# Can you translate this in your language?



## Frank06

Hi,

I was wondering how you translate following sentence in your language:

*English*: "Can you translate this in your language?"
*Dutch*: "Kan jij dit in jouw taal vertalen?"

I would be very happy with:
1. the informal variant, if possible the emphatic variant;
2. the original script + transcription.

Many thanks in advance.

Groetjes,

Frank


----------



## Chazzwozzer

*Turkish:* "Bunu kendi diline çevirebilir misin?"


----------



## fsabroso

*Spanish*: "¿_Puedes/podrías/podríais tú traducir esto en tu idioma_?"
"¿_Podría Usted traducir esto en su idioma_?"


----------



## mikasa_90

*English*: "Can you translate this in your language?"

---->in italian:<<Puoi tradurlo nella tua lingua\puoi tradurre ciò nella tua lingua?>>


----------



## Quelle

German:

Kannst/könntest du (können/könnten Sie) das in deine/Ihre Sprache übersetzen?


----------



## Hakro

*Finnish:*

Informal:
- Voitko kääntää tämän omalle kielellesi? _(into your own language)_
- Voitko kääntää tämän suomeksi? _(into Finnish)
_Emphatic:
- Käännä tämä omalle kielellesi? _(into your own language)_
 - Käännä tämä suomeksi? _(into Finnish)_
Polite form:
- Voisitteko kääntää tämän omalle kielellenne? _(into your own language)_
 - Voisitteko kääntää tämän suomeksi? _(into Finnish)_

(I understood that "emphatic variant" means imperative form.)


----------



## Stéphane89

In French:

Can you translate this in your language ? = *Peux-tu traduire ceci dans ta langue ?*

This is the informal version. There is no 'emphatic' variant. You could just perhaps change the order of the words if you wanted to stress one part of the sentence.


----------



## kittykate

*Italiano*

_Sai tradurre questo nella tua lingua?_ or _Sei in grado di tradurre questo nella tua lingua?_

The formal version would require the use of _Lei _and the verb at the 3rd person singular: _Sa/E' in grado di_ _tradurre questo nella Sua lingua?_

caterina


----------



## Frank06

Hi,

First of all, thanks to everybody already!!



Frank06 said:


> I would be very happy with:
> 1. the informal variant, if possible  relevant the emphatic variant;
> 2. the original script + transcription.


What I meant was not the imperative. But how can I say... 
1. If you have the choice in your language to drop the pronoun or to express it explicitely, please express it. 
For example, you have that choice in Portuguese, if I am not wrong. "Pode" / "*Vôce* pode..." 
So, please do not drop the pro(noun)!
2. If your language happens to have two forms of the pronoun, please use the more emphatic one, as in Dutch 'je' versus 'jij'.

Groetjes,

Frank


----------



## Abbassupreme

(reverse the question mark) ?می شود این را به زبان خدت ترجمه بكنی
Mishavad in râ be zabâne xowdat tarjome bekoni?

The pronoun "tow" (تو) ("you" informal, referring to only one person as opposed to there being an informal plural "you") does not necessarily need to be present in the sentence to make it make sense, but it can be inserted in at least two places in the aforementioned sentence.

Also, the version I wrote above is written Persian as opposed to spoken Persian, so a transliterated version of the sentence in spoken Persian.  The transliterated SPOKEN Persian version of the sentence (with the areas specified in the sentence as to where the pronoun "tow" can be inserted) is:
Mishe (tow) in râ be zabune xowdet tarjome koni?/Mishe in râ be zabune xowdet tarjome koni (tow)?


----------



## kusurija

In Czech: (you)
Můžeš to přeložit do češtiny?/Můžeš to přeložit do svého jazyka (in case, that "your" language doesn't mean the Czech) ?

In Lithuanian: 
Ar gali tai išversti lietuviškai?


