# 今までの間添削をちゃんと見返すことができていなかった



## TunS

Hello everyone:

I'm having a little difficulty deciphering this sentence's meaning, how would you translate it into English? I'm thinking something along the lines of:

今までの間添削をちゃんと見返すことができていなかった
_Until now, I (hadn't/haven't) been able to properly review the corrections._ 

Thanks for reading.


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## Catnails

びみょうで、あいまいな表現。忙しくて時間がなかったのか、ただ単にサボっただけなのか
わからない。

I should have paid more attention to the corrections.
I should have spent more time on reviwing the corrections.


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## wathavy

TunS said:


> Hello everyone:
> 
> I'm having a little difficulty deciphering this sentence's meaning, how would you translate it into English? I'm thinking something along the lines of:
> 
> 今までの間添削をちゃんと見返すことができていなかった
> _Until now, I (hadn't/haven't) been able to properly review the corrections._
> 
> Thanks for reading.


To me your English translation perfectly fits to the original Japanese sentence.
Well, one could argue about the corrupted, if so, original Japanese sentence, though.
The sentence seems very colloquial too.

Catnails's trials are more like I like to do whenever I feel like to express myself in English.  But they are not straight forward translation bit of interpreted ones, I guess.


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## Wishfull

TunS said:


> _Until now, I (hadn't/haven't) been able to properly review the corrections._




Hi.
I don't know the true meaning of "be able to", but, to me, the reverse translation of that English into Japanese would be;
今まで、添削をきちんと見直すことができるほどの能力を私は持ち合わせていなかった。
今まで、添削をきちんと復習できるほど利口ではなかった（つまり、馬鹿であった）。

しかるに

今までの間添削をちゃんと見返すことができていなかった
is not so serious.
And I think I agree with Catnalis.

I think "can" and "be able to" is not good translation of できていなかった
in this context. Though it is literal word- to-word translation, structurally.


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## Catnails

In my view, the issue seems to be how you interpret the difference between 見返すことができなかったand 見返すことができ「て」なかった.The former is clear in meaning. The author of the sentence was simply unable to review the corrections for some reason.

But でき「て」なかった usually means （したつもりが）でき「て」なかった. I thought I did review the corrections, but I found out that I failed to properly do so.

Thus, I interpreted it as either
"I should have paid more attention to the corrections."
OR
"I should have spent more time on reviwing the corrections."


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## wathavy

TunS said:


> Hello everyone:
> 
> I'm having a little difficulty deciphering this sentence's meaning, how would you translate it into English? I'm thinking something along the lines of:
> 
> 今までの間添削をちゃんと見返すことができていなかった
> _Until now, I (hadn't/haven't) been able to properly review the corrections._
> 
> Thanks for reading.


You guys, have you read and noticed what the original questioner's wish is?
Does he want to interpret it?
Or does he want to have it translated?

It does not matter whether it works or not in Japanese.
He wants to understand what is the exact translation the original sentence is.
Be aware, that cultural difference lies between the two languages.
English is straight forward and no twisting political talk(most cases).
While Japanese are full of it and makes me tired of, or sick of it very often.

Don't change the contents, please.
What he wants is what he wants. And what standard Japanese regard is not always what the other end want.

I hope this makes sense.


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## Wishfull

TunS said:


> Hello everyone:
> 
> I'm having a little difficulty *deciphering* this sentence's meaning, *how would you translate it into English? *I'm thinking something along the lines of:
> 
> 今までの間添削をちゃんと見返すことができていなかった
> _Until now, I (hadn't/haven't) been able to properly review the corrections._
> 
> Thanks for reading.





wathavy said:


> You guys, have you read and noticed what the original questioner's wish is?
> Does he want to interpret it? *Yes, I think so.*
> Or does he want to have it translated? *Yes, exactly.*
> 
> It does not matter whether it works or not in Japanese. *I don't think so.*
> He wants to understand what is the exact translation the original sentence is.
> *I don't think so.*
> Be aware, that cultural difference lies between the two languages.
> English is straight forward and no twisting political talk(most cases).
> While Japanese are full of it and makes me tired of, or sick of it very often.
> 
> Don't change the contents, please.
> What he wants is what he wants. And what standard Japanese regard is not always what the other end want.
> 
> I hope this makes sense.



