One of the most difficult words to translate. - Krystian Aparta
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Date: 2020-08-22
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Comments and reviews: 10
tiko
As a fan of languages I have to comment on this:
The thing that makes this difficult, is the fact that pronouns work differently in different languages:
For example in my native languages Dutch we have 5 translations of you: je, jij, jou, u and jullie. Jullie is plural, u is formal, jij is informal subject, jou is informal object and je is like ya in English, but waaaayyyyy more common and can replace jij en jou.
See, not really that hard, is it? And in Japanese they don't really have pronouns. They just have a lot of pronouns that you can add to sentences to be more specific (kinda like y'all or ya in English. But like said in the video they are usually omitted for sake of not being rude.
So in short: There are multiple systems for using pronouns, and if you come from English, it can be hard to get used to them. Al though I still don't understand why English has the same word for informal, formal and plural. Isn't that gonna give a lot of confusion! Well. apparently it doesn't. And in that same way these system are still in use, so they can't be that hard. ;)
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As a fan of languages I have to comment on this:
The thing that makes this difficult, is the fact that pronouns work differently in different languages:
For example in my native languages Dutch we have 5 translations of you: je, jij, jou, u and jullie. Jullie is plural, u is formal, jij is informal subject, jou is informal object and je is like ya in English, but waaaayyyyy more common and can replace jij en jou.
See, not really that hard, is it? And in Japanese they don't really have pronouns. They just have a lot of pronouns that you can add to sentences to be more specific (kinda like y'all or ya in English. But like said in the video they are usually omitted for sake of not being rude.
So in short: There are multiple systems for using pronouns, and if you come from English, it can be hard to get used to them. Al though I still don't understand why English has the same word for informal, formal and plural. Isn't that gonna give a lot of confusion! Well. apparently it doesn't. And in that same way these system are still in use, so they can't be that hard. ;)
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Archange
Hmm. 0: 10. I don't know, but from the knowledge I have of a couple other languages, Do could be the word. Russian wouldn't have the is, yes, and often Mandarin wouldn't either (Haitian Creole would often not have a present tense for to be either, but do as a separate thing, in itself, that would hard to translate, I would guess, it's a construction of English, that wouldn't make sense in another language (to have the verb synonymous with to make as a part of a composite verb tense, and then used separately, in sentences such as Well, do you. that's an English thing, I can't think of another language where you can do that. I'm not even sure you could do that in German) but I don't know if that's what they are asking about. as for where, all those languages have a form of that. just wanted to try to find the answer before getting to the end of the video, haha. English has many constructions someone who only speaks English might not realize aren't necessary, and aren't used in other languages.
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Hmm. 0: 10. I don't know, but from the knowledge I have of a couple other languages, Do could be the word. Russian wouldn't have the is, yes, and often Mandarin wouldn't either (Haitian Creole would often not have a present tense for to be either, but do as a separate thing, in itself, that would hard to translate, I would guess, it's a construction of English, that wouldn't make sense in another language (to have the verb synonymous with to make as a part of a composite verb tense, and then used separately, in sentences such as Well, do you. that's an English thing, I can't think of another language where you can do that. I'm not even sure you could do that in German) but I don't know if that's what they are asking about. as for where, all those languages have a form of that. just wanted to try to find the answer before getting to the end of the video, haha. English has many constructions someone who only speaks English might not realize aren't necessary, and aren't used in other languages.
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Tawkir
In Bengali, using You can be very difficult for the non-natives. How you say you depends on the numbers, closeness, politeness, age difference and ranks (in corporate environment. For example, you say tui to your close friends, younger siblings and close juniors, the plural form is tora. To your other friends, same age people, juniors and close relatives, you say tumi, plural form is tomra. To respected persons, seniors, people higher in rank than you, same age people, teachers, relatives and unknown persons, you say apni, the plural form apnara. Same rules applies in Hindi as well, but you say tu, tum and aap instead of tui, tumi and apni.
