Thread: do nothig

Как сказать по-английски:

- Вы знали и бездействовали (как вам не стыдно)!
- Мы не бездействовали!

- You knew all and did nothing, shame on you!
- We... 'didn't do nothing' (?) <--это ведь плохо звучит?

Or, maybe 'do nothig' is just a wrong translation for бездействовать?

Originally Posted by Оля

Как сказать по-английски:

- Вы знали и бездействовали (как вам не стыдно)!
- Мы не бездействовали!

- You knew all along and did nothing, shame on you!
- We... 'didn't do nothing' (?) <--это ведь плохо звучит?

Or, maybe 'do nothig' is just a wrong translation for бездействовать?

No, I think it's a good translation.

"all along"="the whole time"
"We didn't do nothing"="We didn't do anything" but makes you sound poorly educated.

Perhaps: "We didn't sit on our hands."
Although, you could say: "We didn't not do anything." That would work fine, too, as long as you stressed "not".

Thank you, Matroskin.

How about this variant:
That's not true that we did nothing.

That variant is possible.

You could also just simply say "That's not true!"

Originally Posted by Оля

Thank you, Matroskin.

How about this variant:
That's not true that we did nothing.

in that case it would be better to say "It's no true that we did nothing." Even better: It's not true that we didn't do anything.

По-моему, лучше так:

- You knew all along and did nothing, shame on you!
- We... did not do nothing!



Ударение падает на 'not', иначе звучит неграмотно и имеет другое значение 'мы ничего не делали'.

Originally Posted by ZelyeUrsuli

Originally Posted by Оля

Thank you, Matroskin.

How about this variant:
That's not true that we did nothing.

in that case it would be better to say "It's not true that we did nothing." Even better: It's not true that we didn't do anything.

I agree with this, after I corrected a typo.

"That's" isn't wrong, exactly, but we would say "it's", usually, if there is more information to follow.

Originally Posted by basurero

- We... did not do nothing!

Eehhh Double negative?

You mean did not do anything?

Originally Posted by Dogboy182

Originally Posted by basurero

- We... did not do nothing!

Eehhh Double negative?

Eehhh... Irony, maybe? Mimicing, mocking?
Maybe it looks better this way: - We... did not "do nothing"!
("do nothing" is an action here. Kinda.)

"We did not do nothing" means "We did something".

Example.

"Why did do nothing when someone made horrible mistakes on MR?"

"I did not do nothing, I corrected them".

How is it Ironic? What is there to mock?

Btw the topic should be "do nothiNg"
Now thats ironic! Olya, Ms. I never make typos - dogboy blames his crappy russian on typos.

See it happens to the best of us.

Originally Posted by Dogboy182

"We did not do nothing" means "We did something".
[...]
"I did not do nothing, I corrected them".
How is it Ironic? What is there to mock?

Maybe I chose wrong epithets, but that's excaclty what I meant. Only I imagined a more heated conversation:

Person A: ... and you did nothing!
Person B, who obviously did something and is pissed off with the accusation: (mimicing Person 1, maybe even making faces at him ): I did not do nothing!!!

Person A: ... and you did nothing!
Person B, who obviously did something and is pissed off with the accusation: (mimicing Person 1, maybe even making faces at him Laughing ): I did not do nothing!!!

Well yes, from this its ok.

But what I got from olenka's question, this isn't what she asked for.

I'm always mixing up those silly epithets. Crazy them.

Originally Posted by Dogboy182

But what I got from olenka's question, this isn't what she asked for.

My bad. I was too lazy to scroll the page and look for the original question. I decided to answer the last one instead.

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

Originally Posted by Dogboy182

But what I got from olenka's question, this isn't what she asked for.

My bad. I was too lazy to scroll the page and look for the original question. I decided to answer the last one instead.

Yeah, I usually do that too. Infact I didn't read half of what was written, so in all practicality, I could be completely wrong. Its just how I do.

Moжет быть, я неправильно понял "мы не бездействовали"

Это не значит, что вопреки мнению первого говорящего, кто считает , что они ничего не делали, они и на самом деле постарались предотвратить плохое положение, но им этого не удалось?

mimicking

the wrong epithets

Originally Posted by basurero

Moжет быть, я неправильно понял "мы не бездействовали"

Это не значит, что вопреки мнению первого говорящего, кто считает , что они ничего не делали, они и на самом деле постарались предотвратить плохое положение, но им этого не удалось?

Правильно.

Значит.

Originally Posted by Dogboy182

Originally Posted by basurero

- We... did not do nothing!

Eehhh Double negative?

You mean did not do anything?

Yes, it's a double negative, but there are correct and incorrect double negatives depending on how you say it. Compare:

"You did nothing!" (Вы бездействовали!)
"We didn't 'do nothing'"! (Мы не бездействовали!) Correct.

"What did you do today?"
"We didn't do nothing." Incorrect double negative.
"We didn't do anything." Correct.

Italics here mean emphasis.

Originally Posted by Dogboy182

Btw the topic should be "do nothiNg"

"Do на фиг" тоже неплохо звучит.

Originally Posted by Оля

Originally Posted by Dogboy182

Btw the topic should be "do nothiNg"

"Do на фиг" тоже неплохо звучит.

Согласен!