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Help Translating This English Sentence


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Posted

https://smhttp-ssl-33667.nexcesscdn.net/manual/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/man-wearing-a-white-t-shirt-street-style.jpg

Looking at this picture, I want to translate the following English sentence into Chinese.

 

"Because he is wearing T-shirt, which is a summer clothing, so I think it is summer."

 

My attempt at translating would be 

因为他穿汗衫,汗衫是夏天的衣服,所以我觉得图片上夏天。

Posted

The English sentence is a bit clunky, you could say it this way, but it's not great to write it this way. 889's suggestion (amended as suggested by lips) says the same thing but in a better sentence.

Posted

"Because he is wearing T-shirt, which is a summer clothing, so I think it is summer."

 

我想是夏天拍的,因為他穿著汗衫,汗衫是夏天才穿的。

  • Like 1
  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

The sentence does not contain any reference to an image or a taking of an image, so it would be incorrect to include that information. At that point, you're no longer translating, but bringing in information that is not in the text.

 

On the other hand, the sentence does seem rather aimless in Chinese without a concrete reference in the last clause: "I think it is" describes a state of mind that does not work well in Chinese without an object.

 

The clunkiness in the sentence can be remedied by simply moving the article "a", so "Because he is wearing T-shirt, which is a summer clothing, so I think it is summer" becomes "Because he is wearing a T-shirt, which is summer clothing, I think it is summer." You could also say, "Because he is wearing a T-shirt, which is summer clothing, I'm thinking it is summer."

 

My translation would be “因为他穿着T恤,而T恤是夏天的衣服,所以应该是夏天。” (or 所以我觉得是夏天).

 

Google Translate comes under a lot of criticism, but it did a pretty good job here. For the original sentence, it came up with "因为他穿着一件T恤,这是夏装,我想是夏天。” Using my revised English version (the second one above), the result was "因为他穿着T恤, 这是一件夏装,所以我觉得是夏天。“

 

The Google translations made me think if 夏装 could be used instead of 夏天的衣服 (or 夏天穿的衣服), but it didn't seem quite right. 夏装 gives a sense of "that which is worn in summer," so, for example, there is the phrase 夏装的衣服, which apparently is not redundant and could be translated as "summer clothes/clothing" or "clothes worn in summer". 

Posted

I think the original sentence is clumsy and this is adding problems to the translation 

 

I suggest starting again with: I think it is summer because he is only wearing a T shirt.

  • 1 month later...
  • New Members
Posted

according to you context, here's my  translation: 因为他穿了件T恤搞得我以为这是夏天拍的,因为夏天才穿T恤啊! 

pretty native :)

  • 1 month later...
Posted
On 2016/11/18 at 0:46 AM, stevenjac said:

"Because he is wearing T-shirt, which is a summer clothing, so I think it is summer."

Can "because" and "so" be used together here?

因为他穿着夏天才穿的T恤,所以我觉得是夏天。

Posted

The original sentence as a whole isn't really good English, but it's nonetheless a realistic translation exercise since original text is often unclear or poorly written and the translator has to work out how to deal with it.

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