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In Bengali, using You can be very difficult for the non-natives. How you say you depends on the numbers, closeness, politeness, age difference and ranks (in corporate environment. For example, you say tui to your close friends, younger siblings and close juniors, the plural form is tora. To your other friends, same age people, juniors and close relatives, you say tumi, plural form is tomra. To respected persons, seniors, people higher in rank than you, same age people, teachers, relatives and unknown persons, you say apni, the plural form apnara. Same rules applies in Hindi as well, but you say tu, tum and aap instead of tui, tumi and apni.
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Sphakamiso
In Zulu, there are no feminine and masculine pronouns. But the speaker inturn has the burden to pack as much information for the listener to grasp.
This i the reason Zulu kids that learn english for the first time and older infrequent English speakers, mismatch prounouns upon verbal communication.
Another complication is Zulu is converting singular words to plural. Learning that process is like one is taking an advance calculus class.
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In Zulu, there are no feminine and masculine pronouns. But the speaker inturn has the burden to pack as much information for the listener to grasp.
This i the reason Zulu kids that learn english for the first time and older infrequent English speakers, mismatch prounouns upon verbal communication.
Another complication is Zulu is converting singular words to plural. Learning that process is like one is taking an advance calculus class.
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Fraser
I take your point, but the concept of a pep rally would take me a lot more time and thought to translate. The you I can deal with and 90% of the time come up with a satisfactory translation with minimal effort. Pep rally would have me scurrying off to Google and writing messages to North American friends to try to find out exactly what it is.
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I take your point, but the concept of a pep rally would take me a lot more time and thought to translate. The you I can deal with and 90% of the time come up with a satisfactory translation with minimal effort. Pep rally would have me scurrying off to Google and writing messages to North American friends to try to find out exactly what it is.
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geoffk777
Also in many languages (Japanese and Korean, for example) when you isn't dropped, it's much more common to use a title rather than a pronoun. For example, You look sick would be [doctor/teacher] looks sick(Sensei wa byoki mitai in Japanese. Using the pronoun you, while it exists, is considered slightly rude and sounds unnatural.
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Also in many languages (Japanese and Korean, for example) when you isn't dropped, it's much more common to use a title rather than a pronoun. For example, You look sick would be [doctor/teacher] looks sick(Sensei wa byoki mitai in Japanese. Using the pronoun you, while it exists, is considered slightly rude and sounds unnatural.
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Jr
If this was translated into Filipino (Tagalog specifically) language, I think it would be much easier since You (singular) in Tagalog is Ikaw and its plural form, Kayo (signifying the receiver and his/her group) are basically gender neutral. If you wanted it to be more polite, just add, Po at the end of it (Like, Ikaw po and Kayo po.
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If this was translated into Filipino (Tagalog specifically) language, I think it would be much easier since You (singular) in Tagalog is Ikaw and its plural form, Kayo (signifying the receiver and his/her group) are basically gender neutral. If you wanted it to be more polite, just add, Po at the end of it (Like, Ikaw po and Kayo po.
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Nam
Came across this videos and realized that in Vietnamese, we dont use you or I much. It's such we usually call each other by the rank they compared to each other. For example, when you heard I love you from someone speaking to other, you can immediately know it's the male or female speaking.
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Came across this videos and realized that in Vietnamese, we dont use you or I much. It's such we usually call each other by the rank they compared to each other. For example, when you heard I love you from someone speaking to other, you can immediately know it's the male or female speaking.
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Ian
As a native English speaker who loves to drop pronouns, yet isn't fluent in any other language, those languages that drop them do seem more appealing!
Probably should have dropped more pronouns, but the sentence was already convoluted enough.
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As a native English speaker who loves to drop pronouns, yet isn't fluent in any other language, those languages that drop them do seem more appealing!
Probably should have dropped more pronouns, but the sentence was already convoluted enough.
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Billy
Please can you do a video on how languages are translated generally? (When I say, 'translated', I mean like deciphering a new language for the first time i. e. not when we already know how to speak it not need the text in a different language)
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Please can you do a video on how languages are translated generally? (When I say, 'translated', I mean like deciphering a new language for the first time i. e. not when we already know how to speak it not need the text in a different language)
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