selon arcticmonkey, cette phrase est non-finie.

I added it after reading your discussion. That's all I'm gonna say^^

I'm adding the tag. This type of thing may be fine in French, but it doesn't really work in English.

Also, I think it would be more common to say "a good contributor on Tatoeba" or "a good contributor to Tatoeba".

Zifre, remember to write your propositions somewhere and send them to Trang ;)

If it's not natural English, I'll delete it - I just wondered how nobody ever complained about the title of the probably most read document on Tatoeba

as far as i know, it would be natural as the title of anything and without a question mark.

i´d suggest you transform it into sth similar to the german version: "How does one become [...]?"

Well Muiriel, you can just edit it. Furthermore, he said "more common"...

>If it's not natural English, I'll delete it - I just wondered how nobody ever complained about the title of the probably most read document on Tatoeba

I have the answer: Because everybody thinks they speak a correct English when they don't!

:D :D :D

Ah, I didn't even realize it was the title.

There is no problem at all using this type of thing as a title. It can't normally be used as a statement or question.

If this "sentence" is to stay, the question mark should be removed. But then it won't be a sentence at all. My opinion is that this sentence and all the translations that use this type of infinitive where it is not natural should be deleted.

>My opinion is that this sentence and all the translations that use this type of infinitive where it is not natural should be deleted.

But not the french and spanish translations (at least...) which, according to your "non-sentence" theory, will remain untranslatable into English or German although they are perfect sentences in French and Spanish. This is grotesque, really!

They are not untranslatable, because the equivalent meaning is "How does one..." or similar. Translations are not supposed to be word-for-word. They are supposed to be natural.

zifre: just deleting them is no way of dealing with it, i think. as these sentences are complete and correct in some languages, one should find a a way to translate them. what do you as a native speaker think about the "How does one become [...]?"-version?

For this case, I would say either:

How does one be a good contributor on Tatoeba?

or:

How can I be a good contributor to Tatoeba?

I prefer the second one. Of course, there are many other acceptable options.

So if I write for example: "How to be a good contributor? That's a question everyone should ask themselves before they add their first sentence."
it's not natural English?

"How does one be" is not correct English...
It should be "How can one be..."

But Muiriel, you should in any case change "in Tatoeba" to "to Tatoeba". One contributes TO something.

I think "Tatoeba" is the location.
Well anyway, I'll wait for the answer on my last question as I don't understand how it can be natural as a title but not natural in a text and then decide if and how I change it

For a title for a page or section on guidelines on how to be a good contributor to the Tatoeba, I would recommend: "How to be a good contributor to Tatoeba." (i.e. the preposition "to" and a full stop instead of a question mark).

I also agree with Zifre that "on" would work as well, as would "at".

We already had an italian-native expert, we surely need an icelandic-native consultant, now, to clarify this ENGLISH sentence, written by a french and a german-native, that dozens of english-natives had under their noses for months and didn't see it was wrong,...

@Zifre, regarding the definition of a "sentence", you have my opinion here: http://blog.tatoeba.org/2010/08...f-content.html
So I would consider "How to be a good contributor in Tatoeba" as a sentence, but this is strictly my opinion.

On a more practical matter, I would be against deleting it because it illustrates the structure "How to + [verb] + [complement]". It's a pretty useful structure and it would be a shame not to have it in Tatoeba.

As for the "in", I personally perceive Tatoeba as a place, which why I used this preposition. Just like like I would say "How to be a good citizen in France". But perhaps "on" is more often used for websites. If more native English speakers could confirm that...

I can reassure you - I don't plan to delete this sentence anymore as it has now translations.
I changed the "in" to "on" (it's also "on facebook" for example).

Besides, I would still like to know if/why sth. like "How to be a good contributor? That's a question everyone should ask themselves before they add their first sentence." (which ios not a title^^) doesn't sound natural.

@Muiriel: I think it's a perfectly fine, natural sounding sentence (though not a style I'd personally use).

tsss...