Search results for 'tag:Translation tag:Plurals' matching tags 'Translation' and 'Plurals'

Re: "any"-defining

Fandorin — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:18:36 GMT

Kooyeen

You can do that too, but it is not common, it's only used sometimes for emphasis. It's easy to build odd sentences that way, so I personally prefer to avoid using it that way, as a learner. When talking about one thing, using the article "a" (or "an") is the common way to say it...
Do you have a sister? Is there a hospital near here? I don't have a sister, you must be mistaking me for someone else...

I didn't consider uncountable nouns because they are not usually used in the plural, so they weren't part of our problem. I didn't consider idioms or exceptions either... I can think of a couple of them right now:
Is there any reason why you are not allowed to do that?
There isn't any way to find out the truth, I'm afraid.

The singular seems to be the idiomatic choice in those cases.

Yes, it's odd way not to use "a". Indeed, "any=some" implies itself plural noun to be used. So the difference in translation some of constructions in English seems to be slightly smoothed between two meanings you mentioned above. At least it's so in my language.

Re: Any+singular or plural noun?

Anonymous — Mon, 05 May 2008 07:04:54 GMT

The problem with non native speakers could be because of the translation from their native languages. It could also because of the fact that most of the non native speakers think in their native languages when they have to speak and try to put words in english that would be of close match. If we start thinking in English, the problem can be resolve I guess.

Also, English as a language is very unscientific and has no logical reasoning. For many a things, we have to blindly agree.

All the best

Mistakes made by Chinese Learners

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:30:26 GMT

Hi everyone

I just wondered if anyone could help - I have to write a profile of a chinese learner of English (completely made up). In it I must put any difficulties that the learner has in learning English as an L2. I have got so far:

Intonation transfer from L1 may cause them to be perceived as rude/inconsiderate, more serious transfer may affect comprehensiveness.
No inflections in L1 - tenses difficult to learn in L2 as L1 has no true tenses and concept of time is expressed by adverbs/implicit or contextual assumptions.
Difficulty distinguishing [r] & - Does anyone know why this is as I can't find a reason?!!
Prepositions such as 'on', 'in' & 'at' have one chinese translation in many contexts, 'zai' - may be confused resulting in phrases such as 'on Taiwan' instead of 'in Taiwan'.
Use of awkward gerunds e.g. 'no noising', excessive use of verbs ending in 'ing' e.g. 'do not climbing', confusion of 'ed' & 'ing' verbs e.g. 'i am bored' vs 'i am boring' --- all of these errors occur because verbs are not conjugated in chinese, for tense or pronoun.
No equivalent word for 'the' so may be used excessively when not needed e.g. 'The China' or missed out when needed. May also be confused with 'a'/'an'.
Confusion over countable and uncountable nouns, use of 'how much?' vs 'how many?' - leads to phrases such as 'I want a soup' & 'a lot of shoe'. This is due to there not being plurals in chinese - no inflections.

Switching between 'he' & 'she' - Does anyone know why this is?

If anyone can think of anymore it would be greatly appreciated or if anyone knows the answers to my questions about gender switching and distinguishing [r] & this would also help a lot!!

Thank you in advance.

Shannon

Re: Dear GG: comp day with off or without off

Tuongvan — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 00:25:33 GMT

Thank you Grammar Geek very much.

From what you explained , am I right when I say : a comp day = a compensatory day off ?

Just to be sure , please kindly tell me whether this translation sound natural or not:

In my country office workers are allowed to have/take 02 days off at weekends ( Saturday and Sunday). If a public holiday falls on one of these off days /days off , they ( office workers ) will take Monday as a comp day . For example , If Independence Day is Saturday , the office workers will take/have the next / following Monday off as a compensatory day / comp day . .

By the way , can I use comp day in plural ?

Example :Because we worked on Saturday and Sunday , We had Tuesday and Wednesday off as compensatory days / comp days.

Your taking a lot of trouble to help correct my translation is highly appreciated.