Hi, wathavy.
I respect you, because I've read your posts many times.
They were very reasonable, indeed.
And I think I know what you are saying, this time, too.
But I don't disagree.
In order to keep the real meaning same, we sometimes have to change the structure and expression in two languages.

できていない's meaning is different from "could not do" in this context, I think.


Hi. TunS.
For example, (maybe too exaggerate.)
 A. The translation of おはよう　is "It's early" and さようなら is "If you said so".
 B. The translation of おはよう is "good morning" and さようなら　is "Bye."
Which translation do you want in this case?
Do you want word-to-word translation without thinking of content's meaning?
Do you want the translation  like A in this thread?


The problem here might lies in the terminology of "interpreter, interpretation, translator, translation, literal-translation, word-to-word translation, decipher,etc."
I think each person has different interpretation about the differences of these terms.
Their nuance might be different to each person.
I think it might be I who is wrong.


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## Derselbe

Wishfull said:


> できていない's meaning is different from "could not do" in this context, I think.



Hi.
I don't want to interrupt your discussion but so far this thread has not given me a clue as to what the difference between できなかって and できていなかった　would be. You said "can" and "to be able to" was not a good translation for できていなかった". But what is a good translation?

I know that the tense 
できなかった is roughly "I was not able to do X" 
and
まだできていない is "I have not been able to do X yet."
But what is できていなかった then?

From your posts I understand that できていない and　できていなかった are not interchangeable. What I don't understand is when to use which.


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## kaito

Catnails said:


> （したつもりが）でき「て」なかった.



My initial translation would have been: [...] I didn't get to [...]
But the quoted part makes me quite uncertain of that, is there always the nuance of したつもりが or do you just think it's in this case only?


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## TunS

Hello everyone, thanks for all the information and sorry for not being here to clarify things; I wasn't able to check back on my post. I surely wasn't expecting such a lengthy discussion!



Wishfull said:


> Hi. TunS.
> For example, (maybe too exaggerate.)
> A. The translation of おはよう　is "It's early" and さようなら is "If you said so".
> B. The translation of おはよう is "good morning" and さようなら　is "Bye."
> Which translation do you want in this case?
> Do you want word-to-word translation without thinking of content's meaning?
> Do you want the translation  like A in this thread?
> 
> 
> The problem here might lies in the terminology of "interpreter, interpretation, translator, translation, literal-translation, word-to-word translation, decipher,etc."
> I think each person has different interpretation about the differences of these terms.
> Their nuance might be different to each person.
> I think it might be I who is wrong.



Hello Wishfull-san, you are right, the terminology I have used is quite confusing, but I'm only asking for an accurate translation. I said _I_ was trying to decipher (i.e. without having to translate it into English in order to understand completely) the sentence's meaning, but then I gave up and decided to ask for a translation.

I suppose what I was asking for was a straightforward English translation, so that I could compare both versions. Thanks again.


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## Wishfull

Derselbe said:


> Hi.
> I don't want to interrupt your discussion but so far this thread has not given me a clue as to what the difference between できなかって and できていなかった　would be. You said "can" and "to be able to" was not a good translation for できていなかった". But what is a good translation?
> 
> I know that the tense
> できなかった is roughly "I was not able to do X"
> and
> まだできていない is "I have not been able to do X yet."
> But what is できていなかった then?



Thank you, Derselbe.
You showed me the point.

できなかった　is roughly "I was not able to do X" .
Yes.
Usually it is so.

BUT
できていなかった　is "I didn't finish X" or "I have not finished X." →I found that this is the main point of this discussion!!

できていなかった=出来上がっていなかった　here.

I think できていなかった also have the meaning of "could not do X" or even "could not finish doing X".
So, the original English of the first poster might be correct.

BUT I somehow feel "not finish" is better than " can not" here.

So my direct, word-to-word, not-interpretating translation would be;
*Until now, I haven't finished reviewing enough the corrections. *


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