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Subject:Verbs for translation From:Judyth Mermelstein <Judyth_Mermelstein -at- BABYLON -dot- MONTREAL -dot- QC -dot- CA> Date:Wed, 10 Sep 1997 02:09:41 GMT
Dave Chisma asked:
>>For example, would you use: 'Printing a Report' or 'To Print a
>>Report', and why would you choose one over the other?
To a competent translator from English into any other language, it should
make no difference at all -- after all, theoretically, the person doing the
translation knows English fairly well. However, if (as is all too often the
case these days) the translation is to be done by somebody with a little
conversational English, a dictionary and some software, I would use the
infinitive since that is the form which will be found in the dictionary.
By the way, I would also eliminate the capitalization throughout the English
text. The Germans will capitalize all the nouns (but not the verbs) anyway,
the Chinese won't because they can't, and nobody in any country will know why
user documentation in English is littered with capital letters when they have
been almost completely eliminated from scientific and technical papers.
Sincerely,
Judyth
writer, editor and translator - digital information solutions
judyth_mermelstein -at- babylon -dot- montreal -dot- qc -dot- ca
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