Czech-English Translation Problems - Recently Updated Pages

032 Headings and titles

zehrovak — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 17:51:48 CDT

There is often a difference between English and Czech usage in the way titles and headings are dealt with in business, academic and other formal domains. For example, Czech diagram or graph titles will often include a 'lead-in word' like 'popis', 'graf' or some other description of basic function, which would normally be taken as implicitly understood by an Anglophone and which thus might sound rather plodding in literal translation. Streamline where possible.

Tabulka 3 - Struktura ruské výroby autobusů - Table 3 - Russian bus production
Přehled znaků užitých v synoptických tabulkách - Symbols used in synoptic tables
Vymezeni cilu vyzkumneho zameru - Research Plan objectives

Other examples of streamlining in titles:
Casovy harmonogram reseni vyzkumneho zameru - Research Plan schedule
Personalni zabezpeceni - Personnel

018 Aspectual verb forms

zehrovak — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 04:56:08 CDT

In Functional Sentence Perspective , Jan Firbas says, "it is worth noticing that an English adverb of indefinite time that has been framed in could be more readily rendered into Czech by an aspectual verb form than one that occurs outside the frame, serving as a setting or a specification".
V lete chodival na dlouhe prochazky.
He usually went for long walks in summer.

040 Rozsireni X o Y = Inclusion of Y in X

zehrovak — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 06:20:31 CST

The idea <rozsireni/obohaceni apod Y o X> can sometimes be reformulated as <the inclusion of X in Y>. This change of perspective can facilitate the flow of ideas, with INCLUDE either replacing or complementing the dictionary-equivalent translation.

Nabidka tematickych magazínu vysílanych jednou tydne se rozrostla o sobotni Nebesky cestopis venovany astronomii a meteorologii.
Our range of special-subject magazine programmes broadcast once a week now includes the Saturday programme Heavenly Travelogue on astronomy and meteorology.

S ohledem na to, že v posledních letech máme provozy nejen v ČR , ale i v Maďarsku a na Slovensku, je činnost údržby rozšířena o tyto provozy.
We have built up operations over the last few years not only in the Czech Republic, but also in Hungary and Slovakia, and maintenance activity now covers these operations too.

Na rozdíl od publikované disertace je však nově vydaná kniha obohacena o postbyzantské období,
In contrast to the published thesis, however, the newly published book has been enlarged to include the post-Byzantine period,

V literarni casti Kalendare byly vydavany povidky, basne a pouceni pouze od zenskych autorek.
The literary section of the Almanac included short stories, poems and advice pieces written by women alone.

In Slovak too:
V posledných dvoch rokoch spoločnosť Kofola významne rozšírila svoje produktové portfólio o nové kategórie nápojov
Over the last two years, Kofola has substantially expanded its product portfolio to include new beverage categories

006 Hyponyms and hyperonyms

zehrovak — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 05:40:29 CST

One of the differences I find between Czech and English in the lexical sphere is that of the greater or lesser degree of specificity used in referring to certain objects, i.e. the use of hyponyms and hyperonyms.

Consider, in your typical French thriller, when a robber enters a bank, bystanders shout, "Attention, il a un revolver". Now it would stand out a mile if you translated with the same degree of specificity. Of course, English has a word for revolver, but the more general word "gun" would be more appropriate here. In Czech, we would be even less specific and shout "Pozor, ma zbran", or "je ozbrojen".

Likewise, if I need something to write with, in Czech my first reaction would be "mas propisku?". English can certainly give an exact rendering - "ball-point pen" or "biro", but I would suggest that in most cases we would use the more general category of "pen". Other examples that come to mind are "automat", used for any device from a cash dispenser to a fruit machine, perhaps "prasek" where Anglophones would perhaps often use the brand-name of the medication (maybe this goes for a lot of other consumer goods too), "curtains", where a Czech would differentiate "zavesy" and "zaclony", "sign" which covers everything from "znamka", "znak" and "znameni" to "stopa" and "odznak", and then there is the classic case of mushrooms and toadstools. Any Czech would take one look at your average indeterminate fungoid growth and tell you exactly what variety of boletus it is.

042 Participle phrases replaced by simple prepositions

zehrovak — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 05:29:43 CST

Another case where word-for-word translation might sometimes sound bombastic:

Znacna cast prezentaci byla venovana tomuto tematu
A considerable number of the presentations were on this subject

Sluzba Hotline je urcena pro vsechny uzivatele ve spolecnosti X at uz z Ceska, Slovenska nebo Maďarska.
The Hotline Service is for all X users, whether in the Czech Republic, Slovakia or Hungary.

policky pro umisteni prirucnich zavazadel
racks for hand luggage / hand-luggage racks

Slovak
Na zaklade prieskumu zameraneho na znalost' znaciek stresnych krytin
On the basis of research into roofing brand knowledge,

Spolocnost' X dosiahla pocas svojej historie viacero vyznamnych oceneni, ktore sa casto tykali aj produktov, ktore vyraba.
Over its history, X has won several important awards, often for the products that it makes.

