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zerrubabbel
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4382 days ago

232 posts - 287 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese, Mandarin

 
 Message 105 of 110
03 January 2013 at 5:03am | IP Logged 
clumsy wrote:

Well, at least I tried.


がんばる事は一番気分ですね!
1 person has voted this message useful



Olja07
Diglot
Newbie
Russian Federation
Joined 4007 days ago

2 posts - 2 votes
Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2
Studies: GermanB1, Modern Hebrew

 
 Message 106 of 110
02 May 2013 at 1:10am | IP Logged 
Here's my attempt in German. Please correct me if I'm using an incorrect or odd expression. Many thanks in advance.

Beginner:
Hi Lisa,
here is a postcard of my town. It is not very big, but it is nice. Please tell me more about your town. How many people live in it? What is particularly nice about your town? Where do you go in the evenings?
John

Hallo Lisa,
hier ist eine Postkarte von meiner Stadt. Die ist nicht sehr gross, dafuer aber schoen. Erzaehl mir bitte mehr ueber deine Stadt. Wie viele Leute wohnen dort? Was ist besonders schoen an deiner Stadt? Wohin geht man abends?
John

Intermediate:
Thank you very much. I am so glad I won the prize. I would like to travel to the USA in July because of my job. Will I be able to see my cousin Ann in Dallas? I know the tour only goes through Houston... Also I would really like to go swimming in the ocean. I hope there will be time for that.
Yours sincerely,
Michelle Dubois

Vielen Dank. Ich freue mich so sehr, dass ich den Preis gewonnen habe. Ich moechte im Juli wegen meiner Arbeit nach Amerika fahren. Werde ich meine Kusine Ann in Dallas sehen koennen? Ich weiss, dass die Tour nur durch Houston faehrt... Ausserdem moechte ich gern im Ozean schwimmen. Ich hoffe, es wird genug Zeit dafuer geben.
Schoene Gruesse,
Michelle Dubois
1 person has voted this message useful



caam_imt
Triglot
Senior Member
Mexico
Joined 4644 days ago

232 posts - 357 votes 
Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2, Finnish
Studies: German, Swedish

 
 Message 107 of 110
03 May 2013 at 9:49pm | IP Logged 
My turn. Corrections are of course appreciated.

Beginner
Hei Lisa,
Tässä postikortti kotikaupungistani. Se ei ole todella iso, mutta kiva se on. Kerro
lisää kotikaupungistasi. Kuinka paljon ihmisiä siellä asuu? Mitä erityisen kivaa
kaupungissasi on? Minne menet iltaisin?   

Hej Lisa,
Här finns det ett postkort från min by. Den är inte så stor, men här trivs bra. Berätta
mer om din by. Hur många människor bor det där? Vad är roligt om din by? Vart går du på
kvällarna?

Hallo Lisa,
hier ist eine Postkarte von meinem Dorf. Das ist nicht so groß, aber es ist schön.
Bitte erzähle mir mehr über deiner Stadt. Wieviele Menschen leben da? Was ist toll in
deiner Stadt? Wohin gehst du abends?

Intermediate
Kiitoksia. Iloitsen kovasti palkinnosta. Työasioiden takia haluaisin matkustaa
Yhdysvaltoihin heinäkuussa. Olisiko mahdollista nähdä serkkuani Annaa Dallasissa?
Tiedän, että matka kulkee vain Houstonin kautta. Haluaisin myös päästä uimaan mereen.
Toivon, että siihen on aikaa.

Tusen tack. Jag är glad att jag vann priset. Jag skulle vilja resa till USA i juli på
grund av jobbet. Är det möjligt att träffa min kusin Ann i Dallas? Jag vet ju att vi
går endast via Houston. Verkligen vill jag också simma i havet. Jag hoppas att det blir
tid för detta.   

Vielen Dank. Ich freue mich sehr, dass ich den Preis gewann. Wegen meiner Arbeit möchte
ich in die USA im Juli. Ist es möglich meine Kusine Ann in Dallas zu besuchen? Ich
weiss, dass wir nur durch Houston gehen. Ich möchte wirklich auch im Meer schwimmen.
Ich hoffe, es wird Zeit dafür geben.

