| Profil de YongEnglish for ChineseBlogRéseau |  Outils  Aide |
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19 janvier "Have you ready" or "Are you ready"?> have you ready? 有这种说法吗？ 好像都are you ready? 啊 > 应用环境： 员工抽奖大会上的一个标语！ "have you ready" not followed by anything is awkward English at best or simply wrong. Here "ready" is used as a verb, but it's a verb that strongly calls for an object. If you really want to say that, say something like "Have you ready yourself for a big surprise!", or a question "Did you ready yourself for ...?", where "ready" can be replaced by "prepare". Based on the context, the correct and easy to understand way to say it is simply "Are you ready [for a big surprise]?" 17 janvier "up to now" and "up till now" > up till now一般是和现在完成时搭配的，表示个时间一直持续到现在。 > Until now, doctors have been able to do very little to treat this disease. "up to now" is different from "up till [or until] now". Whenever you have the word "till" or "until", it implies that something did not happen before that point in time BUT IT DID HAPPEN AT THAT TIME! The above sentence you gave means that the doctors now ARE ABLE TO do something significant to treat this disease. "up to now" may or may not have that implication or side effect. It's much less used. In fact, I always say "until [till] now" to HAVE that side effect and "so far" to AVOID that. Answers.com and thefreedictionary.com claim that "up to now" can only be used in negative sentences (see e.g. www.thefreedictionary.com/up+to+now). That's not right. You can see people's usage by searching on Google for this phrase (wrap the three words in double quotes), and ignore the cases where the phrase "be up to" is meant. 16 janvier English translation: “闹圆宵 慈善义卖 游园会”社区活动通知温馨提示 关于：“闹圆宵 慈善义卖 游园会”社区活动通知 尊敬的业主、住户： 我们诚挚的邀请您于2月23日星期六上午09：30～12：30出席我们在会所广场前举办“闹元宵 慈善游园义卖会”的活动。届时，将有中华南派舞狮、传统节日民俗、灯谜竞猜、仁恒河滨花园合唱队的表演，热气腾腾的饺子、元宵更是把你带进了元宵佳节的喜庆中。 在这个新春吉祥迎春纳福的日子里，我们更加欢迎业主们奉献您的爱心，为那些生活贫穷线上备受疾病煎熬的困难的人们伸出您的爱心。捐助您不常 用的物品加入到我们的慈善义卖中来。我们由衷的企盼在这个喜庆的日子里让那些困难的人们感受到来自我们园区的那份暖暖的爱意。届时，将有理财咨询、便民服 务、医疗保健、幼儿教育等为您提供便捷的服务。 和谐、融洽与关爱需要您的参与。欢迎您至居委会报名参加慈善义卖会。 恭祝您与您的家人：新春吉祥 身体健康 财源光进 阖家泰康！ 仁恒河滨花园物管中心 仁恒河滨花园居委会 Friendly Reminder: Yuanxiao Festival, Charity Sale, and Party 14 janvier English translation: 万圣节Literal translation won't do a good job. The following is my translation of a notice of the community Halloween party in Shanghai. > 尊敬的业主、住户： > > 孩子们翘首企盼的每年一次的万圣节捣鬼夜马上就要来临了。我们仁恒物业将在10月30日 > 星期二的晚上。在会所广场前为中外的小朋友们精心准备了欢度万圣节的活动。 ... > 如果您希望可爱的孩子们届时上门为您增添节日的惊喜，请您在10月29日前至会所领取 > 专用的标志贴在您的信箱上，我们将会有目的的上门而避免不必要的打扰）。 Dear Residents, Every kid is expecting the night of Halloween Trick or Treat. On the night of October 30, Tuesday, right in front of the Club House, we the Yanlord Riverside Garden Property Management will have something to keep the kids happy and busy. ... If you'd like our lovely children to give you a pleasant surprise, please come by the Club House to pick up a tag and post it on your mailbox. We won't disturb you without your prior permission. English translation: 从这里给墨西哥打电话，需要多少钱> 从这里给墨西哥打电话，需要多少钱 >how much money do i call to Mexico
> 这样合适吗? Think about what you're saying. If you say that, you're "calling money", which makes no sense. I mean, your sentence has a structure that implies the word "money" can be "call"ed. The correct way to say this is "How much is it to call Mexico?" Well, grammatical purists may argue that you can't call Mexico, a country, because you can only call a human. So it has to be "call somebody in Mexico". Fine. Say "How much is it to call anybody in Mexico?" then. But in reality, when you say call a place, people understand you perfectly. 8 janvier Question: 什么时候使用过去分词做状语> armed with a torch,the doctor wnet up into the room to see what was going on