V 30-tych a 40-tych rokoch si X upevnovala svoju pozíciu na trhu. Na trh boli uvedene nove vyrobky urcene muzom,
During the 1930s and 1940s, X consolidated its position on the market, introducing new products for men,

Simple English prepositions can sometimes do the work of other more complex Czech phrases:

vyvstala take nutnost vytvorení noveho nazvu, vzhledem k tomu, ze puvodni zavedene jmeno nebylo mozno dale pouzivat.
the need for a new name also arose, as the original one was no longer usable

011 Repetition

zehrovak — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 17:06:13 CST

With its well-developed system of endings denoting gender, Czech usually has less need to repeat a noun for the sake of clarity than English has.

Knittlova notes: Opakovani lexikalni jednotky v nezmenene podobe povazuje ceska stylisticka norma za ponekud tezkopadne, pokud nejde o soucast autorova zameru, a dava prednost dalsim moznostem. Anglictina je v tomto ohledu mene citliva.

But later she adds: V jedotlivych vednich oborech a jejich projevech vystacime s pomerne skrovnym vysekem lexikalniho repertoaru, takze index opakovani je dost vysoky, podle pruzkumu pri porovnani s ostatnymi funkcnimi styly vubec nejvetsi.

A note on style from Fowler: A dozen sentences are spoilt by ill-advised avoidance of repetition for every one that is spoilt by ill-advised repetition.

On those rare occasions when a Czech sentence does have repeating words, we can sometimes make use of various English resources to streamline the text:
Krome obvykleho tonu vytvoreneho hlasivkami zni i alikvotni vysoky ton podobny tonu fletny.
Apart from the usual tone formed by the vocal chords, there is also a high aliquot tone similar to that of a flute.

Home

zehrovak — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 17:04:18 CST

Czech<>English
Translators' Tricks of the Trade

While some of these translation topics will bring about a sense of deja vu amongst even near-beginners, other issues addressed by this "toolkit of strategies" are rather less frequently met with. And while some of the strategems suggested here are pretty standard translation techniques, some at the other end of the spectrum are more like ruses that can occasionally be called upon to get you out of a hole. :-)

In any case, never forget the three primary considerations of so much translation work: context, context and context.

These pages provide some of the materials for my Skype proficiency course. Enjoy.

027 Translation by italicizing

zehrovak — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 16:15:26 CST

It is not normal practice in Czech to intersperse a dialogue with italics to express emphasis. Czech can express English italicized forms with suffixes, enclitics, diminutives, syntax or full pronomial forms. Conversely, for some genres where this is acceptable, we might very occasionally venture to render these in English with a change of typeface:

Bude tak potesen
He will be pleased

Moc se nam to libilo
We have enjoyed ourselves

Proc jsi mi nezatelefonovala? Prece jsem ti telefonovala /Ale ja jsem ti telefonovala
Why didn’t you phone me? But I did phone you.

You might like to have a look at a very detailed online dissertation comparing the use of italics in Czech and English.

038 Reseni

zehrovak — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 13:26:44 CDT

One of those slippery words that often seem to elude classic dictionary translations (resolution, solution, design, project, answer). Words of this kind occasionally need to be broken down into simple common-frequency words:

Vazeny zakazniku,
Dekujeme Vam za e-mail zaslany na adresu x a potvrzujeme timto jeho prijeti. O vyreseni nebo stavu reseni Vaseho pozadavku Vas budeme informovat do 2 dnu.

Dear Customer,
Thank you for the e-mail you sent to x, receipt of which we hereby confirm. We will inform you of the way your request has been -- or is being -- dealt with within two days.

SEE ALSO Predmet, pracoviste

036 Participle replaced or omitted

zehrovak — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 15:08:43 CDT

Quite frequently, participle modifiers of this kind can be rendered more naturally by simple articles, demonstratives or possessive pronouns:

Mel vykyvne polonapravy obvykle konstrukce Tatra. Pouzity motor Tatra 108 byl odvozen od znameho dvanactivalcoveho motoru Tatra 111.
It had the standard Tatra-design swinging half-axle, and its Tatra 108 engine was developed from the well-known twelve-cylinder Tatra 111.

nebylo totiz mozne obratit se na soud, pokud jedna ze stran porusila uzavrenou smlouvu.
as it was not possible to refer to a court if one of the parties breached an agreement.

