Thread: please check my translation

1. We are drinking American wine and singing French songs.
Мы пьём американские вина и поём французские песни.

2. The English women are reading a Russian magazine.
Это англичанки женщины читают русский журнал.

Эти англичанки читают русский журнал.
Слово «женщины» не нужно, так как «англичанка» означает «женщина из Англии».

Originally Posted by SAn

Эти англичанки читают русский журнал.
Слово «женщины» не нужно, так как «англичанка» означает «женщина из Англии».

Thanks SAn. I was not certain whether or not to add женщины. As for это vs эти; would это be ok too?

Originally Posted by tohca

Thanks SAn. I was not certain whether or not to add женщины. As for это vs эти; would это be ok too?

этот = this
эти = these
те = those

это =(is roughly equivalent to)= it's

So, "это" is not going to work here, as you can't say: "It's English women are reading a Russian magazine.

Also, I'm a bit concerned about the straightforward translation of "the" into "эти" and "те". As an informal oversimplified rule, I'd suggest never translating "the" [and also an "a"] into Russian. Just skip it. You would usually have much more "Russian" text as a result:

The English women are reading a Russian magazine.
=>Англичанки читают русский журнал.

Originally Posted by Crocodile

Originally Posted by tohca

Thanks SAn. I was not certain whether or not to add женщины. As for это vs эти; would это be ok too?

этот = this
эти = these
те = those

это =(is roughly equivalent to)= it's

So, "это" is not going to work here, as you can't say: "It's English women are reading a Russian magazine.

Also, I'm a bit concerned about the straightforward translation of "the" into "эти" and "те". As an informal oversimplified rule, I'd suggest never translating "the" [and also an "a"] into Russian. Just skip it. You would usually have much more "Russian" text as a result:

The English women are reading a Russian magazine.
=>Англичанки читают русский журнал.

Thanks for the useful suggestion.
BTW, please correct me, I thought that это could also mean these (women here) or those (women there) without referring to a specific set of women out of a group of women. As opposed to "these particular group of women" - эти женщины.

Originally Posted by tohca

BTW, please correct me, I thought that это could also mean these (women here) or those (women there) without referring to a specific set of women out of a group of women. As opposed to "these particular group of women" - эти женщины.

Would you be able to post an example in English and its translation to Russian which demonstrate your approach?

Originally Posted by Crocodile

Originally Posted by tohca

BTW, please correct me, I thought that это could also mean these (women here) or those (women there) without referring to a specific set of women out of a group of women. As opposed to "these particular group of women" - эти женщины.

Would you be able to post an example in English and its translation to Russian which demonstrate your approach?

Let me try.

Those books on the table (not referring to any particular book). - Это книги на столе.
Those books (referring to some books out of a stack of books) on the table. - Эти книги на столе.

Originally Posted by tohca

Those books on the table (not referring to any particular book). - Это книги на столе.
Those books (referring to some books out of a stack of books) on the table. - Эти книги на столе.

Aha! So, that is a classic source of headache for Russians learning English.
Russians would just do away with: "Книги на столе." in both cases most of the time.

Having said that, it is also possible to say: "[Вот] эти книги на столе." in the latter case to over-stress the fact the person is POINTING to the books he's being referring to.

1. Возьми [вот] эти книги и немедленно сдай их в библиотеку.

2. - Возьми книги и сдай их в библиотеку.
- Какие книги?
- [Вот] эти книги.

And the sentence: "Это книги на столе." has a rather restrictive usage in Russian. First of all, it literally means: "It's the books on the table." Second, it's probably an answer to a question: "Что тебя так смутило?" (What made you so suspicious? -> It's the books on the table.) It doesn't sound smooth in both Russian and English, and, as you can guess, it's rather unusual in a day-to-day speech.

Спасибо, Crocodile. Это ясно.

Originally Posted by tohca

Спасибо, Crocodile. Это ясно.

You're most welcome. Also, what you just said: "Это ясно." is a direct translation of "It's clear." So, the usage of "это" is not bad at all now.

As a side note, to get a better compatibility between the two languages try to think in complete sentences. Since "it's clear" is actually a shortcut of "it's clear (=understood) to me", you'll get a much better looking Russian sentence: "Мне это понятно."

That stands out a bit because Russians use another shortcut of the same sentence: "Мне понятно."

Хорошо! Мне понятно.