# Luckily, they all have as many legs as usual



## Staarkali

Hello all,

I trying to translate a game for my friends, it's kind of riddle, the goal is to find the right number of legs. I want to express that there is no need to think over the case of a 5 legs animal or no one has lost a leg by accident either.

Fortunately, they all have as many legs as expected

I tried but I can't, I really can't...


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## Arrius

I have no idea what you mean, but
a 5 legs animal or no one has lost a leg by accident either.
should be
a five-legged (_pronounced leg-ged_) animal or one that has lost a leg in an accident either.
Sorry I can't help further. Since this is the Chinese forum, why don't you give the original Chinese?


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## kastner

Doesn't make much sense, man 

If you asking for this,
I want to express that there is no need to think over the case of a 5 legs animal or no one has lost a leg by accident either.
没必要考虑：（生来）5条腿的动物或者意外掉了一条腿的（动物）。


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## Staarkali

still, thanks for correcting me 

Anyone else got idea?


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## Staarkali

I'm afraid I am searching for the Chinese version. I tried but couldn't really make any good shot, so I came here. I don't want to ask my friends and colleagues because I want all of them to discover the riddle.

In riddle, we often eliminate the cases that are not interresting for the resolution of the riddle.
So when I first heard the riddle in French and in German, both of the two versions conclude by saying it's no use to think over the case where one of the animal has lost one or more legs.

I think it doesn't make much sense for the moment because you don't know about the whole context. So here it is:

_In a schoolbus, 7 children are driven to the school, each of them has 7 backbags, in each backbag there are 7 she-cats, each she-cat has 7 kittys. *Fortunately, they all have as many legs as expected. *_
_Question: altogether, how many legs are in the bus?_

In fact, I'm trying to translate the whole riddle, although only the last sentence is really a pain in the sss


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## kastner

他们（它们）都有正常数量的腿。


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## LikeBarleyBending

Staarkali said:


> I'm afraid I am searching for the Chinese version. I tried but couldn't really make any good shot, so I came here. I don't want to ask my friends and colleagues because I want all of them to discover the riddle.
> 
> In riddle, we often eliminate the cases that are not interresting for the resolution of the riddle.
> So when I first heard the riddle in French and in German, both of the two versions conclude by saying it's no use to think over the case where one of the animal has lost one or more legs.
> 
> I think it doesn't make much sense for the moment because you don't know about the whole context. So here it is:
> 
> _In a schoolbus, 7 children are driven to the school, each of them has 7 backbags, in each backbag there are 7 she-cats, each she-cat has 7 kittys. *Fortunately, they all have as many legs as expected. *_
> _Question: altogether, how many legs are in the bus?_
> 
> In fact, I'm trying to translate the whole riddle, although only the last sentence is really a pain in the sss


 
*Fortunately, they all have as many legs as expected. (i.e. 2 legs  for each child, 4 legs for each cat )?*
So the answer is :7x2+7x7x4+7x7x7x4=1582 legs


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## kastner

LikeBarleyBending said:


> *Fortunately, they all have as many legs as expected. (i.e. 2 legs  for each child, 4 legs for each cat )?*
> So the answer is :7x2+7x7x4+7x7x7x4=1582 legs



Staarkali 是要求翻译，不是考脑筋啦
哈哈
我悄悄地自己算了下


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## Staarkali

Thanks for the suggestion, Kastner, I will go for it. LikeBarney, no the answer is not 1582  (in your calculation, you assumed each child has 7 she-cats, and they all have 49, ie 7 she-cats in each of the 7 bags)


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## hehehehe

_In a schoolbus, 7 children are driven to the school, each of them has 7 backbags, in each backbag there are 7 she-cats, each she-cat has 7 kittys. *Fortunately, they all have as many legs as expected.*_

7个孩子乘校车去学校， 他们每个人有7个背包，每个背包里有7只母猫，每只母猫有7只小猫，很幸运，这些猫的腿的数量都正常


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## Staarkali

Thanks to the French English forum, I have a even better way to express it in English:

*Fortunately, they all have as many legs as nature intended*
If anyone got a clue how to translate that..


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## kastner

Staarkali said:


> Thanks to the French English forum, I have a even better way to express it in English:
> 
> *Fortunately, they all have as many legs as nature intended*
> If anyone got a clue how to translate that..



Hey, you don't need to look for a better translation, most Chinese will accept “有着正常数量的腿”, otherwise the translations could be incomprehensible.
In French/English you might use rhetoric in this case, but Chinese just express like that. People will lost in “很幸运，他们的腿和人们想的一样多/幸运的是，他们腿的数量很自然/非常幸运，他们的腿同自然赋予他们的一样多”


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## Staarkali

I will use the former suggestion anyway, but I was wondering how to translate at a higher level than just the basic information.


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## Wang Jing

I think 每只猫的腿不多也不少 or 每只猫都是正常的 would be the most natural.

It's not some important document, so I don't think we must strictly follow the original text. Make it simple, and easy to understand. That would be quite enough.

Anyway, translating from English to Chinese word by word would always produce an awkward result.


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## Staarkali

I totally agree, I don't want a translation verbatim, I just want that questions about the legs not to be raised.

Thanks Wang Jing for your suggestions.


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