\u201cAll of our blog posts have no in-depth discussions about grammar.\u201d What is wrong with this sentence? \u00a0\u00a0Read on to find out!<\/p>\n
In my capacity as a grader for the German-to-English ATA certification exam, as an instructor of German translation at Bellevue College, and as an editor and proofreader of countless translations that go through our office, I see a wide variety of texts translated by a wide variety of translators. Over the years, I have worked on identifying and compiling a list of many of the common areas for error in German<>English translation that can trip up even the most well-trained and seasoned translators. As we all know, being a good translator requires more than just being fluent in both the source and the target languages. In particular, it requires good \u201ctransfer\u201d skills. Awareness of these translation-specific, language-specific challenges and mastery of the relevant transfer strategies can turn a good translation into an excellent one. In this\u00a0Translation Challenges Series<\/em>, I hope (\u201chope\u201d being the pivotal word here) to contribute a number of posts to this blog about some of the specific challenges we face as German<>English translators, and the solutions we have for dealing with them. This post will focus on some of the different forms of negation used in German and English, and some options we have for translating them properly and idiomatically.<\/p>\n Take, for example, this sentence from a technical text: \u201cAlle nachfolgenden Stufen zeigten keine Auff\u00e4lligkeiten.<\/em>\u201d When translating it into English, if we stick too closely to the German structures, we end up with \u201cAll<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0of the subsequent steps\u00a0showed no<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0anomalies.\u201d This, of course, makes sense in English, but it is somewhat confusing and unidiomatic. It would be more common in English to express this as \u201cNone<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0of the subsequent steps showed\u00a0any<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0anomalies.\u201d So while in German we have \u201cAll showed no,\u201d in English we have \u201cnone showed any.\u201d<\/p>\n Here are some more examples of the translation of German negation into English:<\/p>\n Die Abweichung hat keinen Einfluss auf das Pr\u00fcfergebnis. Die<\/em>ser Schritt<\/em>\u00a0wird nur abgearbeitet, wenn keine weitere Equilibrierung durchgef\u00fchrt wird. Weitere Auff\u00e4lligkeiten konnten nicht festgestellt werden. Auch diese Probenahmestelle zeigte sich nicht als sehr geeignet f\u00fcr diese \u00dcberpr\u00fcfung. Alle anderen Chargen des Verpackungsauftrages sind nicht betroffen. Of course similar strategies for avoiding literal formulations and instead using the grammatical structures and syntax that are idiomatic in the target language also apply to translation from English into German. Whereas in English it is perfectly idiomatic to say \u201cI don\u2019t have time,\u201d if we translate that literally into German we end up with: \u201cIch habe nicht Zeit\u201d instead of \u201cIch habe keine Zeit.\u201d<\/p>\n Often (but not always) we find that in English, it is more idiomatic to negate the verb and bring the negation (i.e., the important information) closer to the beginning of the sentence. However, in German it is often more idiomatic to negate the noun and allow the negation to happen towards the end of the sentence. This stands to reason, since in general, English tends to favor verbal constructions, whereas German tends to favor nominal ones, and English likes to put important information first, whereas German is comfortable (given its syntax) with having important information come at the very end of the sentence.<\/p>\n So just remember, if you always use the forms and structures that are idiomatic for your target language, all of your translations will never be bad!<\/p>\n \u2013Maia Costa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cAll of our blog posts have no in-depth discussions about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-unkategorisiert"],"yoast_head":"\n
\n<\/em>Instead of: The deviation\u00a0has no<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0impact on the test results.
\nTry: The deviation\u00a0does not have any<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0impact on the test results.<\/p>\n
\n<\/em>Instead of: Perform this step\u00a0only<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0if<\/strong>\u00a0no<\/strong><\/u>\u00a0further equilibration will be conducted.
\nOr:\u00a0Only<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0perform this step\u00a0if<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0another equilibration will be conducted.
\nTry:\u00a0Do not<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0perform this step\u00a0unless<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0another equilibration will be conducted.<\/p>\n
\n<\/em>Instead of:\u00a0Further<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0anomalies\u00a0could not be<\/strong><\/u>\u00a0detected.
\nTry:\u00a0No further\u00a0<\/u><\/strong>anomalies\u00a0could be<\/u>\u00a0<\/strong>detected.<\/p>\n
\n<\/em>Instead of: This sampling site is\u00a0also not<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0particularly suitable for the test.
\nTry: This sampling site is\u00a0not<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0particularly suitable for the test\u00a0either<\/u><\/strong>.<\/p>\n
\n<\/em>Instead of:\u00a0All<\/strong>\u00a0of the other batches of the packaging order\u00a0are not<\/strong>\u00a0affected.
\nTry:\u00a0None<\/strong>\u00a0of the other batches of the packaging order\u00a0are<\/strong>\u00a0affected.<\/p>\n