Thank you ever so much in advance

Re: hyphens

Yankee — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 20:01:48 GMT

Hi Newguest

The 'a' (singular) doesn't fit with the word 'studies' (plural).
I would only hyphenate 'one-year' and say something such as 'a one-year translation course'.

Re: the heavens/the heaven

Angliholic — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 23:46:38 GMT

Mister Micawber wrote:

Heaven: plural use in sense of "sky" is probably from Ptolemaic theory of space composed of many spheres, but it was also formerly used in the same sense as the singular in Biblical language, as a translation of Heb. pl. shamayim. Heavenly "beautiful, divine" is from 1460, often (though not originally) with reference to the celestial "music of the spheres.

The sky can also = the skies.

Thanks, Mister and GG.

Got it.

Re: the heavens/the heaven

Mister Micawber — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 11:31:46 GMT

Heaven: plural use in sense of "sky" is probably from Ptolemaic theory of space composed of many spheres, but it was also formerly used in the same sense as the singular in Biblical language, as a translation of Heb. pl. shamayim. Heavenly "beautiful, divine" is from 1460, often (though not originally) with reference to the celestial "music of the spheres.

The sky can also = the skies.

Re: Is this grammatically correct?

Avangi — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 00:07:56 GMT

Tbsukt wrote:
1) A new year is at the open with new joys and new opportunities. As they always say, carpe Diem, seize the day! Live each day to the fullest but never forget to save some time for both your bodies and souls to rest.

2) Your friendship and loyalty to one another inspires me. Cherish what you have, I trust you won't let anything or anyone come between you.

Any comments would be very appreciated

Thank you.

Hi.

You've created a new expression - "coined a new phrase!" It's perfectly clear what you mean by "at the open", but I've never heard it. I hate to mess with your poetry. Perhaps, "A new year presents/offers a new opening for new joys and new opportunities." (Too many "new's"?) "A new year is wide open for new joys and new opportunities." [You'll just have to find something else that works for you.]

You'll probably need quotes around "carpe Diem." I really don't know what's supposed to be capitalized there, or what the correct form is for setting off the translation.

In the imperative the subject is understood to be "you", but is it singular or plural? "Bodies and souls" catches me off guard. I would have expected singular.

2. Compound subject needs the plural verb. I think you have three sentences here, unless you want to use a semi-colon.

Regards, - A.

Re: translation of sentences French-English 8/11 (1)

Grammar Geek — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 20:48:13 GMT

Hi Hela,

My French, I'm sorry to say, is not good enough to verify the precision of the translations (though I was happy that I was able to understand the general meaning in all of them), so I'm going to comment only on the naturalness of the English.

4) Normally or Usually (either is okay), the police - use this, because it's gender-neutral do not carry firearms. Weapons is very broad - the "night stick" that many police carry is still a weapon of sorts.

6) You can use either arrested or have arrested. Police takes the plural verb though, so it's have arrested, not has arrested.

9) Now I'm going to look igorant, but is it closer to say "I would really like it if you would help me..."? There's no difference in repair / mend / fix in this context. You can use "can't manage" but say "can't manage it" or use the other version you suggest.

10) Again, I may be quite wrong, but is it "She left on her holiday/vacation a few weeks ago" rather than "She's been on holiday..."?

Re: singular/plural

Grammar Geek — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 14:24:06 GMT

Is this another translation? Are you limited solely to having "the reader" or "the readers"? Because I wouldn't write it that way all.

I would say something like "It's important to remember the needs and expectations of your reader." (And in that case, you can use either singular or plural, depending on whether you thinking about the entire opus of your writing or a particular piece at any given time.)

Given more time to think about it, I might change that, but "Remember, the reader is different" still leave me saying "from what?" Are the readers different from each other? Are they different from me, since I'm the only one who reads my diary? (I hope!) And what is it about their being different that matters? Oh yes - it's their needs and expectations. So why not just say that?

If you really must stick to that format, what about somethign like "Remember, your readers will be different from you" assuming that there are many types of things you'll be writing over the course of time.

So, yes, I have changed my mind about singular or plural - I would now advocate for plural, because this person will write many things over the course of time.