Advanced (Too lazy for German or Swedish)
Tuskin tunsin isääni. Hänen menettäessään henkensä 75-vuotiaana en ollut edes 10-
vuotias. Muistan tarkalleen sen päivän. Se oli aurinkoinen syyskuun päivä ja kotona oli
outo tunnelma. Muistan istuneeni yksin tuolilla isossa huoneessa; ampiainen lensi
ympäri huonetta, mutta muuten talo oli täysin hiljainen. Toinen isoveljistäni oli
sanonut: ”Isä tekee kuolemaa, mutta sinun pitäisi jäädä tänne”. Kaikki olivat hänen
luonaan, mutta minä olin taas ”liian nuori” ja siksi jätetty ulkopuolelle. En tiedä
kumpi suretti minua enemmän, tällainen kohtelu vai isäni kuolema, jonka merkitystä en
läheskään ymmärtänyt.
Eräs muistikuva hänestä vaikutti minuun eniten: eräänä päivänä katselin käytävällä
hänen huoneeseensa ja näin hänet istumassa työpöydän äärellä lampun valon alla. Tuntui
kuin olisin katsonut valoa tunnelin päässä.


Edited by caam_imt on 03 May 2013 at 9:49pm

1 person has voted this message useful



Hausmeister
Diglot
Newbie
Philippines
Joined 3841 days ago

4 posts - 4 votes
Speaks: English, German
Studies: Dutch

 
 Message 108 of 110
24 October 2013 at 11:07am | IP Logged 
I hardly knew my father. When he died at the age of 75, I wasn't yet 10 years old. I can remember the day very well. It was a sunny day in September and there was an unusual atmosphere in the house. I can see myself sitting all alone on a chair in the big room; a wasp was flying around but other than that the house was completely quiet. One of my older brothers had said: "Father is dying, but you should stay here". Everybody was with him, just I was "too small" again and therefore excluded. I don't know what made me more sad, this condition or my father's death, whose significance I of course didn't understand in the least.
One image of him impressed me the most: looking at his room from the corridor and seeing him sitting at his desk in the shine of a lamp. It was like seeing a light at the end of a tunnel.

Ich habe kaum meinen Vater gekannt. Als er mit 75 Jahren starb, war ich noch nicht 10 Jahre alt. Ich kann mich an den Tag sehr gut erinnern. Es war ein ungewöhnliche Atmosphäre im Hause. Ich kann mich alleine auf dem Stuhl im großen Zimmer sitzen sehen. Eine Wespe flog rum, aber sonst war das haus komplett still. Jeder war bei ihm, nur war ich zu klein wieder u. daher ausgeschlossen. Ich weiss nicht, was mich traurig machte, dieser Zustand oder der Tod meines Vaters. Wessen Stellenwert verstand ich sicherlich wenigstens nicht.
Das Bild von ihm imponierte mich am meistens: ins Zimmer vom Korridor reinsehen und ihn am Schreibtische im Glanz einer Lampe. Es war, als ob man ein Licht am Ende des Tunnels gesehen hätte.

Korrigieren Sie mich bitte! Danke
1 person has voted this message useful



guillem.belmar
Bilingual Tetraglot
Newbie
Spain
Joined 4325 days ago

3 posts - 5 votes
Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan*, English, French
Studies: Mandarin, Basque, German, Italian, Russian

 
 Message 109 of 110
16 November 2013 at 6:20pm | IP Logged 
Desacrator48 wrote:
Spanish:

----------------

here is a postcard of my town. It is not very big, but it is nice. Please tell me more
about your town. How many people live in it? What is particularly nice about your town?
Where do you go in the evenings?

Aquí esta una tarjeta postal de mi cuidad. No es muy grande, pero es buena. Por
favor, dime mas sobre tu cuidad. Cuantas personas viven allí? Que es particularmente
bonita sobre tu cuidad? Adonde vas por la noche?

------------------

Thank you very much. I am so glad I won the prize. I would like to travel to the USA in
July because of my job. Will I be able to see my cousin Ann in Dallas? I know the tour
only goes through Houston... Also I would really like to go swimming in the ocean. I
hope there will be time for that.

Muchas gracias. Estoy muy contento que gané el premio. Me gustaría viajar a los
Estados Unidos en julio a causa de mi trabajo. Es posible que yo vea a mi prima Ann en
Dallas? Yo sé que la gira solamente pasa por Houston...Tambien, me encantaría ir a
nadar en el mar. Espero que haya tiempo para eso.

---------------------

Corrections and, more importantly, suggestions for a better way to phrase things are
welcome.

My own points of interests are:

1) Placement of words like "particularmente" and "especialmente"
2) Clarification of whether subjunctive for emotion should be used or not in "I am so
glad I won the prize" and why or why not.
3) Is a literal translation of "Will I be able to see" equals "Yo podría ver / Yo
podré ver" or is it better to simply use "Es posible que yo vea"

Thanks!


Here is... = Aquí tienes... (sounds much better)

Where you wrote: "No es muy grande, pero es buena". "Buena" is closer to "good" than it
is to nice. For nice we should use "bonita" or "amable" (in the sense of, she is a nice
fellow). So it should be: No es muy grande pero es bonita.

