有创意

[Pedroski]

这个广告挺有创意的。

This ad very have creative 的

 

I would like to translate this as: 'This advert is truly creative.' 

 

In English there is a fundmental distinction between what I 'have' and what I 'am'.

 

have [something]

be [descriptive element]

 

Does this distinction also hold in Chinese? The 的 at the end of the sentence throws me a bit. Or is the sentence really:

 

'这个广告挺有创出新意的性格。'  and the author just wrote it like that to confound me?

[skylee]

'这个广告挺有创出新意的性格。'

This sentence looks clumsy and the meaning is unclear. I find it unacceptable. As to "这个广告挺有创意的。", you can drop the 的. 這個廣告挺有創意 is fine.

BTW, I think 挺 is milder than "very" or "truly".

[Pedroski]

Sorry about putting this in the wrong place at first. Thanks for the answer.

 

How would you translate 这个广告挺有创意的 if I wish to use 'this ad has' in my English version? I wouldn't  like 'This ad has creativity.'

[skylee]

I don't understand the question. Why must a Chinese sentence and its English version have the same structure?

[imron]

I would argue that it most cases it shouldn't, unless you want it to sound stilted and unnatural.

[陳德聰]

有创意 means "to be creative" so I'm not sure why it can't be translated as "this advert is pretty creative".

[Shelley]

I have seen many of your posts that all have the same sort of question "why is this not like English?"

 

Because it is Chinese and it is different.

 

IMHO you need to invest in a good Chinese grammar book and study it well.

 

In Chinese something is described as having a certain attribute.

 

This how it is, you can't change it just because you want it to be the same as English.

 

这是红色的 means "It is of red colour. The "de" at the end means the red colour belongs to "it" and is not a mistake,

 

Once you think about it, it is not so strange "The bicycle is red" is "The bicycle has red colour" to me this makes sense.

[Jennifer Chen]

'这个广告挺有创意的。' and your translation "This advert is truly creative." are quite matched. 

To do translations, it should not be done by trying to match every word (一个字一个字的对应是不对的).

English and other languages are also not matched by each elements. For example, in English, when answering 'how are you?', you say 'I am fine'. But in French, when answering 'Comment allez-vous?", the same question, you say 'Je vais bien.', meaning that I 'go' well, not I 'am' fine.

[Pedroski]

The answer I wanted was so simple:

 

This ad has style.

 

 I would not say Chinese uses 'have' all the time where English uses 'be'. That is not so.

 

I certainly do not want to change Chinese, it's lovely. I want to get behind the thought processes which result in this marvellous language. You won't get that by studying your grammar book!

[Jennifer Chen]

‘This ad has style.’ might be translated as '这个广告有个性。' or '这个广告有风格。’

[陳德聰]

"has style" is not an appropriate translation for "有创意".

[Shelley]

"I want to get behind the thought processes which result in this marvellous language. You won't get that by studying your grammar book!"

 

That is good final goal but first you must study your grammar book.

 

You can not run before you can walk.