This is a perennial debate in the industry. It's more of an art than a science. A "risk reward" equation. The risk is that you will misrepresent someone - the reward is that your English will sound more natural. You have to go by context: there's no point getting too paranoid or being too rigid. Anyway that's my perspective after about seven years translating bloody technical Japanese. :bitter:Elizabeth said:Although in this instance "The following are" actually sounds fresher and more authoritative to my mind. But even that aside, when shifting the subject could undermine the original emphasis or context such as countering an assertion that there were few or any unratified treaties Japan was a party to, I personally wouldn't take the liberty. For what it's worth, neither would I change it to 'Japan,' since that's the only country it could be referring to.
Filling in the gaps for EDICT is a good idea. I've stumbled onto a handful of terribly ungrammatical English sentences and simply never done anything about it.
Just a quick click on the check box next to the [T] and then the 'Send comments/corrections button'.Elizabeth said:For what it's worth, neither would I change it to 'Japan,' since that's the only country it could be referring to. □ [T]
Filling in the gaps for EDICT is a good idea. I've stumbled onto a handful of terribly ungrammatical English sentences and simply never done anything about it.
Scrivener said:It's just "cleaner" to use subject+object in English. Those long chains of qualifiers sound "Japanesey".
No idea. I'll put five pence onfixelbrumpf said:How would I say "I don't do drugs" in Japanese? [...] What's the most natural way to say this?
All I know is 薬物を乱用 (drug abuse) and 薬物に引かれる (attracted to drugs, although that was only once, in an article, you could still try in the negative.)No idea. I'll put five pence on
ドラッグなんか使ってない
but I expect it's not the best way to say it.
I wonder what you mean by Northern Light.. :?could someone tell me how to write Northern Light with Katakana? with the respelling as in all other imported words
thanks
Think I got it together:
noosu raito
ノースライト
correct?
fixelbrumpf said:How would I say "I don't do drugs" in Japanese? I take it 麻薬 is the commonly used word for drugs, right? But what's the verb to go with it? According to Google, using "mochiiru" wouldn't be the best choice in this context. What's the most natural way to say this? Thanks in advance.
I think this is okay if you're a doctor.麻薬を用いる
Naaa.Kamisama said:maybe it's me, but we should sticky this...
By the way, 誰でも落ち込むときはありますよね。is also OK, I just discovered. Why don't they have a universal word for 'everyone' ? So there doesn't seem to be anything like a hard and fast rule, but I will try to ask about the difference just out of fun sometime.Elizabeth said:最近あんまり良い事がないので落ち込み気味です。
こういう気分になるときは誰にでも あるんでしょうね。
I don't think I appreciate the use of "誰にでも" here. Is it a slightly different nuance with 誰でも ?
Elizabeth said:By the way, 誰でも落ち込むときはありますよね。is also OK, I just discovered. Why don't they have a universal word for 'everyone' ? So there doesn't seem to be anything like a hard and fast rule, but I will try to ask about the difference just out of fun sometime.
TZed9 said:Hi guys! I seek something translating pls, tried babelfish but doesn't seem to work...
Can some kind person let me know what this means pls?::::
'Watashi mo isogashi node ikemasen zan-nen'
I have some:
I (also) _____ ___ don't go ___ ___.
But I am unfamiliar with 'isogashi node' and 'zan-nen'.
Yoroshiku ne!! :sorry: :sorry: :sorry:
I'm not saying you're wrong - but I thinkCorDarei said:みんな sounds like you're talking about everyone in a certain group. So if someone came up to me and said みんな落ち込むときはありますよね, I would say "who the hell are you talking about?" I don't know if this actually makes sense or not, but it's my story and I'm sticking to it. (Until someone tells me I'm wrong, of course.)
誰でも sounds more like the proper subject of a sentence than 誰にでも, but that's just a vague impression until I get more information.CorDarei said:This is just my impression, but 誰でも sounds more like "anyone" to me. Of course, in English you don't say "Anyone has times when they get depressed", so in this instance it's "everyone." But if I said 誰でも出来る, I think in English that would be "Anyone can do it."
Kamisama said:A while ago a came across a japanese word for The United States of America.
All i can remember.. was that it started with a B i think... does anyone know other japanese words for America? not アメリカ