----------



## Nizo

*Esperanto*:

_Ĉu vi povas traduki ĉi tion en vian lingvon? _(no difference between informal and formal)

*Afrikaans*:

_Kan__ jy dit in jou taal vertaal?_


----------



## irene.acler

kittykate said:


> *Italiano*
> 
> _Sai tradurre questo nella tua lingua?_ or _Sei in grado di tradurre questo nella tua lingua?_
> 
> The formal version would require the use of _Lei _and the verb at the 3rd person singular: _Sa/E' in grado di_ _tradurre questo nella Sua lingua?_
> 
> caterina


 
We can also say: 
_*P**uoi* tradurre questo/tradurlo nella tua lingua?_ (2nd person singular)
_*Può* tradurre questo/tradurlo nella sua lingua?_ (3rd person singular)


----------



## Outsider

*Portuguese, singular "you"*:

*Brazilian or European + semiformal*:_ Você pode(-me) traduzir isto para a sua língua?_
*European + informal*: _Tu podes(-me) traduzir isto para a tua língua?_

Words between parentheses are optional.


*Portuguese, plural "you"*: _ Vocês podem(-me) traduzir isto para a sua língua?_

Although you did not ask, I added the plural version, which is the one you'd normally use in a message board, for example.


----------



## Frank06

Hi,

Thanks to everybody so far!!

I have a question about the Italian phrases:


kittykate said:


> *1. *_Sai tradurre questo nella tua lingua?_
> _Sei in grado di tradurre questo nella tua lingua?_


 


mikasa_90 said:


> *2.* Puoi tradurlo nella tua lingua\puoi tradurre ciò nella tua lingua?


 
I don't know Italian, so I am not sure about the difference between 'sai' (lit. to know?) and 'puio' (lit. can?).
Does the first sentence imply 'are you able, do you know how to translate ...?"
And does the second phrase imply "Can you/do you want to translate..."?

Groetjes,

Frank


----------



## tie-break

Frank06 said:


> I don't know Italian, so I am not sure about the difference between 'sai' (lit. to know?) and 'puoi' (lit. can?).
> Does the first sentence imply 'are you able, do you know how to translate ...?"
> And does the second phrase imply "Can you/do you want to translate..."?


 
Perfect !


----------



## Hakro

Frank06 said:


> What I meant was not the imperative. But how can I say...
> 1. If you have the choice in your language to drop the pronoun or to express it explicitely, please express it.
> For example, you have that choice in Portuguese, if I am not wrong. "Pode" / "*Vôce* pode..."
> So, please do not drop the pro(noun)!
> 2. If your language happens to have two forms of the pronoun, please use the more emphatic one, as in Dutch 'je' versus 'jij'.


Sorry, I misunderstood. Here's corrected reply for Finnish (pronouns added):

 Informal:
 - Voitko (sinä) kääntää tämän omalle kielellesi? _(into your own language)_
 - Voitko (sinä) kääntää tämän suomeksi? _(into Finnish)_
 Polite form:
 - Voisitteko (te) kääntää tämän omalle kielellenne? _(into your own language)_
  - Voisitteko (te) kääntää tämän suomeksi? _(into Finnish)_

In Finnish it's normal to omit the pronouns; in this kind of sentences they are used only if you want to stress it: Can you (and nobody else) translate...



> Does the first sentence imply 'are you able, do you know how to translate ...?"
> And does the second phrase imply "Can you/do you want to translate..."?


My phrases are translations for the second alternative. For the first alternative, change _voitko —> osaatko_ and _voisitteko —> osaatteko_.


----------



## Flaminius

Frank06 said:


> Hi,
> 
> First of all, thanks to everybody already!!
> 
> 
> What I meant was not the imperative. But how can I say...
> 1. If you have the choice in your language to drop the pronoun or to express it explicitely, please express it.
> For example, you have that choice in Portuguese, if I am not wrong. "Pode" / "*Vôce* pode..."
> So, please do not drop the pro(noun)!
> 2. If your language happens to have two forms of the pronoun, please use the more emphatic one, as in Dutch 'je' versus 'jij'.


I am afraid Japanese is a bit hard to tame according to your framework but here is my try.

Assuming your question is about a casual enquiry about the ability to translate;
これを*きみたち*のことばに翻訳できるかな。
kore-o *kimitachi-no* kotoba-ni hoňyaku dekiru kana.

Postpositions and modality particles are set-off by a hyphen from nouns and phrases.

1. The emboldened *kimitachi-no* is one of so many pronouns for the second person plural (literally, "your" as opposed to "thine").  Yes, it's a plural form.  From the viewpoint of the Japanese language, using a singular genitive here implies that the language is possessed by a single person.

