這麼十拿九穩的事都让他給搞砸了，也算是個人才。

[Kenny同志]

這麼十拿九穩的事都让他給搞砸了，也算是個人才。

 

Of course, this is an irony. Is my translation below okay?

 

It's a sure thing, and only takes a talented person like him to screw it up.

[Kamille]

I'm not a native speaker but if I may, I'd go for something more like "Such an easy thing to do and yet he screws it up. This guy is a genius."

 

There are two subjects in your sentence (the second being the "it" that you ignored/chose to ignore and should be between "and" and "only"), and if I'm not mistaken, that's not allowed in English.

[Kenny同志]

There are two subjects in your sentence (the second being the "it" that you ignored/chose to ignore and should be between "and" and "only"), and if I'm not mistaken, that's not allowed in English.

 

Yes, you are correct. Thanks for your help. Your translation looks great. : )

[anonymoose]

And also, irony is not countable, so you cannot say "an irony".

[Kenny同志]

Thanks for pointing that out, Anonymoose.

 

I remember somewhere in Doris Lessing's Time Bites or Introduction to Lady Chatterley's Lover, she wrote 'What an irony!' but my memory could be wrong.

 

Anyway, according to Cambridge Dictionaries Online, 'irony' is uncountable indeed.

[Kamille]

"What an irony!" is kind of a set expression or something. Stop me if I'm wrong but I think you can also say "What a milk!" if you're a milk lover and happen to taste an very good one. Still, you can't say "a milk". Same with quite a lot of uncountables. You can basically use any of them in a "What a...!" construction.

[Kenny同志]

That's something new to me. Thanks again, Kamille.