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help with translation

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japanapa
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Joined: July 5th, 2008 9:35 am

help with translation

Postby japanapa » October 11th, 2008 11:17 pm

hey!
can someone help with the following translation
wakamonotachi wa kurismasu mo ochuugen ya oseibo to onajiyouni, okurimono wo suru hi to omotteriru no darouka ?
why isnt there a da before the to?
and also what does jyugyou ni tsuite ikenai mean?
also do u say toshi no naka or toshi no chuu or nen or chuu?
sorry abt the romaji!
thank you

Psy
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Posts: 845
Joined: January 10th, 2007 8:33 am

Re: help with translation

Postby Psy » October 12th, 2008 1:35 am

japanapa wrote:hey!
can someone help with the following translation
wakamonotachi wa kurismasu mo ochuugen ya oseibo to onajiyouni, okurimono wo suru hi to omotteriru no darouka ?
why isnt there a da before the to?
and also what does jyugyou ni tsuite ikenai mean?
also do u say toshi no naka or toshi no chuu or nen or chuu?
sorry abt the romaji!
thank you


若者たちはクリスマスもお中元やお歳暮と同じように、贈り物をする日と思っているのだろうか?
As for this one, it means "surely youngsters think of Christmas in the same way as o-chuugen and o-seibo, as days where you give gifts, right?" と(to) can be used as a comparison word, and と同じ(to onaji) is a common way to express "the same as." You'll also see と比べて (to kurabete, "compared with") around a lot.

授業についていけない
I had to look this one up, and "tsuite ikeru" means "to be able to keep up with." So the sentence means "cannot keep up with class."

As for the last one, I don't see anything gramatically wrong with toshi no naka, but I think nenjuu is the common one for "all year round."
High time to finish what I've started. || Anki vocabulary drive: 5,000/10k. Restart coming soon. || Dig my Road to Katakana tutorial on the App store.

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japanapa
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Posts: 7
Joined: July 5th, 2008 9:35 am

Postby japanapa » October 13th, 2008 6:52 am

thank you psy!
but for question 1,i meant why isnt there a da before to omou? because hi is a noun
and how would you translate positie verb + no darouka and negative verb +no darouka in general situations? because the generic translation which is along the lines of darouka = i wonder i use doenst always work so im looking for better ones=)
for question 3, i think it was supposed to mean in the middle of the year. Would you know what that is?
one last translation please:
terebi no supootsu nyuusu dewa, nihon no yakyuu no shiai no nyuusu yori maeni, bareebooru no nyuusu ga aru koto mo ooi.
i translated it as basically meaning, there are lots of times when they have news on volleyball than baseball games in the past
but now that i think about it, it's probably more like in sports news on tv, there are lots of times when news on volleyball is broadcast before japanese baseball matches
can you confirm that?
thank you:D

Javizy
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Joined: February 10th, 2007 2:41 pm

Postby Javizy » October 13th, 2008 10:24 am

japanapa wrote:and how would you translate positie verb + no darouka and negative verb +no darouka in general situations? because the generic translation which is along the lines of darouka = i wonder i use doenst always work so im looking for better ones=)


のだろうか can be interpreted as either 'I wonder if...', similar to かな, or as a rhetorical question indirectly expressing doubt, similar to かね. So the translation would be something like follows:

I wonder if/it's doubtful that young people see Christmas as a day to exchange gifts in the same way as, say, o-chuugen or o-seibo.

Impossible to tell which it is without context, but since there's a question mark, which is supposed to indicate rising intonation, I'm guessing it's the 'I wonder if' interpretation.

japanapa wrote:terebi no supootsu nyuusu dewa, nihon no yakyuu no shiai no nyuusu yori maeni, bareebooru no nyuusu ga aru koto mo ooi.

Your second interpretation is close, since it's in non-past, but rather than 'before baseball games', it's 'before baseball game news/reports'. Not a very eloquent sentence really with all those 'nyuusu’.

Psy
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Joined: January 10th, 2007 8:33 am

Postby Psy » October 13th, 2008 8:40 pm

Thanks for that one, Javizy. I hate it when I screw up nuances. I'd totally forgotten about darou ka having a negative, rhetorical type of nuance to it. I'm having to reach into my memory a bit here, but I think the difference between to omou and da to omou is that to omou expresses a literal quote (what you're thinking) whereas da to omou does a conviction of sorts (what you believe the fact to be). I could be completely wrong but something is nagging at my memory to that effect. Additionally, I recall that omotte iru is used for the 3rd person in this situation.

Could certainly be wrong this time, but at least I took a shot at it!
High time to finish what I've started. || Anki vocabulary drive: 5,000/10k. Restart coming soon. || Dig my Road to Katakana tutorial on the App store.

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