"Dime más sobre tu ciudad". It sounds kind of weird. As far as my native intuition
goes, it is because the verb "decir" does not collocate with the preposition "sobre"
(about). We normally use the verb "contar" in these cases. So it would be: Cuéntame más
sobre tu ciudad.

Remember that in Spanish we use two question marks: ¿Cuántas personas viven allí? (and
the accent in the interrogative pronouns as well).

Que es particularmente bonita sobre tu ciudad? = Again, the question marks and the
accent. "Particularmente" is well-placed, just before the adjective. The problem in
this sentences is the gender of the adjective. Yes, "ciudad" is a feminine noun, but
here the adjective refers to "qué" as an abstract entity (because we don't know yet
what is particularly nice about his/her city). Therefore, masculine should be used. And
now something I cannot explain, but it sounds much more better from a native point of
view if you change "sobre" for "de" in this sentence. ¿Qué es particularmente bonito de
tu ciudad?

About evening being "noche"... it is quite tricky, as there is no word for evening in
Spanish. However, I would use "tarde", as "noche" starts at nine or ten pm.

So, the first text would be:

Aquí tienes una (tarjeta) postal de mi ciudad. No es muy grande, pero es bonita. Por
favor, cuéntame más sobre tu ciudad. ¿Cuántas personas viven allí? ¿Qué es
particularmente bonito de tu ciudad? ¿Adónde vas por las tardes?

(Tarjeta is somehow redundant)



"Estoy muy contento que gané el premio" = The structure is "estar contento de". So
we've got sentences like: estoy contento de que vengas (I'm glad you're coming, yes,
using the subjunctive as it is a subordinate phrase). However, when the subject of the
main verb and the subordinated verd is the same (as in this case) we use the
infinitive! But remember that two infinitive can be found: the simple (ganar) and the
perfect (haber ganado). We use the first for things that are to happen and the latter
for things that have already happened. Therefore, the sentence would be: Estoy muy
contento de haber ganado el premio. (I hope you get that tricky explanation)

"A causa de mi trabajo" = No native speaker would state it that way. It is much more
natural to say "por mi trabajo". It's not that your option was not correct, it just
doesn't sound natural.

"Es posible que yo vea a mi prima Ann en Dallas? = No. The literal translation is much
more appropiate. What you wrote would be the Spanish for: Is it possible that I might
be able to see my cousin Ann in Dallas? And this is not what you were supposed to say.
It'd be: ¿Podré ver a mi prima Ann en Dallas?

"Yo sé que la gira solamente pasa por Houston" = Do not use the pronouns "yo, tú,
él..." unless you really want to emphasise them. Apart from that, solamente sounds odd
to me (European Spanish), but it's not wrong. It just sounds old-fashioned.

So, the second text would be:

Muchas gracias. Estoy muy contento de haber ganado el premio. Me gustaría viajar a los
Estados Unidos en julio por mi trabajo. ¿Podré ver a mi prima Ann en Dallas? Sé que la
gira sólo pasa por Houston... También me encantaría ir a nadar en el mar. Espero que
haya tiempo para eso.


I hope I helped you ;)

2 persons have voted this message useful



guillem.belmar
Bilingual Tetraglot
Newbie
Spain
Joined 4325 days ago

3 posts - 5 votes
Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan*, English, French
Studies: Mandarin, Basque, German, Italian, Russian

 
 Message 110 of 110
16 November 2013 at 9:54pm | IP Logged 
Vos wrote:
Advanced
I hardly knew my father. When he died at the age of 75, I wasn't yet 10 years old. I
can remember the day very
well. It was a sunny day in September and there was an unusual atmosphere in the house.
I can see myself sitting
all alone on a chair in the big room; a wasp was flying around but other than that the
house was completely
quiet. One of my older brothers had said: "Father is dying, but you should stay here".
Everybody was with him,
just I was "too small" again and therefore excluded. I don't know what made me more
sad, this condition or my
father's death, whose significance I of course didn't understand in the least.
One image of him impressed me the most: looking at his room from the corridor and
seeing him sitting at his
desk in the shine of a lamp. It was like seeing a light at the end of a tunnel.

No le conocía a mi padre muy bien. Cuando murió a la edad de 75, yo no tuve más que 10
años. Recuerdo el día
vívidamente. Era un día soleado de septiembre y había un ambiente poco común en la
casa. Puedo verme solo
sentándome en la silla dentro de la habitación grande. Una avispa estaba volando
alrededor pero además de eso
la casa estaba completamente callada. Uno de mis hermanos mayores había dicho: "Padre
está muriendo, pero
deberíais quedaros aquí". Nosotros todos estabamos con él, sin embargo yo estaba
"demasiado bajo" una vez
más y a causa de esto me excluyeron. No lo sé qué me hizo más triste, este estado o la
muerte de mi padre, cuya
importancia claro yo no lo comprendí en absoluto por entonces.
Hay una imagen de él que me impresionó mucho: estoy viendo a su cuarto desde el pasillo
y le puedo ver
sentándose al escritorio bañado en la luz de la lámpara. Era cómo ver una luz al final
del túnel.