Other cases
Soubor bezpecnostnich (kontrolnich) cinnosti, vykonavanych Vykonavatelem prostrednictvim jeho zamestnancu ci zamestnancu jeho subdodavatelu, vedouci k ostraze budov a k zajisteni priorit Objedatele vyplyvajicich z teto Smlouvy.
A set of security (inspection) activities performed by the Provider through his employees or subcontractors' employees to guard the buildings and to secure the Client's priorities as detailed in this Agreement.

043 Reformulation

zehrovak — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 16:49:58 CDT

Sometimes certain ideas need to be kept together and the sentence has to be reformulated around them.

Pred operaci je nutne ultrazvukove vysetreni bricha, gastroskopicke vysetreni a overeni funkce svaloviny jicnu specialnim pristrojem.
The operation is to be preceded by an ultrasound examination of the stomach, gastroscopic examination and verification of the function of the esophagus musculature with a special device.

Tato znamenka (ve vetsine pripadu nejsou vubec nebezpecna) ma kazdy clovek v ruznem mnozství.
These marks (which in most cases are not at all dangerous) are on everybody to various degrees.

--
When it is difficult to get a relative pronoun (which, who, that) to sit right next to the noun to which it relates, you can occasionally resort to the little trick of using 'as + subject' instead, with little loss of original meaning:

Prvoradym a nejblizsim ukolem noveho predsedy Fedu Bena Bernankeho bude udrzet na uzde inflaci, ktera v poslednich mesicich kvuli drahe energii nepekne vystrkuje rohy.
The overriding and immediate task of new Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will be to keep inflation in check, as this has been showing its horns rather nastily in recent months due to high energy prices.

Stredem pozornosti se stali pani Jana a pan Ladislav, kterym se uspesne dari dosahnout vyraznych vahovych ubytku v kratke dobe po operaci.
Jana and Ladislav became the centre of attention, as they had successfully managed to achieve substantial weight losses in the short period since the operation.

041 Intermediary verbs

zehrovak — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 17:42:46 CDT

Czech formal style can make much use of such intermediary verbs as realizovat, uskutecnit, provest etc.
While it is true that 'uskutecnit prodej' might be translated closely for some officious-sounding English text as 'to effect a sale', in the normal run of events such "empty" verbs can often be discreetly fused with the main verb/gerund to produce a non-pompous English version. This is another case where Czech formal style in close translation might produce a stilted, hyperformal style in English.

Uz pri letmem pohledu na uvedeny graf poskytnutych hypotek je zrejme, ze vyvoj hypotecniho bankovnictvi za poslednich pet let probihal u nas velmi dynamickym tempem.
Even a cursory glance at the above mortgage provision graph clearly indicates that mortgage banking has developed at a very dynamic pace over the last five years in this country.

Financovani investicnich projektu vykazujicich vysokou miru rizika je mozne realizovat nekolika zpusoby.
Investment projects showing a high rate of risk can be financed in several ways.

Zajemce se zavazuje poskytnout Zprostredkovateli odmenu tehdy, bude-li uzavreni kupni smlouvy pricinenim Zprostredkovatele skutecne dosazeno.
The Prospective Client undertakes to remunerate the Agent if the purchase agreement is actually concluded as a result of his efforts.

Uskutecnit, provest, realizovat - sometimes need to be 'fleshed out' with a more specific verb, depending on context:
Slovak:
Kazda druha sikma strecha sa v sucasnosti zrealizuje s Bramacom.
Every second sloping roof is currently put in place using the Bramac system.

002 Explicative genitive

zehrovak — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 12:46:22 CDT

In his The Noun in Translation, Ales Klegr describes "an interesting difference between Czech and English: the much-favoured construction in Czech, termed the explicative genitive, in which the head (a general or generic term) is specified by a narrower, lower-level term (e.g. a hyponym). In translation, this tends to be reduced to the modifying element (the narrower term)":

z dob detstvi - from childhood
dokonavaji dilo ocisty - completing the great purge
se stal zalezitosti bezne praxe - became a routine procedure
synonymum slova zaklad - the synonym for foundation

Osobnost Eduarda Grégra je spojována především sjeho politickou činností
Eduard Grégr is mostly associated with his political career

035 Vliv

zehrovak — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 16:08:40 CDT

Special treatment is very occasionally required when "mit vliv na" seems to come close to expressing "result in".

Mandatář je povinen informovat mandanta o zařizování záležitosti a oznámit mu všechny okolnosti, které se dozvěděl nebo zjistil při výkonu své činnosti a jež mohou mít vliv na změnu pokynů mandanta.The mandatary shall keep the mandator informed on the way the matter has been handled and notify him of all circumstances of which he has been apprised or which he has ascertained regarding the performance of his activities, which may result in an amendment to the instructions of the mandator.

