Quiz Time - Round Two Answers!

Right then ladies and gentlemen, pens down! Following last week’s scintillating batch of brain-busters, let’s have a look at the answers do some explaining. Onwards!

Questions one and two were multiple-choice vocab tests. The correct answers are:

1) The pyramids in Egypt are a) monuments, b) statues, c) alien spaceships. (Although Stargate fans know that answer (c) also holds water).

2) Adam Mickiewicz in Kraków rynek is a a) menorah, b) memorial, c) statue.

The sometimes subtle differences between memorials, statues and monuments can be summarised thusly:

-        Monuments for super-large objects, Wonders of the World etc – think of the adjectival form, monumental.

-        Statues for smaller objects; figures of people etc. Think Lord Nelson atop his column in London’s Trafalgar Square, or Adam M. In Kraków rynek.

-        Memorials for any size object (although usually they’re quite large) which specifically serves to remind viewers of a person or event – think war memorials, or the Fallen Shipyard Workers’ memorial in Gdańsk.

Question three was also a vocab test, and stems from the fact that all too often I see plain vanilla ‘author’ instead of the proper, correct noun for describing artists etc. The correct answers were:

3) Beethoven was a composer. Renoir was an artist.  Nabokov was an author. Wit Stwosz was a sculptor. Katarzyna Kozyra is a/an video artist/multimedia artist/yadda yadda.

Yes, you can use author as a verb, and it’s quite a classy usage. But nine times out of ten, you will need to use the correct job description. Using it as a universal, blanket replacement is not good!

Okay, question four is a real bugger. Some of you know this, some of you don’t. This is one of the standard questions on my próbka for new translators, and often, although they understand the difference, they can’t explain it correctly. So:

4) Right or wrong: In this question, we’re comparing e.g. and i.e.
a) More precise equipment, e.g. a Lego microscope adjusted to this type of scanning, is
    required before further proof can be given. wrong! (correct answer is i.e.)
b) Ready-made, individual servings of pre-packaged desserts, i.e. the small potted trifles,        
    puddings and jellies you can find in Tesco, are often of variable quality. wrong! (correct
    answer is e.g.)

In a nutshell, e.g. is for giving lists of examples, and i.e. is used to clarify information just given. So, (a) is i.e. because all the info following “More precise equipment” specifies in more detail exactly what kind of equipment might be used. In (b), e.g. is correct, because first of all we make a statement about the quality of desserts, and then we give a list of examples of the kinds of desserts we mean.

Question five is something we’ve covered in detail previously (here):

5) Right or wrong: In this question, we’re comparing inform and announce.
a) ‘We would like to inform that the destination of this bus has changed.’ wrong! (Announce is the correct answer)
b) Poznan City Hall would like to announce that its coffers are now full, and that it will not be applying for any more funds. correct!

Question six is another sore spot, for translators of all ranks and flavours, and again it’s something that many of you who know this, know it without really understanding why, so make a note of this one:

6) Right or wrong: 
a) Before he blew himself up, my father always said, ‘It’s worth to remember which wire is live, and which is neutral’.
b) It’s worth to look like you’re interested in what he’s saying, even when you’re not.

What you need to remember is that, essentially, we can’t use the phrase it is worth….  without a verb in the present participle, e.g. it is worth remembering which wire…, it’s worth looking like you’re interested… etc. (Unless we say it is worth it to…., in which case, spoko.

 

The joke here is that I originally used this explanation in a translator seminar in response to the fact that one or two of the more recidivistic translators had a tendency to paint eyeballs on their eye lids and fall asleep as soon as I’d begun... :D

Question seven is something for the art lovers and culture vultures to remember:

7) Odd one out: One of these geniuses is wrong...
a) Beethoven, Strauss, Chopin, Haendel, Vivaldi.

The accepted English spelling is... Handel!

Finally, question eight tasked you with sharpening a crayon and applying it to the nearest wall in order to correct some faulty phrasing...

8)  a) Funding will eventually reach a whole-country scale throughout the EU.
     b) Everywhere where you go, bicycle routes criss-cross the lanes and roads.
     c) Global warming is an undeniable issue. Conservatory efforts by world governments are 
       few and far between.

