UniLang

Anyone can post a sentence or piece of text in this topic (preferably knowing the correct answer) either in English or Finnish. Anyone who wants to can then post a translation. You can naturally post translations even if someone else already beat you to it. Also feel free to ask questions .

Kuka tahansa voi lähettää tähän viestiketjuun lauseen tai tekstinpätkän (mieluiten tietäen oikean vastauksen) joko englanniksi tai suomeksi. Kuka tahansa, joka haluaa, voi sitten lähettää käännöksen. Voit tietenkin lähettää käännöksiä vaikka joku muu ehti ensin. Kysy myös vapaasti kysymyksiä .



The first challenge:

My name is X. I'm learning Finnish. This is my first translation.

Olen Mirac.Opiskelen Suomea.Se on minun ensiksi käännös.

Alcadras wrote:Olen Mirac (or, 'minun nimeni on Mirac').Opiskelen suomea (with a capital it means Finland the country).Tämä on minun ensimmäinen käännökseni.

Next:

Over there is a car. It is yellow. I think it is a new car. I want it!

while saying first,second.. ,do we add sth. special?

What do you mean?

Mitä sinä tarkoitat?

Siellä on auto.Auto on keltainen.Mielestäni,se on uusi auto.Haluan!

how can i say "i want it!"

Alcadras wrote:Tuolla on auto.Auto on keltainen.Mielestäni se on uusi auto.Haluan sen!

"Siellä" wasn't exactly wrong, but it implies that the car is somewhere where you cannot see it.

I want it! = Haluan sen!


Next: I'll go to bed now. Good night!

(because I really must go sleep now )

Menen sänkyyn nyt. Hyvää yötä.

Menen nukkumaan nyt. Hyvää yötä!
i think

You are both right ! One can say it in either way.

Okay, translate this into English:

Kävelin hitaasti ylös. Ylhäällä näin siskoni nukkumassa nukke vieressään.

I silently went upstairs. Up there I saw my sister sleeping with a doll at her side.

Csendben felmentem. Fent láttam a húgomat/nővéremet a babájával az oldalán aludni.

(Ilman sanakirjaa! Szótár nélkül! )

CoBB wrote:I slowly went upstairs. Up there I saw my sister sleeping with a doll at her side.

Very good . Now:

"Olipa kerran joskus jossakin pieni kunigaskunta. Tämä kuningaskunta oli rauhallinen ja vauras paikka, jossa sadot olivat hyviä ja sää miellyttävä: talvet olivat lumisia eikä kesä ollut liian kuuma. Ruoho ja metsät olivat ihanan vihreitä ja järvissä ja joissa riitti kalaa. Taivaskin oli melkein aina sininen."

Heh, I was honestly thinking of 'slowly'.

Heh, komolyan „lassan”-ra gondoltam.

Let's see:

Lássuk:

Once upon a time, there was a little kingdom somewhere. This kingdom was a peaceful and well-off place, where the yields were good and the weather pleasant: the winters were snowy and the the summer wasn't too hot either. The grass and the forests were beautifully green, and there was plenty of fish in the lakes and rivers. The sky was also almost always blue.

bold: I looked it up
italic: I knew it but still checked for safety

CoBB wrote:Once upon a time, there was a little kingdom somewhere, sometime. This kingdom was a peaceful and well-off place, where the yields were good and the weather pleasant: the winters were snowy and the the summer wasn't too hot either. The grass and the forests were beautifully green, and there was plenty of fish in the lakes and rivers. The sky was also almost always blue.

Although I do realise that in English the "sometime" doesn't really go very well together with "once upon a time", so it could be left out for that reason.

Impressive ! (Though I know you always pretend to be worse at Finnish than you really are .)

In the next one I threw in a "casual verb". Who can spot it ?