I did not use the subject pronoun "you" in my translation.  It is not ungrammatical to express the subject "you" but no-one talks like that.  I think this virtually means that the choice is not there in Japanese.  If it were to be expressed, it would be _kimi_, a singular pronoun.

2. Since _kimitachi_ is only one possibility to express "you," I would suggest other translations.  However, I need clarification on what emphatic pronoun means.  As noted above, Japanese have more than two pronouns.  [I am aware of discussions that Japanese does not possess real pronouns but I tentatively use the word "pronoun" insofar as the idea facilitates understanding.]  Some of them are more polite than others, some of them more vulgar, some of them more intimate, and so on.  Different pronouns may better suit different modality particles (the part I marked by orange ink).


----------



## Zsanna

In Hungarian there is a distinction to be made between can you... (are you capable of...?)  and will you... (please, do) but if I choose the conditional (more or less: _could_), it may be used to express either:

Le tudnád fordítani a saját nyelvedre? (=... to your own language)

(Informal in the sense of using "tu (Fr. or It.) /du (Ger.)" for addressing the other person but a bit artificial because it would be more natural to name the language we wish the translation for. Saying it like this indicates that we don't really know what the other person's language is which ruins all the effort of trying to be polite. Also a bit illogical: if I don't even know what language he/she speaks why would I want to know a translation into it...?)

Le tudnád fordítani magyarra? (=... into Hungarian)

If you mean by transcription an indication how all that is pronunced, I'm sorry, I could not do that easily. Roughly: the way it is written (a bit like in German or in Italian). 
+ some hints:
- The point above a vowel indicates that it should be pronunced shortly 
- whereas a vowel with an accent like this: *'* indicates that it should be pronunced 'longly'. (Hm. Missing a term there.)
- Double consonants (2 of the same sort) are long in the pronunciation  
- double consonants like "ny" and "gy" are special for the language but say _ny_ is something like [nj] (like in: "can you", but pronunced naturally and not slowly) and _gy_ is a bit like the French [dj] in "Mon Dieu!"


----------



## lcfatima

Urdu:

Kyaa aap iska tarjuma kar sakte hai(n) apni zubaan mei(n)?


----------



## J.F. de TROYES

Excuse me to be perhaps out of date in answering your question !  I think  it’s important to take into account that omitting or not the pronoun results in a meaning that depends on the standard use in a language  ; furthermore some of them have more than two pronouns as Flaminius said for Japanese, what makes it possible to choose from colloquial to polite and formal forms.  I’ve tried to gather some languages that work  the same way :

1- The subject  pronoun is not expressed except for emphasizing the person you are speaking to. 

*Arabic*  (modern standard Arabic )

هل (أنت) تستطيع أن تترجم هذا إلى لغتكَ( talking to a male speaker )           
hal ( ‘anta ) tastaTii3 ‘an tatarjima hathaa ‘ila lughatak ?


*هل (أنت) تستطيعن أن تترجمي هذا إلى لغتكِ*( talking to a female speaker )

hal (‘anti ) tastaTii3iin ‘an tatarjimii hathaa ‘ila lughatik ?

When the pronoun is expressed, it can be placed  either before or after the verb

.
*Quechua  *

 ( Qan ) kayta simiykiman t’ikrata atinkichu ?


*Swahili*

Je, ( wewe ) unaweza kutafsiri hii kwa lugha yako ?

It’s the same  in these three languages:  “أنت  “ , “qan”, “wewe” (you), are not necessary as the suffix -nki  or the prefixs   - *ت*  and  u- express the 2nd person. So using it is bound to lay stress on the person .
Generally speaking, these languages have no real emphatic pronoun : Arabic  sometimes uses the plural  أنتم ‘antum (masc.) or     أنتنّ   ‘antunna ( fem. ) instead of the singular  أنت( ‘anta or ‘anti) under the influence of European languages, but chiefly or only (I am uncertain ) in writing. The formal eypression” حضرتكم“ ( your presence ) can  be used as well, but it’ not  a pronoun and it did’nt change like the Spanish “vuestra merced” becoming “usted”. In Quechua something similar can be found “ personayki” (your person) which is unusual and a bad Spaanish-Quechua mixture.
.
2- A wide choice of pronouns or substitutes 