Junior mistakes, but ones that must be made on the road to wisdom. In (8a), we must remember never to use size-hyphen-noun constructions (whole-country, all-nation etc), but instead the proper adjectives – local, regional, national, international, global etc etc. (8b) uses unnecessary, ungrammatical, un-lovely repetition (everywhere where) instead of the correct everywhere that, and (c) is explained here.

Phew! So how did you do? If you were here last week you’ll recall that I invited you to email or Facebook your answers, and one plucky reader did just that! Congratulations to Adam Ł in Warszawa who got all but one right (4a Adam!), and even provided an alternative, correct answer to 8! You can see what he thought of that over here. In the meantime, a suitcase full of unmarked Monopol money is on it’s way north!

Quiz Time - Round Two

Hello and welcome to another round of The Bad Quiz! Following Round One, it's time once again to see if everyone's been paying attention. Not too many questions to deal with, but they're a nice mix of things we've covered since the last time, plus a few new things, just to keep you all on your toes.

I can't promise this won't be a total cake-walk for some of you, but if it at least raises a smile, then that's enough for me. So, enough with the preamble, and on with the show!

Vocabulary: Pick the right word (1-2), fill-in the correct answer (3)
1) The pyramids in Egypt are a) monuments, b) statues, c) alien spaceships.
2) Adam Mickiewicz in Kraków rynek is a a) menorah, b) memorial, c) statue.
3) Beethoven was a ______. Renoir was an ______.  Nabokov was an ______. Wit Stwosz was a ______.  Katarzyna Kozyra is a/an ______.

4) Right or wrong: In this question, we’re comparing e.g. and i.e.
a) More precise equipment, e.g. a Lego microscope adjusted to this type of scanning, is required before further proof can be given. 
b) Ready-made, individual servings of pre-packaged deserts, i.e. small pots of budyn or yoghurt, are often of variable quality.

5) Right or wrong: In this question, we’re comparing inform and announce.
a) ‘We would like to inform that the destination of this bus has changed.’ 
b) Poznan City Hall would like to announce that its coffers are now full, and that it will not be applying for any more funds.

6) Right or wrong:  
a) Before he blew himself up, my father always said, ‘It’s worth to remember which wire is live, and which is neutral’.
b) It’s worth to look like you’re interested in what he’s saying, even when you’re not.

7) Odd one out: One of these geniuses is wrong...
a) Beethoven, Strauss, Chopin, Haendel, Vivaldi.

8) Re-write: Correct the faulty phrasing.
a) Funding will eventually reach a whole-country scale throughout the EU.
b) Everywhere where you go, bicycle routes criss-cross the lanes and roads.
c) Global warming is an undeniable issue. Conservatory efforts by world governments are few and far between.

Okay, enough already! Do it on your own there, and if you’re feeling really brave, email me your answers to jimcole940 (AT) gmail DOT com, or post them on our FaceBook page. The one with the most right answers wins the Internet! Answers and discussion next Wednesday. :)

Quiz Time! Round One: Answers, Discussion

Welcome back friends, did you take a moment to do the quiz last week? We’ll have a fresh set for you next time, but for now let’s have a look at Round One.

To make life easier, here are the original questions:

1) Funding will eventually reach a whole-country scale throughout the EU.

2) The plans of the City Hall include modernisation of the ring road.

3) Popovic was proud to announce that an all-country team of experts would be examining the case.

4) We would like to inform that the 13.00 bus to Olsztyn has been cancelled.

5) Since joining the EU, more and more beers of the brewery are selling overseas.

6) They are, without a doubt, one of the best in Europe dance teams, and all totally hot!

7) The tears of the angel dripped onto her feet as she sat alone on the swing.

8) Parking of 6-axle vehicles in the nearest area of the Old Town is prohibited.

Now let’s look at each one together. Remember that these are all based on common examples of mistakes in EN translations, and translators of all kinds can make them. So:

(1,3) Any time we have this idea of mass coverage, there are a number of ways we can put it. To begin with, we can stay close to the broken whole-country by saying country-wide, nation-wide, city-wide, Europe-wide, X-wide etc. This should be easy to remember. Note that beyond a continental scale, we wouldn’t say necessarily say planet-wide unless is was for a specific effect, but would instead go to global and its friends.

