Questions tagged [translation]
Determining English equivalents for words or phrases in other languages (that is, translation into English). We don't actually do translations: we can try and help you with your own translation. Please see the detailed tag info for guidance on what to ask.
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Idiom for being watched after your bad actions
There's an idiom in Argentina translated as "To be in the chapel". It means that you'll be closely watched for a period of time to be sure you won't repeat errors, bad actions or behaviors ...
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Would there be a way to make the joke "Ella es mi amiga vieja, disculpe, mi vieja amiga" work in English?
There is a Spanish joke,
Ella es mi amiga vieja, disculpe, mi vieja amiga.
The joke basically says, "She is my friend that is old, excuse me, my old friend", making fun of the person's age....
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How can I improve my translation of Beowulf's first few lines?
Now, we Spear-Danes have long heard
of glorious kings and heroic deeds;
of how Scyld Sceaf·sen seized many
a frightened warrior from the very mead benches
of the foe in many lands. Found abandoned, a ...
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Is there a popular expression in English equivalent of Russian "water wears away a stone"?
Is there a popular English expression equivalent to this Russian proverb? It translates to:
Water wears away a stone.
And has the meaning that, step by step, eventually we (it) will get there (reach ...
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What is an English equivalent of 'Colorín, Colorado, este cuento se ha acabado,' a phrase used at the end of stories?
Colorín, Colorado, este cuento se ha acabado is a Spanish phrase used to indicate that a story has reached its end. The first part is just nonsense, the second part means 'this story is over.'
We use ...
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A word for upper bounding a mathematical expression that turns out not to be tight enough to be of use
In my own native tongue (Hebrew) when I have some mathematical expression that is complicated and I try to upper bound it with a simpler expression but then I find out that the gap between the two is ...
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colonial heritage vs. colonial legacy
I'm trying to find the best translation for the German phrase "koloniales Erbe" as applied to a former colonial power, e.g. as used in the title of this conference. Both "colonial ...
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An English equivalent to the Spanish phrase «Me pasó a un amigo»?
In Spanish we sometimes say something like «Me pasó a un amigo». For example, you could be telling someone to be careful when doing something because otherwise something bad and possibly embarrassing ...
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What's the English equivalent of the Italian 'sputare nel piatto dove si mangia'?
There's an Italian expression, 'sputare nel piatto dove si mangia', that literally means 'to spit on the plate where you eat', but really means:
to have an attitude of contempt, of strong criticism ...
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Designation for the behaviour of a person that acts in a club-like manner
I would like to find a proper term for designating club behaviour, that is, when people of some team/club are favorable to anything associated with their team simply because it is their team and ...
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Word, term or phrase for idioms, proverbs, figure-of-speech that lose their true meaning due to being from a different time or due to translation? [duplicate]
In various language literature, there could be idioms, proverbs, figure-of-speech that lose their true meaning because
it meant something in a different time period
Or
it was being translated from ...
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How to Translate the "Killing" in this Context?
This is a clipping from a director's memoir(source: A Life: An Autobiography by Elia Kazan) which I once cited in another question, recording an actor's affair.
When we got back to Munich for the ...
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"Literary inquisition" or "speech crime" Or is there a better term?
The wiki said it is Literary Inquisition
It refers to official persecution of intellectuals for their writings in China ...
the rulers deliberately extracted words or phrases from intellectual's ...
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What noun phrase can be used to describe a couple that has registered their marriage?
In my native language there is a noun phrase for 'legally-married couple'. I wonder if there is something similar in the English language. I have looked up the following phrases, but they all seemed ...
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Is there a word to describe someone who is procrastinating, perplexed and demotivated?
I am looking for English equivalent word for a Tamil word "மலைப்பு".
Here is the Tamil saying I am trying to translate to English,
களைத்தவனோடு கூட வேலைக்கு செல்லலாம் அனால் மலைத்தவனோடு ...
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What is the English equivalent for Russian idiom "jump into the last car of the departing train"?
