# If you learn a new language, your memory and analitical skills will improve substantially.



## arnold99

Hello everyone.

I'm trying to translate the following sentence:



> If you learn a new language, your memory and analitical skills will improve substantially.



Here's my attempt to translate it:



> Pokud se naučíte nový jazyk, paměť a analytické schopnosti výrazně zlepší.



Do you think it's translated properly?


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## Enquiring Mind

Hi arnold99. I'm not a native Czech speaker, but I've been living here for many years, and I can tell you that the translation is not good. Google Translate obviously copied your version , and in fact this version as it stands shows why translation machines should be avoided like the plague, and will never in a million years replace competent linguists.  I will leave it to the natives to suggest an idiomatic version in Czech, but this version shows some of the shortcomings of translation machines, which can do little more than dictionary-equivalent word substitution and can't handle semantics other than at a very basic level.

(1) The "if" is not really a conditional "if" (as in "if you don't hurry up, you'll miss the train") and can't, in my opinion, be rendered by "pokud" here. I'd say "Tím, že se učíte ...", in other words "*by* (virtue of) learn*ing* ..."
(2) "Naučíte" is perfective, and the sense here calls for an imperfective verb, not a perfective one. You are talking about the process of learning a language, not the end result of "getting a language learned".
(3) "Nový" for the English "new" strikes me as awkward (though not impossible) here in Czech. The language itself is not "new" (did someone just invent it?), it is "new" to the learner. What the English really means here is a "foreign language" or "another language".
(4) The version as given doesn't render "your", it doesn't pin the "memory and analytical skills" to "you". So you need something to indicate possession, but it won't be the possessive adjective "váš", it will be the short form "possessive dative" pronoun "si".
(5) "Zlepší" in your version (that Google copied ) doesn't work, because it's the transitive form of the verb, in other words it means the memory and analytical skills will improve something else, not improve (themselves) in an intransitive or reflexive sense.

So wait for the natives. I just thought this was a very good example of some of the pitfalls of using a translation machine.


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## Mori.cze

I think Enquiring Mind is a little bit too harsh: all his points except the last one are just awkward stuff, not real errors. If you correct that one getting
"Pokud se naučíte nový jazyk, paměť a analytické schopnosti _*se*_ výrazně zlepší," you get an usable sentence, though it bears clear traces of being translated from English. 
Enquiring Mind's point (4) is rather important too, so "Pokud se naučíte nový jazyk, *Vaše* paměť a analytické schopnosti _*se*_ výrazně zlepší," (unmistakable English origin) or "Pokud se naučíte nový jazyk, *výrazně si zlepšíte paměť a analytické schopnosti*" are better, but still nowhere near good.

To produce a real, unawkward translation I could use more context.
(My biggest trouble is the "if" part. Somehow I do not quite like the suggestion of Enquiring Mind, not really sure why or how to improve it.)
I can imagine a good rendering might change the structure completely, maybe to something like "Learn a new language now! Your mental abilities will thus improve."


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## arnold99

Thank you very much! And how could I say "Learn a new language now and your mental abilities will improve"?


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## Mori.cze

Maybe "naučte se další jazyk, zlepšíte si tak paměť a analytické schopnosti" or "začněte se učit další jazyk, zlepšíte si tak paměť a analytické schopnosti."
The first one refers to a result state of a new language being learned, the latter literally says "Start to learn next language" -- in the context I presume this version is preferable (in my opinion at least).


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## arnold99

Okay! Thank you very much!


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