*Burmese*

Polite  ( Female speaker) : 'g  &Sifpum;odkhb1o1jyefwwfov1;
                                                   da  *HshiN*-zä’ga- thaw’  bathabiaNda?thä’la 

Polite (Male speaker) :   'g  crsm;pum;odkhb1o1jyefwwfov1;
                                             da  *Hkä’mya*-zä’ga- thaw’   bathabiaNda?thä’la   
*Thai *
**
Formal  :                        * แปลนีเป็นภาษา(ของ)ทานป็น/ได้ไหม*
                                        plae nîi pen phaasãa (khawgn) *thâan* pen/ dâi mãi    ( pen= to  how know or dâi= can ) 
Politeand usual  :***แปลนีเป็นภาษา(ของ** )*คุณ*ป็น/ได้ไหม*
                                      plae nîi pen phaasãa (khawgn) *koon* pen/ dâi mãi    

Both languages but *Cambodian* , *Lao* and *Vietnamese* as well share the same features with a wide range of possibilities :

1-The subject pronoun is  often dropped , although the verb has no inflection., when the context makes it obvious who is referring to.
2- There are not two, but several pronouns of which the choice depends upon the interlocutor’s relative age, gender and / or social status or even for Burmese, the talking person’s gender.
3- Pronouns are also used as possessives : “Hsin / kHämia-zäga” literally means  “you-language”  . So  it cannot be omitted in this sentence, unlike : “da  bäma zä’ga-thaw’ bathabiaNda?thâ’la “ ( Can you translate this in Burmese ? ) ) or “  plae nîi pen phaasãa thai pen/ dâi mãi (Can you translate this in Thai ? )
4- Pronouns are often replaced by terms of kinship such as “uncle”, “younger sister” and so on. Vietnamese has no pronouns but terms of kinship, as it was said in aprevoius post. All Vietname pronouns are terms of kinship. ( See a Palomnic’s recent post ).


.* Chinese*

(你 )能把这个翻成你的语吗？ nǐ néng bù néng bǎ zheì ge fā yì chéng nǐ de yǔ ma

The  pronoun你is generally expressed , but it is sometimes omitted  for various reasons : here  I think it’s better to drop it because it is used again to express possession : “ nǐ de yǔ “ (your language ).
There is also an emphatic 2nd person pronoun : 您that sounds formal and is never used by many people, especially in Southern China ; the first one is considered polite and adequate to talk to any kind of people.


----------



## Frank06

HI,

First of all, thanks to everybody so far!!



J.F. de TROYES said:


> Excuse me to be perhaps out of date in answering your question !


There is no expiry date on this one ;-), so your translations _and _comments are (still) highly appreciated!



lcfatima said:


> Kyaa aap iska tarjuma kar sakte hai(n) apni zubaan mei(n)?


Icfatima, how do write this in Urdu (I mean the script) ? I only know the Arabic script through Persian, and I do know that Urdu slightly deviates from both...

Groetjes,

Frank


----------



## cherine

J.F. de TROYES said:


> *Arabic* (modern standard Arabic )
> 
> هل (أنت) تستطيع أن تترجم هذا إلى لغتكَ( talking to a male speaker )
> hal ( ‘anta ) tastaTii3 ‘an tatarjima hathaa ‘ila lughatak ?
> 
> 
> *هل (أنت) تستطيعن أن تترجمي هذا إلى لغتكِ*( talking to a female speaker )
> 
> hal (‘anti ) tastaTii3iin ‘an tatarjimii hathaa ‘ila lughatik ?


Sorry for the late reply, I just found this post by coincidence.

I'd like to make a small correction:
Addressing a female, we'd say هل تستطيعين
--
And we can replace the أن+فعل with a مصدر so we say: هل تستطيعين ترجمة هذا (the masculine: هل تستطيع ترجمة هذا )

And there's another alternative for the هل which is the alef (همزة الاستفهام). So we say:
Masc.: أتستطيع ترجمة هذا إلى لغتك؟
Fem.: أتستطيعين ترجمة هذا إلى لغتك؟


----------



## OldAvatar

Romanian:
(Formal)
_Puteţi traduce acest text în limba dumneavoastră?_


----------



## bb3ca201

Am faod thu (/ sibh, formal) seo eadar-thangachadh?


