# That boy is a failure, he never dares ask anything



## Kraus

Hello friends! Could you please help me to translate this sentence?

"That boy is a failure, he never dares ask anything. He was strolling in front of the pub like a fool, and after half an hour he managed to talk!"

Here's my try: "Этот мальчик никуда не годится, никогда не берет смелости и ничего не спрашивает. Он слонялся перед барем как ненормальный, и через полчаса он смог поговорить!"

Excuse me for the lack of context (the sentence is from an exercise book) and thanks in advance for your help!


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## Maroseika

Kraus said:


> "Этот мальчик никуда не годится, никогда не берет набирается смелости и ничего не спрашивает. Он слонялся перед бареом как ненормальный, и через полчаса он смог позаговорить!"
> 
> Thanks in advance for your help!


This are quite formal corrections. 
*Набраться смелости* is the set expression.
As for the translation I'd suggest something like this:
Ну что за никчёмный парень, вечно боится что-нибудь спросить! Полчаса болтался перед пивной как дурак, пока наконец не заговорил!


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## Kraus

Большое спасибо!  Можно говорить и "этот мальчик просто ужас"?


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## Emmanon82

Well, as for me , "failure" is close to "никчемный", "неудачник", " ни на что не годен". "Ужасный"(мальчик)is somebody who doesn`t behave correctly, not in expected way.
P.S. Can a little boy walk in front of a pub?


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## Kraus

So "никуда не годится" is better. Thanks a lot Emmanon for your suggestion!


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## Emmanon82

And check if the word "мальчик" matches. It`s used to a child.


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## Kraus

I'll use the word "парень", as in Maroseika's translation.


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## Maroseika

Kraus said:


> I'll use the word "парень", as in Maroseika's translation.


Unless that boy was not sent by his mother to get his father out of the pub, and could not dare to ask anybody whether his father was really there.
In such case мальчик is quite right.
As for "этот мальчик просто ужас" - this is very good expression, but should match the style of the narration.
Этот мальчишка просто ужас - пошлешь его отца из кабака привести, так он битых полчаса там будет слоняться, от страха трястись, вместо того чтоб сразу войти, да и посмотреть - там его отец, или уже под забором валяется.


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## Kraus

Maroseika said:


> Unless that boy was not sent by his mother to get his father out of the pub, and could not dare to ask anybody whether his father was really there.
> In such case мальчик is quite right.
> As for "этот мальчик просто ужас" - this is very good expression, but should match the style of the narration.
> Этот мальчишка просто ужас - пошлешь его отца из кабака привести, так он битых полчаса там будет слоняться, от страха трястись, вместо того чтоб сразу войти, да и посмотреть - там его отец, или уже под забором валяется.


Many thanks again!  Congratulations for your spectacular sentence!


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## Kolan

Kraus said:


> "That boy is a failure, he never dares ask anything. He was strolling in front of the pub like a fool, and after half an hour he managed to talk!"
> 
> Here's my try: "Этот мальчик никуда не годится, никогда не берет смелости и ничего не спрашивает. Он слонялся перед барем как ненормальный, и через полчаса он смог поговорить!"


The overall situation is quite irrealistic, that's why it's difficult to find a proper match.
Here's my suggestion, although not academic one, rather somewhat colloquial.

"Этот пацан (хлопец) какой-то недоделанный, никогда не посмеет ничего спросить. Толкался перед входом в бар как дурачок и только через полчаса сумел выдавить из себя слово!"


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## Emmanon82

Bravo,Kolan  Espesially for "хлопец" ( is it okay for literary Russian? I thought it was used just in dialects which are close to Ukrainian)
...And "недоделанный" mmm has negative undertones. For me it is close to "idiot". It`s rude, just think about the origin of that expression...


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## Kraus

Please, how would you translate these two sentences separately, how if they belonged to two different contexts?  

"*That boy is a failure, he never dares ask anything*"
"*He was strolling in front of the pub like a fool, and after half an hour he managed to talk*"


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## Emmanon82

You can translate it like this:
"Этот парень ни на что не годен, никогда не может ничего спросить!"
"Он полчаса слонялся около пивной как дурак, пока не заговорил "


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## Kolan

Emmanon82 said:


> Bravo,Kolan  Espesially for "хлопец" ( is it okay for literary Russian? I thought it was used just in dialects which are close to Ukrainian)
> ...And "недоделанный" mmm has negative undertones. For me it is close to "idiot". It`s rude, just think about the origin of that expression...


Well, хлопец may fit, depending on a more general context. Ukrainian words are widely borrowed by Russian with the same sense. We can only guess about the boy's age, so that other appropriate words could be парень, мальчуган...

The overall sense of the extract is negative, especially  *failure*, which seems to be a keyword. Someone did not manage to complete the job, which literally translates as _недоделанный_.


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## Kraus

Emmanon82 said:


> You can translate it like this:
> "Этот парень ни на что не годен, никогда не может ничего спросить!"
> "Он полчаса слонялся около пивной как дурак, пока не заговорил "


Большое спасибо еще раз!


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## Kolan

Emmanon82 said:


> "Он полчаса слонялся около пивной как дурак, пока не заговорил "


Slightly more exact
"Он слонялся около пивной как дурак, пока через полчаса не заговорил "


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## Etcetera

Emmanon82 said:


> Bravo,Kolan Espessialy for "хлопец" ( is it okay for literary Russian? I thought it was used just in dialects which are close to Ukrainian)


No, it isn't OK for literary Russian.
Quite frankly, I wasn't even aware that it is used by some Russian dialects. For me the word is clearly Ukrainian, and I wouldn't recommend to use it in a Russian sentence, however informal it might be.