There is a saying in Russian
To jump into the last car of the departing train
This basically means to use an opportunity at the last moment, to finally decide to do something right before it is too ...
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How do you mark English words originally used by a non-native author in an English translation?
An artist has written memoirs in his native language with some English words and phrases scattered here and there (some might even have spelling / grammar mistakes). His memoirs are translated into ...
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Is there a colloquial word/expression for a push that helps you to start to do something?
To specify my request, I should say that I mean something I can use in a normal conversation, but not in the academic field.
There's such an expression in the Russian language, which sounds like "...
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Do adjectival prepositional phrases introduced by "with" have a specific name/type (translation of "complément circonstanciel d'accompagnement")?
How do you analyze/translate a "complément circonstanciel d'accompagnement" or can you further specify the type of adjectival prepositional phrase introduced by with (or which has) this is? ...
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English slang for "bochar"
I'm looking for some possible slangy words that are equivalent to this Ríoplatense term:
bochar
No aprobar a alguien tras haber rendido un examen o cursado una asignatura.
"lo bocharon en ...
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What could be the translation of «Cantinflear»?
"Cantinflear" = Cacophony
I have been studying English for almost a year now, and much of it has been making semantic comparisons with Spanish.
Similar verb refers to the act of giving a ...
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Meaning of “a dizzard”
I’m working on translation of an American novel, dating back to the late 19th - early 20th centuries, and the main character came from a local little Vermont town.
The author describes him as “old ...
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What does "bang" mean in this phrase?
The sentence:
I thought you said you was innocent, Carl? That you don't bang?
I'm playing a game that this word appears, and I want to know in a gang context what does that word mean, can someone ...
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English equivalent of a scornful Hindi expression, 'the rope got burnt, but the force did not'
There is a sarcastic Hindi proverb that goes like this:
रस्सी जल गई पर बल नहीं गया
Rassi (rope) jal gayi (got burnt) par (but) bal (literally: strength/force) nahi (not) gaya.
The rope got burnt, but ...
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Word for "temporarily fix an issue with makeshift equipment waiting for a permanent solution" (Italian: tamponare)
What's an English word/verb for
"temporarily fix an issue with makeshift equipment waiting for a permanent solution"?
In Italian, we use tamponare (same as to dab in English) for this usage.
...
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Accepting suffering happens more in life than reducing it [closed]
"Accepting suffering happens more in life than reducing it."
— Ahsanul Irfan
Does this quote make sense?
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The country that became independent is no more
"The country that became independent is no more."
— Ahsanul Irfan
I have translated this quote from Bangla language. Does the english version make sense?
What it means is that "The ...
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Is there an English word for "Kundenbekämpfung" (customer combatting)
Is there a better translation for the German word "Kundenbekämpfung" than "customer combatting" ?
I looked up synomys and translations of the noun "Bekämpfung", but ...
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How do you name the phenomenon of being single at a late age?
Specifically, a woman who is single at a late age.
"Late bachelorette", "late singleness"... It doesn't sound right.
Is there a way to describe it as an adjective and also as a ...
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What is the English equivalent of the French word "consigne" in English (in the classroom context)?
What is the English equivalent of the French word "consigne"? I am referring here to the classroom context, so in phrases such as "consigne de l'exercice". See also the picture at ...
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Is there a specific verb to say "my shoes are hurting me"?
In my native Romanian there is an expression that literally means "my shoes are beating me" when they hurt, and thus are producing pain, abrasion of the skin and calluses (mă bat pantofii). ...
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Which kind of love is "defeated love"?
In the end of J. M. Coetzee's short story "Nietverloren" a narrator complains about how South Africa changed, and there happens the following dialogue:
“You sound bitter.”
“The bitterness ...
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Which preposition should be used in this translation? "Analysis… through/with/by neural networks"
I am not a native English speaker, so I have a quick question.
I have to translate my thesis' title into English.
This is the German sentence:
Analyse und Anomalieerkennung elektrischer Verbraucher ...