----------



## J.F. de TROYES

cherine said:


> Sorry for the late reply, I just found this post by coincidence.
> 
> I'd like to make a small correction:
> Addressing a female, we'd say هل تستطيعين
> --
> And we can replace the أن+فعل with a مصدر so we say: هل تستطيعين ترجمة هذا (the masculine: هل تستطيع ترجمة هذا )
> 
> And there's another alternative for the هل which is the alef (همزة الاستفهام). So we say:
> Masc.: أتستطيع ترجمة هذا إلى لغتك؟
> Fem.: أتستطيعين ترجمة هذا إلى لغتك؟


 
Thanks for the correction; does one of these alternatives tend to be more used in written MSA, especially the "maSdar". By the byis it commonly used in dialects ?


----------



## elroy

J.F. de TROYES said:


> Thanks for the correction; does one of these alternatives tend to be more used in written MSA, especially the "maSdar".


 They are both common.  One may sound better than the other in a specific context, but in general I wouldn't say that one is more common than the other.





> By the byis it commonly used in dialects ?


 Assuming you meant "By the way, is it...":

We would not use the maSdar in this context in Palestinian Arabic:

_Bti'dar/mumken *ittarjem* haada la-lughatak?_
_Bti'dari/mumken *ittarjimi* haada la-lughatek?_

I'd like to make some corrections to your transliterations:

hal ( ‘anta ) tastaTii3(u) ‘an tutarjima haatha ‘ila lughatika ?
hal (‘anti ) tastaTii3iina ‘an tutarjimi haatha ‘ila lughatiki ?
(The blue vowels are normally pronounced short even though they are written as long vowels.)

Also, I would not place _anta_ and _anti_ where you have placed them.  To add emphasis, I would place them *after* the verb:

_hal tastaTii3u anta an..._
_hal tastaTii3iina anti an..._


----------



## ibroe

Hi,

In standard Malay : Boleh kamu terjemahkan perkataan ini dalam bahasa kamu?
In Spoken Sarawakian Malay : Cam ney nak madah tok dalam kelaka kitak?


----------



## mataripis

Tagalog: Kaya mo bang sabihin/isalin ito sa inyong Wika/Salita?


----------



## ilocas2

Croatian:

Možeš li ovo prevesti na svoj jezik?


----------



## Penyafort

Frank06 said:


> I don't know Italian, so I am not sure about the difference between 'sai' (lit. to know?) and 'puio' (lit. can?).
> Does the first sentence imply 'are you able, do you know how to translate ...?"
> And does the second phrase imply "Can you/do you want to translate..."?



Not only in Italian, but also in the other Romance languages.


----------



## Encolpius

Zsanna said:


> 1) Le tudnád fordítani a saját nyelvedre? (=... to your own language)
> 
> a bit *illogical*: if I don't even know what language he/she speaks why would I want to know a translation into it...?)
> 
> 2) Le tudnád fordítani magyarra? (=... into Hungarian)



I must fully agree. I think none of Hungarians would say the 1) sentence. But the English "your language" sounds less unnatural to me, I wonder if there is a collocation "my language, your language" at all. Isn't that one's mother tongue.


----------



## apmoy70

Greek:

*«Μπορείς να μεταφράσεις αυτό στη γλώσσα σου;»* [boˈɾis na metaˈfrasis afˈto sti ˈɣlosa su] --> _can you translate this in the language of yours?_
Greek is a pro-drop language, there's no need for the use of a pronoun because the suffix *-είς* suggests the verb is in 2nd p. sing. present indicative.

The verb is *«μπορώ»* [boˈɾo] --> _to be able to, can, may_, aphetic of Byz.Gr denominative v. *«ἐμπορῶ» emporô* (idem) < Classical nominal *«ἔμπορος» émpŏrŏs* < compound; Classical adverb, and preposition *«ἐν» ĕn* --> _in, within_ (PIE *h₁en(i)- _in_ cf Lat. in, Proto-Germanic *in) + Classical deverbal masc. noun *«πόρος» pórŏs* --> _passage, ford_ < Classical v. *«πείρω» peírō* --> _to perforate, pierce, pervade_ (PIE *per- _to cross, pass_ cf Skt. परि (pári), _around_, Av. pairi- _around, about_, Lat. per).


----------

