Source
r/German•
SlumberJohn

A quick question about a translation of a sentence...

Question

I translated a sentence "Is that what the kids are calling it these days?" as "Ist dass, was die Kindern nennen es im dieser Zeit?".

However, I checked it on DeepL translator, and it translated it as "Nennen die Kinder das heutzutage so?". I reverse-translated my version of the sentence, and DeepL translated it as the original "Is this what the kids are calling it these days?".

So, my question is - is the difference just in sentence phrasing, or was I way off?

Posted Mar 4, 2020, 7:19 PM UTC

210
lila_liechtensteinNative (österreichisch). Proofreader, translator, editor.•

The DeepL translation is spot on.

9
EulmoreKid•

I was also fairly surprised!

2
GalaxyConquerorAdvanced (C1) •

Your translation is a word-for-word translation. It would be understood, but the second is more idiomatic and natural.

6
Krzktgrrrl•

[...] but the second is more idiomatic and natural.

OPs translation is, as you say, word-for-word, and it’s completely wrong, not just less natural.

4
FreedomWizardMaybe B2?•

TL;DR: just correct the grammar and spelling, the meaning is the same, but yours is a bit unnatural yet understandable

A few things:

"Ist das, was die Kindern nennen es im dieser Zeit nennen?".

However, "wie" probably works better than "was" there.

Also, I don't think "im dieser Zeit" is very natural, so I'd suggest at least using "Ist das, wie die Kindern es heutzutage nennen?". It's comprehensible, as GalaxyConqueror said, but "so" is VERY helpful and is used as a "like this" in German, so a word-by-word translation of "Nennen die Kinder das heutzutage so?" would be "Do the kids call it (like) that nowadays?". Obviously, there's no loss of information or difference in meaning.

Finally, I think "Kinder" would be strange, because I believe German speakers would think about literal children and not young people lol You could use "junge Leute" or, if you wanna a less 1:1 translation but give it a little more "young", "bro-ish" feel, you could even use "Jungs" (or "Junx"), literally the "boys", the "guys", as in your (male) friend group.

So: "Nennen die jungen Leute das heutzutage so?" (for a more "old guy" type of question) or "Nennen die Junx das heutzutage so?" (for a "are the bros calling it that?" type, may also sound too contrived, as far as I know).

(I hope I didn't overthink this, but I'm sure I did lol)

3
SlumberJohnOPWay stage (A2)•

Thank you for the thorough response! It's very helpful. I'm still at A2 level.

I translated this sentence as a sort of a joke on one of my friends Facebook posts, and I did it without much thinking. At first I was happy that I was able to translate it, but then got kind of dissapointed when I checked it on DeepL and so that it wasn't it ^^

Like I said, I didn't give the translation much thought, I just blurred it out and it sounded ok. I realise now that I translated it literally, however, it's still progress in my book, and your comment is a new lesson!

So, thank you! :D

2
FreedomWizardMaybe B2?•

I imagined it was some kind of translated joke, I still laughed because I knew what you were talking about haha xD

Honestly, these things don't translate well, but I usually make jokes about literal translations when my friends know the original reference and really think that it's WAY funnier when it's a word-by-word translation like you did haha

Glad I could help! xD

2
jimmythenewsmithProficient (C2) •

Your sentence has a few issues, the main one being that you forgot about verb to the end. Also, Zeit is feminine, so can't say im dieser. Kinder also doesn't get an n for plural. Also, when you say "die Kinder", it sounds like you have a specific set of children in mind. Your sentence could be improved like this:

"Ist dass, was Kinder es in dieser Zeit nennen?"

DeepL turns this into "Is that what kids are calling it these days?" but it's being a bit generous because you've still go the issue that "these days" is not really "in der Zeit". The DeepL translation you found is pretty good.

1
SlumberJohnOPWay stage (A2)•

Yeah, I realise I actually made quite a few mistakes. I'm still around A2 level, so even translating it (wrongly) like this was a small victory for me :D

I know it's "die Zeit", and I know "im" is actually "in + dem", and I know these two can't go together. It's just that I didn't thought about it, 'cause I need more practice. Everything is a lesson!

1
jimmythenewsmithProficient (C2) •

No worries, trust me, we've all been there!

1