Thread: how would it be in English?

I always have a hard time to say in English something like this:

Наш отпуск в Нью Орлеансе был бы лучше, если бы не Щугор болл.

или

Если бы не моя мама, мы все еще жили бы в старом доме.

Спасибо.

'Наш отпуск в Нью Орлеансе был бы лучше, если бы не Щугор болл.'

'Our holiday in New Orleans would have been better if it hadn't been for the Sugar Bowl.'
'But for the Sugar Bowl, our holiday in New Orleans would [have] be[en] better.'

(It would help if I knew what a Sugar Bowl was.)

'Если бы не моя мама, мы все еще жили бы в старом доме.'

'But for my mother, we would still be living in our/the old house.'
'If it weren't for my mother, we would still be living in our/the old house'.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding the Russian entirely, but I'm pretty sure that 'если бы не' is close in meaning to 'but for'. My translations may be wrong, but they're grammatical .

The Sugar Bowl is a major champoinship football game between 2 highly ranked American College teams. I believe Sugar Bowl is the name of the trophy, but thats what the game is called as well. There are others, like the Orange Bowl, and the most famous, the Rose Bowl. Now there are many "bowl games", and many have corpoate names. They happen during the Christmas season.

Joysof, thanks a lot.

As for me both situations look the same - they happend in the past. Why do you use Perfect tence with the Sugar Bowl and simple tence with Mom? Can I say: "If it hadn't been for my mom we would have been living in the old house"?

You also use "But for..." only in the beginning of the sentence. Can I put it in the middle - "Our holiday in New Orleans would [have] be[en] better, but for the Sugar Bowl"?

Both of your sentences make perfect sense in English.

Yeah, dammit, even I know what the Sugar Bowl is, although I still don't understand why Americans don't take their dirty shoes off when they walk around their nicely carpeted houses. Joysof, you should go to a Great American Barbecue. It involves grilling hamburgers and another non-barbecue items and drinking lots of beer and eating potato salad. I think there has to be a big flag somewhere too. That's what AMERICANS do, dammit, because we're better than you. You don't have "Great English Barbecues", do ya? Do ya? And tomorrow I'm going to visit the new pizza store that opened in my town, Great American Pizza. You know it's good because it's American, dammit, and their logo is a big flag. AMERICANS also produce the best quality hand tools. I know that because I read it in an ad for Craftsman tools, which are used to fix "the stuff that WASN'T made in America."

I feel a sudden urge to chide those who don't support the war in Iraq. Why, don't you know Iraq and the Taliban would have sent paratroopers to invade small Midwestern towns and convert the local population to Islam? Thanks to our AMERICAN troops, however, we still have the freedom to drive cars, buy groceries, send our kids to BBC, and have Great AMERICAN barbecues.

Originally Posted by Pravit

Yeah, dammit, even I know what the Sugar Bowl is, although I still don't understand why Americans don't take their dirty shoes off when they walk around their nicely carpeted houses. Joysof, you should go to a Great American Barbecue. It involves grilling hamburgers and another non-barbecue items and drinking lots of beer and eating potato salad. I think there has to be a big flag somewhere too. That's what AMERICANS do, dammit, because we're better than you. You don't have "Great English Barbecues", do ya? Do ya? And tomorrow I'm going to visit the new pizza store that opened in my town, Great American Pizza. You know it's good because it's American, dammit, and their logo is a big flag. AMERICANS also produce the best quality hand tools. I know that because I read it in an ad for Craftsman tools, which are used to fix "the stuff that WASN'T made in America."

I feel a sudden urge to chide those who don't support the war in Iraq. Why, don't you know Iraq and the Taliban would have sent paratroopers to invade small Midwestern towns and convert the local population to Islam? Thanks to our AMERICAN troops, however, we still have the freedom to drive cars, buy groceries, send our kids to BBC, and have Great AMERICAN barbecues.

This is the best post on this board.

It's a shame to think that some Americans really do think like this.

Who will join me and pravit in the glorious spetsnaz to combat those dastardly islamic-commie-nazi heathens. I would advise you to join the american military, but, 95% of that money just goes to George Bush's cocain habbit.

Originally Posted by Pravit

Joysof, you should go to a Great American Barbecue.

Barbecues are, of course, one of the twin scourges of civilisation, wreathed fully formed and throbbing in the womb of hellish Megaera (and they say there's no place in the modern world for a pouter with a classical education). The other being salted popcorn. Do they serve salted popcorn at an American Barbecue? Are the fences whitewashed, Huck Finn-wise? And what is a 'linebacker', for Christ's sake?