(Creo que mis habilidades de traducción hacen falta mucho trabajo)



No conocí muy bien a mi padre. Cuando murió a la edad de 75, yo no tenía aún 10 años.
Recuerdo el día vívidamente. Era un día soleado de septiembre y había un ambiente poco
común en la casa. Puedo verme solo sentado en la silla en la habitación grande. Una
avispa estaba volando alrededor pero además de eso la casa estaba completamente en
silencio. Uno de mis hermanos mayores había dicho: "Padre está muriéndose, pero
deberíais quedaros aquí". Todos estaban con él, sin embargo yo era "demasiado bajo" una
vez más y por eso me excluyeron. No sé qué me hizo más triste, ese estado o la muerte
de mi padre, cuya importancia claro yo no comprendí en absoluto por entonces. Hay una
imagen de él que me impresionó mucho: estoy viendo su cuarto desde el pasillo y lo
puedo ver sentado en el escritorio bañado a la luz de la lámpara. Era como ver una luz
al final del túnel.


"No le conocía a mi padre muy bien" = the use of the pronouns "le" is not necessary in
here. In fact, it is wrong if you use it. We use the pronoun if there's some
information ommitted, which is not the case. Moreover, in this case the pronoun should
have been "lo", as it substitutes the Direct Object (le stands for the Indirect
Object). The verb "conocer" demands for "well, badly..." to be put before the direct
object. And the correct verb tense would be "conocí" as it is a past action which is
finished not durative.

"Yo no tuve más que 10 años" = verb tense again but the other way around. "Tenía", as
in "cuando yo tenía 10 años...". In this case we use the "imperfecto" because it is the
frame of the new information, which is the death (for which we use the other past
tense). Did I explain myself properly? I know it's quite tricky to grasp, so feel free
to ask again ;)

"Puedo verme solo sentándome en la silla dentro de la habitación grande" = He's sitting
on a chair : Él está sentado en una silla. Él está sentándose describes the movement,
the process of lowering one's butt to put it on a chair. "dentro de la habitación" much
better if you use "en", as there is no possible misunderstanding here about it being
indoors or outdoors.

"La casa estaba completamente callada" = I don't know if it is just me, but the use of
"callado" related to an inanimate object sounds very weird. I would use "en silencio",
or change the whole sentence into: "no se oía nada en toda la casa".

"Padre está muriendo" = As it is the process of dying, you should say: se está muriendo
or está muriéndose (which are exactly the same).

"Nosotros todos estabamos con él, sin embargo yo estaba "demasiado bajo" una vez
más y a causa de esto me excluyeron" = The original sentence says "everybody was with
him", so the Spanish translation should be "Todos estaban con él". Yo estaba demasiado
bajo means something like the place I was in was low. However, you should translate
this for "yo era demasiado bajo", as it was an attribute not a place. "A causa de" is
correct, but much more common if we use the preposition "por".

"cuya importancia claro yo no lo comprendí en absoluto por entonces." = Just leave the
pronoun "lo" out! Remember, pronouns are used to substitute some information which is
already known and therefore not stated. In this case the direct object is stated
(importancia). Moreover, if we needed to change this for a pronoun, it would be "la",
as importancia is a feminine word. ("lo" for masculine and abstract/neutre, "la" for
feminine, "los" for masculine plural and "las" for feminine plural).

"estoy viendo a su cuarto desde el pasillo" = "a" is a preposition which introduces the
indirect object or, in Spanish, the animate direct object as well. In this case this is
a direct object but it's not animate (cuarto = room), so "a" should not be used here.

"le puedo ver sentándose al escritorio bañado en la luz de la lámpara" = "le" is a
pronoun for third person singular indirect object, and here you're replacing or
substituting a direct object (which was masculine) and you should use "lo". Moreover,
it sounds better when using periphrasis if you place it at the end, that is, with the
infinitive. Remember what I've already told about the verb "sentarse" or "estar
sentado". The preposition with "estar sentado" is "en" not "a". And then "bañado a la
luz". Prepositions are quite tricky in some cases.

I hope I explain myself clearly. If you have any doubt, feel free to ask!

It was a very nice attempt and very nice translation (no big mistakes and totally
comprehensible).


2 persons have voted this message useful



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