"Kuningaskunnassa asui kuningas, jonka nimi oli Eerikki, ja kuningatar, jonka nimi oli Lainetar. Heillä ei ollut paljon tekemistä, sillä kuningaskunnassa meni niin hyvin, ettei heitä tarvittu. Päivästä toiseen kuningas ja kuningatar vain istuskelivat valtaistuimillaan ja söivät eksoottisia hedelmiä; mansikoita, appelsiineja, nektariineja, banaaneja ja ananaksia. Kerran viikossa kuningas ja kuningatar pitivät myös juhlat. Näihin juhliin tuli vieraita kaukaa."

ohoh i´m off for a mere week for wrapping up school and see what a nice contest has got out our revered teacher´s head

"Kuningaskunnassa asui kuningas, jonka nimi oli Eerikki, ja kuningatar, jonka nimi oli Lainetar. Heillä ei ollut paljon tekemistä, sillä kuningaskunnassa meni niin hyvin, ettei heitä tarvittu. Päivästä toiseen kuningas ja kuningatar vain istuskelivat valtaistuimillaan ja söivät eksoottisia hedelmiä; mansikoita, appelsiineja, nektariineja, banaaneja ja ananaksia. Kerran viikossa kuningas ja kuningatar pitivät myös juhlat. Näihin juhliin tuli vieraita kaukaa."

In a kingdom lived a king, whose names was Erik, and a little princess, whose name Lainetar. They didn´t have much to do because all was good in the kingdom and nothing was ever requested them. One day the king and the princess were casually sitting ( what am i awarded?) on their thrones and eating exotic fruits such as strawberries, oranges, peaches, bananas and ananas. Once a week the king and the princess held also a celebration (i don´t know but the plural doesn´t attune that well here, minusta).


Bold sentences have been rather troublesome.

Varislintu wrote:Impressive ! (Though I know you always pretend to be worse at Finnish than you really are .)

Translating from Finnish is much easier than in the other direction, and this isn't a particularly hard text, thankfully.

Finnről fordítani sokkal könnyebb, mint a másik irányba, és ez nem egy kimondottan nehéz szöveg — hála az égnek.

In the kingdom lived a king, whose name was Eerikki, and a queen, whose name was Lainetar. They didn't have much to do, things were going well in the kingdom, and it didn't need them. Day by day the king and the queen were just sitting on the thrones and ate exotic fruit: strawberry, orange, nectarine, banana and pineapple. Once a week the king and the queen also held celebrations. Guests from far away would come to these celebrations.

Note: we also have a single verb for 'istuskella', so I know precisely what it means, but I felt that's the simplest rendition in English.

Megjegyzés: nekünk is van külön igénk az „istuskellá”-ra, ezért pontosan tudom, mit jelent, de úgy éreztem, így lehet a legegyszerűbben visszaadni angolul.

these texts are hard for me,i can't translate

Alcadras wrote:these texts are hard for me,i can't translate

I have one short for you:
What a great idea, this thread!

Of course, I won`t be the one to check, if the answer is correct. I only wanted someone else to say this opinion instead of me.

Vinaok wrote:In a kingdom lived a king, whose names was Erik, and a little princess, whose name Lainetar. They didn´t have much to do because all was good in the kingdom and nothing was ever requested them. One day the king and the princess were casually sitting ( Very Happy what am i awarded?) on their thrones and eating exotic fruits such as strawberries, oranges, peaches, bananas and ananas. Once a week the king and the princess held also a celebration (i don´t know but the plural doesn´t attune that well here, minusta).

CoBB wrote:In the kingdom lived a king, whose name was Eerikki, and a queen, whose name was Lainetar. They didn't have much to do, things were going well in the kingdom, and it didn't need them. Day by day the king and the queen were just sitting on the thrones and ate exotic fruit: strawberry, orange, nectarine, banana and pineapple. Once a week the king and the queen also held celebrations. Guests from far away would come to these celebrations.

I think it's easiest to just post my version (I put the biggest corrections in bold):

"In the kingdom lived a king whose name was Eerikki, and a queen, whose name was Lainetar. They didn't have much to do, as/because things were going well in the kingdom, and they weren't needed. Day after day the king and the queen just (casually) sat on their thrones and ate exotic fruit; strawberries, oranges, nectarines, bananas and pineapples. Once a week the king and queen also held a party. To these parties guests would come from far away."




@Vinaok: beginning "in a kingdom" isn't wrong either, but if we think of this as a continuing story, "the" is better. "Juhlat" is often in plural in Finnish:

Pidän juhlat. (I'll have a party.)

Of course it could be "celebration(s)" too.

And sorry, no prise for spotting the casual verb, did I forget to mention that ?

@CoBB: I think "day by day" means more like "gradually", wheras "day after day" means "every day for a long time", which is what I meant.

Hmm, is this becoming a topic on English now? Oh dear .