in English it s the other way around Silimar elements piled on can be worse than grammar mistakes with their lower efficiency in conveying meaning and the breakup in reading for it distracts readers even annoys them And Chinese is a more detailed languge While many elements in English are self evident and can be safely left out doing so in Chinese is risky and would give an abrupt sense though it can still be understood with a little extra effort Chinese English is humdrum not just for a considerable amount of repetition but also for a lack of lively vocabulary sentence patterns and other forceful expressions The above mentioned it becomes apparent why and how literal translation or writing English from Chinese structures is problematic Let s proceed to the problems packed in the following paragraph by courtesy of our Mr Aurorean the personality of amusing grudges and grievances not thoroughly denied though could have been thanks to the benevolence of the translation industry and many open minded people Thanks to Mr Aurorean for his unabashed display of his self styled good english which may otherwise help to benchmark many translators work Should any native English speaker look at what you put down here he or she will definitely go to see a doctor as this foreigner will not only be amused but also be suffering from a nausea and vomiting disease Comments very low efficiency Simply put it like this Any English native speaker at your words will Well what your put down here is self evident in the context so it s needless Should is a relatively big structure here but we don t like it to do a small job not only be amused but also be is childish logic it s dull not interesting not funny Such trashy and junk words were put together to display how poor and messy your so called English in fact even worse than typical Chinglish is comments just select one between trashy and junk since either repeats the other here We know such words were put together you don t have to speak it out which means to emphasize So it s needless too poor and messy just choose the latter because messy conveys poor so called is not a good word the meaning is not ironic enough translated from chinese literally So see my changes The bundle of words makes a valueless display of the english of yours One won t think futher if it s chinglish or not See You don t have to look sissy by shouting words like such how poor how messy You may have never been praised as a sense of humour by females Well that s okay But you should at least know how to say barbed words in a polite manner Or how you dare to pick up english as a gun You can certainly regard me as stinky because I have been so unluckily gotten into contact with you a piece of Comments a master of english don t end a long sentence with the logic is baby level too not attractive at all Well try some Shakespeare way What s in the name Aurorean that we don t call by but smells at well You can rest your mind that I am far inferior to you in this regard How funny a stupid idiot like you could have an idea of building up a team Comments you know why you look sissy because you tag and cap others with boorish lore now calm down and check back your words you were being so desperate God won t tag you with idiot because he s merciful We won t too because it s overtly evident what a kind of thing before us Your words reflect yourself you are your words Do you believe that there are many other people on this world who can be as similarly asinine as you are Just go to the hell and kiss your mom s ass Comments really childish logic i m so sorry but your imagination is so flat You just hurt your mother You are 30 something So your mother is a senior now God bless her hope she survives you cause you two are to split into different ends of the world in the long run Cherish the rest time Your so called dream actually a kind of deliria will never come true Otherwise our society as a whole will run into an overall catastrophe of deterioration of our population quality BTW you shall never compare yourself with violinqq as doing so is like comparing a piece of with a brillant piece of jade Comments Yuk instead just say I m worried about your dream to avoid sissy impression and create gentleman image don t say our society as a whole because you are not supposed to be one of the leadership level right an overall catastrophe of deterioration of our population quality sound lousy words are too long simply try the end of the world and it s more vivid and impressive by the way i m not that great and the world won t collapse for my individual existence I m so worried about your state of health check your family tree and see if one or two cases of Alzheimer s disease or mongolian exist by the way who grants you the big position to compare look at yourself even a far cry from a botched creature by god Whose English is more acceptable I m in want of your opinions Thank you all in advance http://www.englishforums.com/English/PleaseCheckMyTranslation/zdgmd/post.htm#434285Wed, 24 Oct 2007 16:54:30 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:434285grammar geek1 The scene was rockin all were digging the sound translation the scene was going on all were enjoying the sound music The scene was the party It was rockin meaning everyone was having a good time We were all enjoying the music is good 2 Igor on chains backed by his baying hounds translation Igor chained were helped by his howling dogs I don t know what Igor on chains means but it seems he was chained to something The howling dogs sang along to accompany him 3 The coffin bangers were about to arrive with their vocal group The Crypt Kicker Five translation _the coffin bangers were almost arriving with their vocal group band called The Five kickers of Crypt The coffin bangers were goign to arrive soon with their band The Crypt Kicker Five Don t change the name of a proper noun like a band name 4 Drac opened the lid and shook his fist and said Whatever happened to my Transylvania twist translation Dracula opened the lid of his coffin and swang rocked his fist and said in this case asked What happened to my Transylvania bracelet shook his fist is a fixed expression Don t try to change it The twist is a dance not a bracelet Dracula opened the lid of his coffin and shook his fist and asked why they weren t doing his dance the Trannsylvania Twist http://www.englishforums.com/English/KindOfKindsOf/2/vplrb/Post.htm#410959Wed, 29 Aug 2007 08:09:28 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:410959ruslana Clive wrote I like this kind of posts lt it seems it s used this way too I can t recollect hearing this version at all Hi Clive You mean you ve not ever heard it in Canada I think you read expressions like that in the EF At least I did and they were used by natives CalifJim wrote I eat this kind of apple