# Hindi: Na mai coaching join karunga aur na hi koi test series



## Maharaj

Hi,

How to say the below sentence in English
"Na mai coaching join karunga aur na hi koi test series"


My attempt(s):
I would join neither coaching nor any test series.


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## desi4life

That sounds fine to me, or you can say "I would not join coaching or any test series."


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## aevynn

Grammatically at least, that works! A slightly more colloquial alternative would be avoiding the "neither nor" and saying "I won't join either X or Y" or even "I won't join X or Y."

That said, I don't know what this sentence means, and I suspect that most Americans would also be puzzled even if they recognize this as a grammatical sentence and understand all the individual words (I tested it with a couple around me, and they looked at me blankly). What do you mean by "coaching" and "test series"? Is this about cricket — something a professional cricket player would say when he's tired of playing cricket and is refusing to train and to play in the upcoming cricket games? Is this about something academic? If I have more context, I can try to come up with a translation that Americans would be likely to understand.


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## Maharaj

@desi4life @aevynn Thank you, Along with grammatical sentences, I want the ones for usage in day-to-day English so that I should not sound awkward or nerdy  
@aevynn could you explain me the sentences you provided, I'm unable to appreciate the meaning.
"I won't join either X or Y" Doesn't it suggest that 'he may join X or Y' but not both at the same time.


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## Maharaj

desi4life said:


> That sounds fine to me, or you can say "I would not join coaching or any test series."



Could you tell me more such translations, clearly differentiating between formal ones and informal ones?


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## Nadeem Khan

I will neither join coaching nor do any test series.

I think it is the exact translation.


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## desi4life

Maharaj said:


> Could you tell me more such translations, clearly differentiating between formal ones and informal ones?



There is nothing formal or informal about the translation. It's an ordinary sentence style that someone would use, except that the context isn't clear and may be confusing to people unfamiliar with cricket.


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## Jashn

It's not really clear to me what the meaning in Hindi is, but I would say that 'join' doesn't seem the right verb in English, to me.

Either a person would say, "I'm going for training", or, "I'm going to coach the team/the athletes/the students". One doesn't 'join' coaching, as far as I'm aware, anyway.

So I'd translate the Hindi sentence to English as,

"I'm not going for training or the test series". If the person speaking has decided not to go for training

or

"I'm not going to coach or be in the test series/participate in the test series" If the person speaking is going to train/coach others.


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## Jashn

Maharaj said:


> @desi4life
> "I won't join either X or Y" Doesn't it suggest that 'he may join X or Y' but not both at the same time.



To me, it's a simple statement that he won't do either of the activities at all. So neither the first, nor the second.

Would you understand the statement in Hindi to mean that the person could do either one of the activities but not both? That understanding would not have occurred to me in either Hindi or English, but Hindi is far from being my mother tongue, so I could be off-base.


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## Maharaj

Context: Generally to prepare for competitive exams in India one joins a coaching class and/or mock-test series.

I believe context here is not at all required, what I want to understand is how native speakers say that "they would choose neither of the options".
So please tell me. As I've repeatedly said I don't just need translations rather the sentences you daily use.


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## Maharaj

desi4life said:


> There is nothing formal or informal about the translation. It's an ordinary sentence style that someone would use, except that the context isn't clear and may be confusing to people unfamiliar with cricket.


Could you please provide more sentence styles then? What I want is sentences that one would use in day-to-day conversations, sentences that you won't sound awkward speaking.
That's why I never use the word 'translation' while asking questions.


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## aevynn

Jashn said:


> Would you understand the statement in Hindi to mean that the person could do either one of the activities but not both? That understanding would not have occurred to me in either Hindi or English, but Hindi is far from being my mother tongue, so I could be off-base.



I think the reason for the confusion might be that disjunctive constructions (either… or / या तो… या _yaa_ _to… yaa_) seems to interact with negation differently in Hindi and English (at least colloquially — by which I mean, when people aren't operating in the formal logic head space*). 