> ...And "недоделанный" mmm has negative undertones. For me it is close to "idiot". It`s rude, just think about the origin of that expression...


I agree. It's just too rude. And этот мальчик какой-то недоделанный sounds just odd to me.


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## Maroseika

Kolan said:


> We can only guess about the boy's age, so that other appropriate words could be парень, мальчуган...


I'm afraid мальчуган is absolutely bookish, I've never heard it in my life from anybody.


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## Maroseika

Emmanon82 said:


> Bravo,Kolan  "хлопец" ( is it okay for literary Russian? I thought it was used just in dialects which are close to Ukrainian)


I don't think it's a part of literary Russian. In fact it's really peculiar to the southern patoises only, and if used in other regions сlearly marks the speaker as a southerner.


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## Kolan

Maroseika said:


> I'm afraid мальчуган is absolutely bookish, I've never heard it in my life from anybody.


This is an absolutely valid Russian word, which is spoken but not necessarily popular in every region. My grandmother used this word to describe any boy under teen age.


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## Kolan

Maroseika said:


> I don't think it's a part of literary Russian. In fact it's really peculiar to the southern patoises only, and if used in other regions сlearly marks the speaker as a southerner.


People in Russia is quite mixed on a vast territory. For example, lots of Siberians came from Ukraine or Southern European portion of Russia, settled beyond the Ural Monutains and kept their regionalisms.


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## Q-cumber

Etcetera said:


> No, it isn't OK for literary Russian.
> Quite frankly, I wasn't even aware that it is used by some Russian dialects.



"— Хлопец, наверно, на Клязьме застрял..." ( _Булгаков. "Мастер и Маргарита"_)


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## Robert Paulson

Kraus said:


> Hello friends! Could you please help me to translate this sentence?
> 
> "That boy is a failure, he never dares ask anything. He was strolling in front of the pub like a fool, and after half an hour he managed to talk!"
> 
> Here's my try: "Этот мальчик никуда не годится, никогда не берет смелости и ничего не спрашивает. Он слонялся перед барем как ненормальный, и через полчаса он смог поговорить!"
> 
> Excuse me for the lack of context (the sentence is from an exercise book) and thanks in advance for your help!


I would likely say it this way:
этот парень ни на что не годится, он боится рот раскрыть. Он полчаса слонялся перед баром прежде чем что нибудь сказать.


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## Maroseika

Kolan said:


> People in Russia is quite mixed on a vast territory. For example, lots of Siberians came from Ukraine or Southern European portion of Russia, settled beyond the Ural Monutains and kept their regionalisms.


Well, maybe this word is wide spread exactly beyond Urals, but living in Moscow I've never heard this word used by the indigene any other way than a joke, playing up the southern patois.
On the other hand, another southern word - пацан - has really settled down quite well in the northern patois.


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## Maroseika

Kolan said:


> This is an absolutely valid Russian word, which is spoken but not necessarily popular in every region. My grandmother used this word to describe any boy under teen age.


Sure, it's quite valid word, but still bookish. And it's quite natural it was not such decades ago. 
However, maybe I'm wrong so let other natives clarify the matter:
Is this word really used nowadays in the spoken language (except of ironical application, of course)?


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## Emmanon82

Q-cumber said:


> "— Хлопец, наверно, на Клязьме застрял..." ( _Булгаков. "Мастер и Маргарита"_)


Hm, Bulgakov was born in Kiev ( Ukraine) and was living there for 30 years. I think he used such words intentionally


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## Emmanon82

Kolan said:


> The overall sense of the extract is negative, especially *failure*, which seems to be a keyword. Someone did not manage to complete the job, which literally translates as _недоделанный_.


 
"Недоделанный( человек)" literally doesn`t mean "тот, _*кто *_не доделыва_*ет*_", but "тот, _*кого *_не додела_*ли*_".

Russian linguists, am I right? If no, correct me.

 As for me,"недоделанный" is more negative and brutal  than "failure".


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## Etcetera

Q-cumber said:


> "— Хлопец, наверно, на Клязьме застрял..." ( _Булгаков. "Мастер и Маргарита"_)


Including dialectal words or simply words from other languages doesn't automatically make them part of the literary language.


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## Kolan

Maroseika said:


> Well, maybe this word is wide spread exactly beyond Urals, but living in Moscow I've never heard this word used by the indigene any other way than a joke, playing up the southern patois.


You know that Moscow is not fully representative for the entire Russia, especially if you study the language.


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## Kolan

Maroseika said:


> Sure, it's quite valid word, but still bookish. And it's quite natural it was not such decades ago.
> However, maybe I'm wrong so let other natives clarify the matter:
> Is this word really used nowadays in the spoken language (*except of ironical application*, of course)?


The entire phrase that we are working on now is ironical, so why not to use ironical style or ironical equivalents in translation?


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## Kolan

Etcetera said:


> Including dialectal words or simply words from other languages doesn't automatically make them part of the literary language.


You can find this particular word not only in Bulgakov's heritage, but in many modern Russian writers. It has some Ukrainian flavor, or that of _South, _so that in general use it may represent certain irony, which matches the original ironical context.


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## Kolan

Emmanon82 said:


> As for me,"недоделанный" is more negative and brutal  than "failure".


"Failure" is not a nice word either, talking about a boy. I think that these words are both negative and _brutal _in the same way.


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## Emmanon82

In my opinion:
Unsuccessful person= a failure
Slightly touched in the head, mentally ill = недоделанный


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## Kolan

Emmanon82 said:


> In my opinion:
> Unsuccessful person= a failure
> Slightly touched in the head, mentally ill = недоделанный


Literally, this boy may represent a failure of parents to do the best, which is "недоделанный", passive voice. He is innocent himself, although.


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