I eat these kinds of apples So if we want to play safe we d better use these two That s my conclusion too I d agree but there s a little but that confuses me Probably that confusion comes from Russian because in this language talking about different kinds of something is it used right by the way different kinds of something phew from time to time my mind is like Windows cannot do even a simple operation we usually use a singular kind and a plural noun So a verbatim translation from Russian would be I eat this kind of apples If I want to save this idea in English one kind and more than one apple of this kind implied does I eat this kind of apple work for that Is it ever possible to save that idea in English or should we just use I eat this kind pf apple and be happy with it http://www.englishforums.com/English/CorrectionTranslationCompulsory-BritishEnglish/dqgqz/post.htm#331182Mon, 19 Feb 2007 23:52:58 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:331182bennymanCan you unpack a bit more the nuance of the colloquial Danish expression Phrases that spring to mind in English are things like arranged marriage which isn t quite right or bartered with other plantation owners which doesn t quite bring across the dehumanising element of treating enslaved men like animals put out to stud or women like broodmares Well it basically means that a said person be it father or slave owner can decide to marry you away to a stranger However it is not quite the same as arranged marriage as that strikes me as something very fatherly or domestic Furthermore to Marry them her away can be done by anyone owning another person like a slave owner In any case the exact translation of it word for word Gifte dem bort Marry them away So what do you think the correct translation would be I thought of this one pronoun away in marriage NB Yes It s hard to believe that human beings could treat their own as animals to be bartered and used for mating as if they were stud dogs The American Negro In 1620 the first Negroes were shipped to the state of Virginia on the American East Coast by Dutch merchants In the 17th 18th and 19th century large cargo loads of African Negroes men women and children were sent across the Atlantic Ocean Many died from the inhumane conditions on board the ships The survivors were sold like cattle to white planters at auctions where the men were often separated from their wives and children The strongest men and women worked in tobacco and cotton fields in the South and at cane mills in the West Indies Only a few especially the beautiful young Negro girls worked as house slaves looking after children cooking and washing for the white families The Negro families lived in small cabins and had a little piece of land where they could grow their own vegetables and keep hens and geese They were the plantation owner s property and he could punish sell or give them away in marriage Many Negroes tried to run away to the North others protested by working slowly simulating illness or by instigating open rebellion Quite often the slave owners feared their own slaves The plantation owners lived considerable distances from each other and there were many more slaves than whites One of the slaves most dangerous weapons was arson A whole year s revenue could go up in smoke if a barn full of corn or tobacco was set ablaze and it was difficult to identify the culprits In the 1830s and 1840s many men and women both white and black worked for the abolition of slavery More and more people felt that slavery was irreconcilable with the beautiful words of the 1776 American Declaration of Independence which states that all men are created equal and have certain rights amongst them freedom A lot of progress was made and in 1865 after a long and bloody civil war President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed that slavery was abolished and the Negroes free This looks better http://www.englishforums.com/English/FaceValue/ckqmr/post.htm#221000Sat, 29 Apr 2006 23:07:39 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:221000cliveHi So the article is wrong Yes It seems to me like it might be a translation of some kind It should also begin with People can say anything You wouldn t write at the face value Could you tell me why it is incorrect It s really just idiomatic that s just the way we like to say it The standard expression is at face value although you could also say at their face value Strictly speaking it is the words rather than the people that should not be taken at face value Thus the pronoun them does not have a valid antecedent I d prefer to say But you should not take their words at face value Best wishes Clivehttp://www.englishforums.com/English/YearsMyYounger/2/cgncq/Post.htm#200327Fri, 24 Feb 2006 00:31:17 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:200327paco2004Hello GGI feel the English expression superior to me comes from a Latin phrase me superiorem elder than me where me is the ablative case of the pronoun for the first person singular but incidentally the same in form as the accusative me On the other hand my superior might have its root in the translation of the Greek expression mou presbyterion elder than me where mou is genitive paco another grammar geekhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/It/bnqwr/post.htmThu, 27 Oct 2005 07:48:16 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:152150anonymousBelow is a translation work I m doing But I cannot figure out what the author is talking about in the last long sentence marked as blue by me Besides I m dying to know what the pronoun it therein refers to To write about the modernist novel as opposed to the Victorian novel say or the Edwardian novel is to write not only about the possibilities of the genre but about its perceived impossibility The possibilities were evident enough From about 1890 to about 1930 the novel was as popular as it had been during the Victorian period and newly diverse According to Henry James in 1899 it was a universally valid form the book par excellence according to Ford Madox Ford in 1930 it was indispensable the only source to which you can turn to ascertain how your fellows spend their entire lives And yet there was also a feeling more prevalent among writers than among critics that the novel as traditionally conceived was no longer up to the job that its imaginary worlds did not in fact correspond to the way one s fellows spend their entire lives The felling was most fully and influentially articulated by T S Eliot when he argued that the novel had effectively ended with Flaubert and James that the very formlessness which had once made it the adequate expression of a previous age an age not yet formless enough to require something stricter now prevented it from expressing a modernity characterized above all by the loss of form