More specifically, it seems to me that we have a rough equivalence 

मैं या तो X करूँगा या Y _maiN yaa to X karuuNgaa yaa Y_ = I'll do either X or Y​
in that both _usually_ mean that I'll do one of the two but not both (… कि मैं दोनों में सो कोई एक काम तो करूँगा पर दोनों नहीं _ki maiN donoN meN se koi ek kaam to karuuNgaa par donoN nahiiN_). On the other hand,

मैं या तो X नहीं करूँगा या Y = I either won't do X or won't do Y​in that both _usually_ mean that I definitely won't do one of the two, but that I may very well do the other (… कि मैं दोनों में से कोई एक काम तो नहीं करूँगा, पर शायद दूसरा कर दूँ _ki maiN donoN meN se ek kaam to nahiiN karuuNgaa, par shaayad duusra kar duuN_). On the other hand, we have

मैं न X करूँगा न Y = I'll do neither X nor Y = I won't do either X  or Y = I won't do X or Y​in which usually both X and Y are excluded.

Point is, if you start with a sentence using "either... or" and a translation into Hindi using या तो… या _yaa to... yaa_, adding the single word "not" to the English _isn't_ the same as adding the single word नहीं _nahiiN_ to the Hindi.  
​Footnote:
* I invite corrections to any of the above! As a graduate student in math, what's "colloquial" to me as far as these things are concerned may not be exactly the same as it is for most people...
​


Maharaj said:


> What I want is sentences that one would use in day-to-day conversations, sentences that you won't sound awkward speaking.



So we have three roughly synonymous sentences

I'll neither do X nor Y.
I won't do either X or Y. 

I won't do X or Y.
None of the three is awkward. Probably native speakers of American English use construction 1 the least often in speech, but its marginal andI don't think anyone would even give it a second thought if someone used it in a conversation with them — they probably wouldn't find it awkward. That said, probably the most common thing to do in speech amongst native speakers of AmE is construction 3, with a slight emphasis placed on the word "or." 



Maharaj said:


> Context: Generally to prepare for competitive exams in India one joins a coaching class and/or mock-test series.



I guess the context wasn't the point, but the word "coach" really only gets used in AmE in the context of sports (with some very specific exceptions — eg, a teacher from whom you learn to sing is sometimes called a "vocal coach.") For academic training outside of school, we mostly use "tutor." I guess I've sometimes also heard the phrase "cram school," though I've mostly heard it used in the context of Japan and other academically intensive Asian countries — it's not something that really exists here in the US, so I'm not sure how widely understood this term would be. And then I don't know of any widely known analog to a mock-test series. 

So probably to convey this exact idea, one sentence won't suffice and you'd have to take a few sentences and do some explaining to most Americans.


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## Jashn

Thank you for that, Aevynn, it's quite helpful.

Maharaj, the context actually helps me answer your question. I thought you were talking about sports, but now I understand you're talking about academics. The vocabulary is certainly different.

Also, the vocabulary may differ in various countries that speak English, because they have different political structures and educational systems.

So! As a Canadian, I can tell you I've never even heard the term "test series" in the sense you described in your last post. People will sometimes write practice (or sample) test papers (or materials), yes, but that wouldn't usually be said in juxtaposition with coaching since it would be an activity that would be a part of what you call coaching.

As Aevynn mentioned, what Indian people usually refer to (in my experience) as tuition, Canadians call tutoring (note that "tuition" is the word usually used for private school fees or university fees in North America).

So a person may say:

"I'm not going for tutoring and I'm not writing any sample/practice tests, either".

This definitely indicates that you are not going to do both of the activities mentioned. The 'neither/nor' sentence structure in English indicates that you won't do either activity. If you want to suggest one or the other is possible, you have to use an 'either/or' type of construction.

e.g. "I'll either go for tutoring or I'll write some sample tests"

Note: in Canada, we "write" exams; in America, you "take" an exam; and in the UK, you "sit" for exams.
Test series= practice test/paper/materials or sample test/paper/materials (I don't know the term for this in America, it could be the same or different)
Coaching=tutoring


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## desi4life

@Jashn  I think in Indian English you "give" an exam (imtahaan/pariikshaa denaa). This would have almost an opposite meaning in North American and British English because to "give" an exam would mean to "administer" an exam.


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## Dib

desi4life said:


> @Jashn  I think in Indian English you "give" an exam (imtahaan/pariikshaa denaa). This would have almost an opposite meaning in North American and British English because to "give" an exam would mean to "administer" an exam.



Well, in India you'll find both in use. I certainly learned to "take an exam/test" as a school kid. Just to clarify, I didn't go to any jet-setting international school, either.


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## Maharaj

Thank you very much @aevynn your disposition has answers to all my questions. 
Thank you @desi4life and @Jashn for your helpful replies


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