We can also use some handy one-word synonyms – national, international etc. (‘A team of international experts has been assembled to tackle the problem’, ‘Funding will reach a national level throughout the EU.’).

(2,5) What we're talking about here are the weird noun-preposition-noun phrases, the ‘thing of a thing’ stuff. This is actually quite a big can of robaky which we’re going to open in detail at some later date (or sooner if at least one of you writes and asks for it :). In the meantime, instead of saying Duration of trip, consider saying Trip duration  instead. Instead of putting According to directives of the EU..., consider According to EU Directives... .

The second album of the band was well received is to be avoided in favour of The band’s second album was well received, and so on and so on itd itp.

(4) As discussed earlier, inform always needs a subject, we can never just inform about or inform that. If you can’t or don’t want to extrapolate a subject, use announce instead. So, ‘We would like to inform you / announce that the 13.00 bus to Olsztyn has been cancelled’ is our friend here.

(6) Something similar to (1,3), we sometimes make our lives more complicated, and our sentences longer than need be, by not using a simple adjective. Here, best in Europe dance teams should be simply written as best European dance teams. The rule of thumb for good, flowing English is that less is more. If you can get in the habit of thinking of your English sentences as short bursts from a machine gun, rather than the sustained artillery fire of their Polish counterparts, you’ll be several giant steps closer to being an ‘invisible translator’. (Although see below for a caveat).

(7) A tricky one this (by the way, is anyone else sick of seeing ‘tricksy’ everywhere post-Peter Jackson LoTR film trilogy? Certainly in the English press it’s been picked up as a hot word by journos of all kinds, from highbrow arts press to tabloid ‘red tops’. Yuk, I wish they’d stop). Err, yes, sorry.

Anyway, on the surface this looks like it belongs with (6), but in fact it’s okay as it is since it’s hard to imagine a context for this other than art or literature, where it would be okay to use a slightly more long-winded phrasing.

Although this may seem to fly in the face of the advice above about being short ‘n sweet, there is a definite distinction between the faulty phrasing found in (1,3,6) (which can appear in any text) and what we have here (which is okay in a poetic, literary, artistic text). Again, something we’ll come back to, but in the meantime try to think of it as being ‘Okay because the context said so’, if that makes sense.

(8) As the Notorious Drab said in the comments here, vicinity is the Highlander* of synonyms for saying in the area of or it’s faulty, frightening  friend in the nearest area of (bleeee). Remember this word; let it in to your lives and it will serve you well.

Okay, next week, new questions and from now on I’ll be asking you to post an answer or two in the comments, or maybe to offer a key explanation of something. After a few weeks of that, whoever has the most right will win a prize. And if nobody does it, I’ll win a prize instead, yay! :D

* i.e. “There can be only one!”

Quiz Time! Round One

As if using your eyeball-brain interface to digest words from a computer screen while simultaneously operating a sandwich with your hand-mouth-stomach  assembly wasn’t already interactive enough, how about doing a quiz at the same time!

Listed below are 8 sentences in English which all either retain their Polish structure in places, or use wrong or wrongly phrased vocabulary in place of correct synonyms. Your mission is to re-write these eight Polglish hybrids into bowler-hatted, tea-drinking English. You can do this in your head, you can copy and paste them into a text file or Word doc, or you can just abandon the whole silly thing and go for a walk.

Next week, we’ll go through them together and look at why they’re wrong and how we can fix them. In the meantime, good luck and have fun!

Psychic Bonus: Write your corrected version of number 8 in the comments section and if you use the same single word that I’m thinking of to fix it, international notoriety will be yours!

1) Funding will eventually reach a whole-country scale throughout the EU.

2) The plans of the City Hall include modernisation of the ring road.

3) Popovic was proud to announce that an all-country team of experts would be examining the case.

4) We would like to inform that the 13.00 bus to Olsztyn has been cancelled.

5) Since joining the EU, more and more beers of the brewery are selling overseas.

6) They are, without a doubt, one of the best in Europe dance teams, and all totally hot!

7) The tears of the angel dripped onto her feet as she sat alone on the swing.

8) Parking of 6-axle vehicles in the nearest area of the Old Town is prohibited.