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What is a word for "determine oneself" [closed]
There is a Greek verb (αὐτοκαθορίζομαι) that I constantly translate as determine oneself and which proof readers constantly replace with other irrelevant verbs that they think fit the context. The ...
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English equivalent of the Farsi expression "if it is decided to get the drunks, they will have to get everyone who is in the city"
I'm looking for an English equivalent of this beautiful, succinct Farsi saying, گر حکم شود که مست گیرند, which roughly means:
If it is decided to get the drunks, they will have to get everyone who is ...
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What is the term for someone who requests a copy of a document?
I would like to know if there is an accepted English noun or short phrase for the person who asks for a copy of an official document. In this case, I'm dealing with the translation of an academic ...
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My question is about lists of words in a sentence
I came across an example of a translator position description, and I got confused about the meaning of the word "Research". Is this word related to the word "copy" or is it ...
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How do I say that I am not yet thirty years old?
I want to translate the following Spanish sentence into English:
Tengo menos de treinta años.
By the way the speaker of this Spanish sentence means that he/she is not yet thirty years old. I think ...
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Word for a festival of mourning (or a festival of commemoration of a sorrowful event or incident)
In Persian, we have a word 'جشنواره' (Jashn-Vareh) [in which Jashn means Celebration and Vareh indicates some type of gathering] that its English translation is Festival. Conversely, we have another ...
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To clutch in a gear changing context
I'm a portuguese speaker and we have a slang verb, "debrear", which means to step, all the way to the floor, on the clutch pedal, or, motorcycle-wise, to pull the clutch lever all the way in....
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From whose perspective the author is saying in the following fragment
I am trying to translate the short story by J. M. Coetzee but can't understand how exactly to interpret the sentence in the second paragraph. The story narrates about a young boy who finds a strange ...
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"Hang" used as "decorate"
I'm reading the book "Roadside Picnic" which was originally written in Russian. In one part of the book, the translator writes:
Those egghead scientists were making progress. They've got ...
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Closest equivalent to the Chinese jocular use of 职业病 (occupational disease): job creates habits that manifest inappropriately outside work
The Chinese expression 职业病 (zhi ye bing, occupational disease), when used seriously, just means occupational disease, e.g. lung problems caused by working in a chemical factory.
But there is also a ...
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Comma when translating a single word e.g. "A gato ("cat" in Spanish) is a fluffy feline."
Would you put a comma in there? And why?
A gato ("cat" in Spanish) is a fluffy feline.
A gato ("cat," in Spanish) is a fluffy feline.
A gato ("cat", in Spanish) is a ...
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Does 'moonlighting' mean 'illegal work'?
I was looking for the translation of the German word 'Schwarzarbeit' (black work) that means working illegally, without written contract, in order to avoid labour laws and taxation.
The Google ...
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Quotes/italics/both/other on mid-sentence translation
Please consider my sentence:
So, as I paid out my $4.50, I simply said to them, “Y valían cada centavo de ello”, meaning “And they were worth every penny of it.”
The Y valian… phrase is italicized ...
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Translating "wessen-dessen" sentences [closed]
I'm struggling a bit with the translation of the German "wessen...dessen..."
To clarify, here's the full German sentence, which is not idiomatic at all, it's just phrased to sound like it is:...
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Wrestling with someone "chest to chest"?
I am looking for an expression which would enhance the idea of wrestling. This is a text I am translating from another language (Greek) where the expression (ἀντιπαλαίω στῆθος με στῆθος) means ...
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Is there an equivalent to the assertive/polite expression "je me permets de ..." in English?
Is there an equivalent to the expression "je me permets de ..." in English?
I think this expression has two usages:
to convey an assertive tone:
Je me permets de vous rappeler que la date ...
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What is the English equivalent to the proverb "Somebody finds his soup not thick enough, and somebody finds his pearls too small"
What's the equivalent to the Russian proverb "Somebody finds his soup not thick enough, and somebody finds his pearls too small"("Кому суп не густ, кому жемчуг мелок")?
It means a ...
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