Have never been more grateful to have been born a European.

Originally Posted by Jasper May

It's a shame to think that some Americans really do think like this.

I don't know any that do. Well, except the part about barbeques.

Do they serve salted popcorn at an American Barbecue?

My dear Joy Sof or joysof, whichever you would like to be called, I forget, dear me, I cannot think of anything more un-American than salted popcorn. What is such an invention? Surely you know that popcorn is only eaten in movie theatres and while viewing football games(in particular that great pinnacle of every year in American life, the Super Bowl).

Are the fences whitewashed, Huck Finn-wise?

You can have whitewashed fences, stone walls, or no walls, but methinks the best place to hold a Great American Barbecue would be in a big park where you and all of your Uncle Herbs and Aunt Lindas and all of their children and your pretty cousin Lindsay can congregate and eat hamburgers and play football. Honestly, what is the American fascination with telling me all about their stupid family?

And what is a 'linebacker', for Christ's sake?

Oh dear, I'm afraid I don't know either. American football games confuse me. Hell, even tennis confuses me. What's with all the "Love"s and massive gains in points? Perhaps if I actually sat down and watched I'd understand. But as for linebackers I believe they are very big men who back the line - oftentimes you see football players forming a big lines facing each other in a game and then they try to tackle each other.

As for Americans thinking like that, there are some rather humorous gems in the "Editorials" section of my local newspaper, such as women in their fifties yapping about the Taliban taking away their freedom and making them pray to Mecca if it hadn't been for American troops and that crusading knight in shining armor Dubya. But most people who write into that page are rather opinionated anyway. Most people I know don't think like that.

And does anyone know why Americans don't take their dirty shoes off when going into a house?

By the way, I think Lindzi would make a rather pretty cousin to have. *incestual sigh...*

Originally Posted by Pravit

Surely you know that popcorn is only eaten in movie theatres and while viewing football games(in particular that great pinnacle of every year in American life, the Super Bowl).

where you and all of your Uncle Herbs and Aunt Lindas and all of their children and your pretty cousin Lindsay can congregate and eat hamburgers and play football.

And does anyone know why Americans don't take their dirty shoes off when going into a house?

What's the fascination with american football anyway. What ever happened to baseball...it used to be called the "national pasttime" and now, people always talk about football, or basketball, or horseshoes.... **crawls into a corner and cries**

And Americans don't take off our shoes cause we're lazy and don't care about taking care of our homes as much as we should.

i always take off my shoes before coming inside...

also, i am joining the US Army as an officer, everyone who is in my JROTC unit (a military type thing in highschool) knows that all this stuff about "protecting our freedom" and "every soldier is a hero protecting America" is a bunch of soccermom bullcrap. Only idiots think that Iraq can endanger our freedom, yes a small country where every household has an AK-47 and no means of attacking the US (except for those unknown WMD) can hurt us. *sarcastic eye roll*

I dont know about you, but i don't think Iraq and Al Queada would have been a serious threat to the USA or world. In conclusion, you don't need a machine gun nest in your attic window preparing for invasion because some guy with a gun and mustache doesnt like America, yet he likes our movies and music. (saddam's favorite movie is The Godfather and i read somewhere he likes Britney Spears). We go to war because we are the world's 911 rescue force, not because we think everything is a direct threat to freedom (soccer moms think that).

I dont know about you, but

My dear friend, there is such a thing known as sarcasm, and oftentimes you will notice it emanating from me in the form of rather silly posts. However, kudos on explaining the obvious.

Originally Posted by Pravit

And does anyone know why Americans don't take their dirty shoes off when going into a house?

Because you what they are tracking in is GOOD GOD-GIVEN AMERICAN DIRT and you should be GRATEFUL to have it all over your carpets! At least it is not SAND!

Originally Posted by Good God-fearing Pravit

By the way, I think Lindzi would make a rather pretty cousin to have. *incestual sigh...*

my mom makes me take my shoes off.

Originally Posted by Dogboy182

my mom makes me take my shoes off.

I bet your mom's a Commie.

ROFLMAO oh Линдзи that made my day...

Originally Posted by Линдзи

Originally Posted by Dogboy182

my mom makes me take my shoes off.

I bet your mom's a Commie.

No, no, no. Niet. She is an Anti-Commie. Them French are the Commies, but they next to sleep in their shoes. They are die-hard Commies, ‘cause I guess they always die with their boots on. Or in.