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tanay tanay April 13, 2014, edited April 13, 2014 April 13, 2014 at 5:06:52 PM UTC, edited April 13, 2014 at 5:07:41 PM UTC link Permalink

Hello Tatoebans, how is everyone doing?
I have a question regarding translating. I don't know whether a similar question has been answered before, so here I go.

I am currently translating sentences to Bengali. I am a bit confused about sentences containing different grammatical persons because of the fact that Bengali verbs are inflected for person and honour.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be...grammar#Person

So, while translating a sentence like this:
I think he will be glad to see you. (http://tatoeba.org/eng/sentences/show/71169)
the equivalent Bengali translations would be:
আমার মনে হয় সে তোমাকে দেখে খুশি হবে।
আমার মনে হয় তিনি তোমাকে দেখে খুশি হবেন।
আমার মনে হয় ও তোমাকে দেখে খুশি হবে।
আমার মনে হয় উনি তোমাকে দেখে খুশি হবেন।

This gets even complicated for some other sentences.

So my question is do I add all the possible translations (which could be up to 6 sentences in Bengali)?

Thank you in advance.

--- Tanay

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Selena777 Selena777 April 13, 2014 April 13, 2014 at 5:55:22 PM UTC link Permalink

Yes, you can add as many versions of translation, as you want.

sabretou sabretou April 13, 2014 April 13, 2014 at 7:01:59 PM UTC link Permalink

Absolutely! You should add as many translations as you can. I've seen some English sentences with a dozen (or two) translations in Italian or French.

Guybrush88 Guybrush88 April 13, 2014 April 13, 2014 at 7:59:24 PM UTC link Permalink

yes, you can add every translation you want if you see a sentence that can be said in different ways in another language. i'm doing this with italian. every time i see a sentence that can be said in different ways in italian, i add all the possible versions i come up with

tanay tanay April 14, 2014 April 14, 2014 at 10:42:36 AM UTC link Permalink

Thanks a lot for your suggestions. :)

tanay tanay April 14, 2014 April 14, 2014 at 4:25:59 PM UTC link Permalink

Ok, so here is a more complicated translation. This English sentence (http://tatoeba.org/eng/sentences/show/15832) could be translated in 8 different ways in Bengali, they being different from one another by one or two words!! I have given all the translations, so please have a look and tell whether that is a good thing to do. I am still confused about what to do. :(

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marcelostockle marcelostockle April 14, 2014, edited April 14, 2014 April 14, 2014 at 4:40:12 PM UTC, edited April 14, 2014 at 4:41:15 PM UTC link Permalink

That is the right thing to do.
Tatoeba's Graph representation is useful in modelling inter- or intra-language subtle relations.

For example, you could also link all Bengali sentences you may use in the same context (formality, gender, number, etc.) to each other. And even with more languages.

The rule of thumb is "would this be a right thing to say in this precise context and meaning?". This way, even word-to-word matches aren't so significant.

Guybrush88 Guybrush88 April 14, 2014 April 14, 2014 at 4:43:58 PM UTC link Permalink

yes, that's the best thing to do, in my opinion. i find it quite useful to add the possible ways to say a single sentence, if it might change according to the context

tanay tanay April 15, 2014 April 15, 2014 at 4:27:05 AM UTC link Permalink

Thanks again for your replies.

sabretou sabretou April 15, 2014 April 15, 2014 at 9:12:48 AM UTC link Permalink

I absolutely know that sheepish feeling when you add several translations and wonder if maybe you're doing something wrong. But don't worry, you can link a million translations if the translations themselves are correct.