> armed whth a torch,过去分词做状语 Whenver you feel like! Basically, if you can say "somebody is done... and he ...", you can say "Done..., he ...". So in your case, "The doctor was armed with ..., and went ...". You can machanically convert it to "Armed with ..., the doctor went ...". If you really want to pursue further, there's actually a little bit more to this structure. "Armed with ..., he ..." means the clause has some relationship with the main part of the sentence, for instance, a cause-and-effect relationship ("Because he was armed with ..., he was able or was not afraid to go up ..."). But a plain "somebody is done... and he ..." may not imply such relationship. 5 janvier English translation: 怕冷 or 怕热 > 我比较瘦，怕冷不怕热 I don't have a Chinese-English dictionary with me. I wonder what they translate the word 怕 to. You can't say "fear" or be "afraid of". A proper word may be "be sensitive to". So here's my translation: "I'm skinny. I'm sensitive to cold (or cold weather). But I'm OK when I'm hot [or when it's hot]." But that may be too literal. You could simply say "I don't like cold weather", or "I don't feel comfortable when it's cold", "I feel cold when it's cold". 3 janvier English translation: 和老外交流没有问题> I have no problem to communicate with English speaker. "speaker" -> "speakers". Sorry to be picky. In English, a countable noun is rarely used in its singular form without "the" or "a" or "an" in front of it. 31 décembre Silly or idiot?
A
friend's little girl played with my daughter. Both are about 11 years
old. One called the other an idiot and caused some unpleasant reaction.
I always thought "silly" would be a word used in joking and "idiot" is
clearly used in an offensive context, like "You silly boy!", "That's a
f!@#$ idiot!" I did some research. I agree with the last message in this thread: groups.google.com/group/alt.english.usage/browse_frm/thread/f404499647463ff8 or directly at groups.google.com/group/alt.english.usage/msg/9b57d36e96deaba8 I've been reading newsgroups for 10 years. My impression is that "idiot" is often used in flames (argument beyond technical content), but "silly" is not, at least in newsgroups. I remember watching a Japanese movie on the airplane. The teenage girl chased her singer model all the way from Tokyo to New York and back to Tokyo. She finally got his affectionate attention, when she grew up, mentally. In the last scene, the guy ran to the airport seeing her off, from outside the security check-in, calling her. She smiled and said (sounds like) ba-da. The English caption is "You idiot!" The context is clearly not about her resentment against the guy. It's quite the opposite actually. So I think the word "idiot" is very wrong here. I don't know Japanese. But I guess the translation should be something like "You silly boy!" English translation: 碰到问题
>> 如果你碰到这个问题，你的思路是什么？ > if you meet this problem, how will you work it out? 碰到 is meet only if you 碰到 a person. It's NOT meet when you 碰到 a problem. This is a very common mistake the Chinese people make in writing English. Encounter is the correct word here. But it's too formal. You can always work around it by saying something like "What's your thought when you have this problem [or when this happens to you]?" 21 décembre English translation: 第几次 > How do you say 第几次 in English? This is a difficult question. Believe it or not, English does not have a proper way to express this. Let's say you went to New York three times. The first time you visited the Empire State Building and lost your wallet! The second time you visited the Statute of Liberty and almost missed your flight back. The third time ... The Chinese language can specifically ask the question to which the answer must be the first time, the second time, or the third time. But English can only ask "On which trip did you lose your wallet?" Although the answer can be "the first time" or "the first trip", it can also be "It was the trip I went and I visited the Empire State Building". But the corresponding Chinese question would be 哪一次, instead of 第几次. The closest you can do in English would be add the available options to the question so the person that answers has to choose among them, "On which trip did you lose your wallet, the first or the second or the third?" Obviously if the number of trips is huge, you have to let the person know you don't mean the choice is only one of the THREE. Alternatively, my British-turned-American friend told me, if you have to ask the question to which the answer is the ordinal number of the trip, you may say "On which trip number of the trips you went to New York did you lose your wallet?" Well, you have to appreciate how awkward that is! That's all we can do. mei-you-ban-fa! 20 décembre Talking about English translation: 汉族English translation: 汉族 be made of 与be made from 的区别Very interesting discussion here: http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/frequently-asked-questions/1559-made-made.html That's good. But in case of dress made of silk vs dress made from silk, there's some ambiguity. I would say either one is OK, depending on how far away you think the dress is from the silk material. The old teaching in China (and apparently in Taiwan as well) is still valid, but should not be followed to the letter. English translation: 介绍信> “介绍信”用英文怎么说？ Reference letter. Some say recommendation letter. > 想知道正宗中国特色的介绍信，就是以前（好象现在有时候还需要）那种单位开的到别的机构/单位办事的介绍信怎么说 I see what you mean. I was thinking of the letter a job seeker is using. OK. 正宗中国特色的介绍信 is something English speaking countries don't use. So there's no corresponding word or phrase in English. You may want to say "authorization letter" or "proof of identity letter". If you do, you must explain in a few sentences what it means and why it's needed. Wrong English translation for "What do you think you are worth to us?"> What do you think you are worth to us？ > (你怎么认为你对我们有价值呢?) Looks like many Chinese web sites have that wrong translation (search on Google and you'll know). The sentence means How much do you think you're worth? Or how much do you think your expected salary is? The Chinese translation, if translated back to English, is Why do you think you're valuable to us?, which is a legitimate but totally different question. English translation: 我正在办理护照> 我正在办理护照 > 主要是这个办理，感觉prepare不太对 办理 or 办 is an interesting word in Chinese. It's used in so many places. I think in most (but not all) cases it's equivalent to "apply for". English translation help (请帮忙翻译这句话)> 展望未来我们仍然不断完善自我，提升各方面的素质，更恳请您的指导与支持， > 我们将继续竭诚与广大客户携手合作，与时俱进，共创未来 That was something quite fancy, literary... Let me try. It won't be a literal translation though. It sounds like advertisement words anyway. Looking into the future, we'll strive for better quality and improve overall performance. Your suggestions and support are highly appreciated. We'll continue to work closely with our valuable customers in pursuit of a bright future. English translation: 汉族> Han nation > 好象不对 Since many years ago, China Daily or even Beijing Review (two English publications published by Chinese) used the word nationality to mean 族, so shaoshu minzu is minority nationality, and so on. I don't think that's correct. "Nationality" means citizenship as in: A: What's your nationality? B: France. 族 in Chinese is rather ethnicity or race. So I would say "the Han ethnic group" is a good answer to your question. English study: Comments on How-to> 作为非母语学习，是永远也不可能完全达到母语水平比如用英文写诗歌和小说的 That applies to many people, but not to all. > Jonathan现象，再一次证明了语言输出的能力不依赖输出的练习。“说”的能力是并不需要大量“说” 的练习的，所以不要再误认为学外语必须要“多说”，关键是先要会听和会思考。 I disagree. The ability to speak is not the same as the ability to speak well. That is, you may be able to speak (1) very slowly and (2) with heavy accent. But that's not nearly the ideal you want to achieve. Being fluent in a foreign language (as well as speaking with correct pronunciation) is just as important as being able to speak. And to achieve the goal of fluency needs a lot of practice. (Having good pronunciation needs practice too but to a less extent.) > 自己对着墙练说或自言自语也可以 A very good idea if you don't have a chance to speak to a good (possibly native) speaker. The biggest advantage is that you have lots of time to do so. The disadvantage, however, is not to be discounted: (1) not knowing or knowing well whether you would be understood; (2) not knowing or knowing well if your pronunciation is correct. > 写作是输出的有效手段，原理上跟“说”相似 Good point. I often tell my friends to chat with me in messengers. Messenger-chat is even closer to actual speaking than writing on your own because of its interactive nature. Again, there's clear disadvantage, i.e. the second (2) one above for speaking to yourself, pronunciation. 19 décembre English translation: 瘦 and 胖> 瘦可以用skinny来说，如果胖用什么呢？ Fat is a bad word, unless you want to make a joke of your very good friend, or somebody completely unrelated to you in your everyday life. To be courteous, you can say chubby if you refer to his/her face. If you talk about the body, big may be an OK word. But big may also imply tall. If you have to say fat but short, how about stout? Plump may be OK too. Another way to circumvent this embarrassing comment is to use a negative sentence, like "She's not skinny". People will understand you. |
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