He ordered them to release the prisoners. - English example sentence

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{{vm.sentence.expandLabel}} Fewer translations

Christophe June 17, 2012 June 17, 2012 at 12:17:56 PM UTC

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Hello CK,

Is your English sentence the translation of the Japanese one?
I had the feeling (but I might be wrong) that it would be "prisoner" (i.e. no "s").
Kind regards,
Chris.

Shadd June 17, 2012 June 17, 2012 at 2:14:54 PM UTC

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According to the logs, its first link refers to the esperanto sentence, which uses plural; japanese is the only sentence from languages I know that *could* use singular, although japanese itself doesn't make a clear distinction of number except with the use of the 達 suffix.

Anyhow, an alternative translation is legit to be made, since the japanese sentence allows for both singular and plural form to be correct translations.

Christophe June 19, 2012 June 19, 2012 at 1:56:07 PM UTC

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@CK & @Shadd.

So, I asked its opinion to a well educated Japanese friend.
Here is its answer (which maybe we could use as sentences for Tatoeba... :-) ):
訳についての質問ですが、結論から言えば、これだけでは、"prisoner" か "prisoners" かは判断しかねます。
本文の日本語では、単に「囚人」としか掛かれていないのですが、これが囚人一人なのか、複数なのかは不明です。
単数か複数かは、一般的に日本語では重要ではないです。

So, as Shadd suggested, I will just add an alternative Japanese translation.

Thanks a lot for your comments.
Chris.