Z duvodu rozšírení výroby došlo k více než dvojnásobnému navýšení poctu zamestnancu za období posledních ctyr let (ze 400 až na 900 lidí), které melo pozitivní vliv na snížení regionální nezamestnanosti mezi osobami zejména s nízkou kvalifikací.
In order to increase production, the number of employees has more than doubled over the last four years (from 400 to 900), which has had a positive effect on regional unemployment, particularly among those with low qualifications.

And in Slovak:
malo vplyv na mierne znizenie ziskovosti tukov
resulted in a slight reduction in the profitability of fats

039 Dissolving noun clusters

zehrovak — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 15:14:55 CDT

Little words like 'how' and 'way' can sometimes be used to make Czech noun clusters sound more natural in English. See also Reseni

Studie provádí rekonstrukci geneze Povídek malostranských. Zohledňuje přitom zejména fenomén volby konkrétního periodika pro prvotní otištění jednotlivých čísel budoucího knižního souboru.

This study performs a reconstruction of the genesis of Povídky malostranské, examining in particular the phenomenon of how a specific periodical was selected for the initial publication of individual issues of the future book collection.

037 Pleonasms

zehrovak — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 13:03:19 CDT

English traditionally has its own fair share of pleonastic adjectives (e.g. "free gift"), but discreet removal is advisable in many cases.

vzajemna spoluprace
collaboration

jine podobne sluzby
Similar services

dalsi hlubsi studium
further study

033 Recasting introductory prepositional clauses

zehrovak — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 12:40:24 CDT

An initial prepositional clause in Czech can often sound more natural and less fussy in English when it is recast to indicate that an agent performs a direct action. This issue frequently arises in the pattern: "V [document] podmet/autor [verb]", which can often be reduced to: "[document] [verb]".

V uvodnich kapitolach poukazuje autor na predchazejici vyvojove tendence, jimiz prochazela recka spolecnost.
The introductory chapters refer back to previous development trends in Greek society.

Publikace je uvodni ucebnici kvantove teorie. V prvni kapitole jsou vylozeny principy, s nimiz kvantova teorie stoji a pada, v dalsich je ilustrovana realizace techto principu.
This publication is an introductory textbook on quantum theory. The first chapter sets out the principles on which quantum theory stands or falls, while subsequent chapters describe the application of these principles.

Milada Paulova diky svemu uzkemu pratelskemu vztahu k Premyslu Samalovi odkryva ve svych dopisech nejruznejsi souvislosti tykajici se zivota a pusobeni predstavitelu vedeckeho i politickeho zivota.
Thanks to her close friendly relations with Premysl Samal, Milada Paulova’s letters reveal the various circumstances surrounding the life and work of representatives of scholarly and political life.

V odbornych periodikach pro oblasti strojirenstvi, stavebnictvi a elektrotechniky jsou pravidelne uverejnovany informace o novinkach v technicke normalizaci. Professional engineering, building and electrical engineering publications regularly bring out latest information on technical standards.

In other cases an alternative standpoint can sometimes be imposed:
Z haly v prizemi se vchazi na internetove pracoviste.
The hall provides access to the internet centre.
Z podlinkovych aktivit jsou vyuzivane:
Our below-the-line activities include:

034 Czech negative conditional --> English negative indicative

zehrovak — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 14:52:08 CDT

There is a strong tendency in Czech to use the conditional to detail an inexistent situation introduced in a subordinate clause, whereas English often does this with the indicative.
Nase zkusebny nejsou zpochybnovany, ani nejsou signaly, ze by nase vyrobky neodpovidaly normam, nebo ze by u nich byla shoda prohlasena nepravdive. No aspersions are being cast on Czech laboratories, nor are there any indications that our products fail to comply with standards, or that they are incorrectly being declared compliant.
(‘might’ could also be used here)

031 Insertion of idioms

zehrovak — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 16:20:03 CDT

In Paragraphs on Translation Peter Newmark says, "the English language [...] makes more use of idioms than some other languages do". On the strength of this greater frequency of idioms in English he defends such translations as a poco distanza - a stone's throw or il suo costo altissimo - its staggering cost.
Native Czech translators have pointed out to me that if they translated every English idiom with an equivalent form, the resulting Czech text might appear unduly conversational and trivial, so they will sometimes render an idiom with a more neutral expression. Conversely then, I feel there is sometimes a good argument for touching up long deadpan passages with a mildly idiomatic turn of phrase or two just to allay that "seeping oddness" feeling in a text :
pripravujeme dalsi projekty
further projects are in the pipeline
Cela oblast informacnich technologii ma vysokou akceleraci
IT as a whole is rapidly gaining ground

030 And/or

zehrovak — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 16:14:43 CDT

"And" needs to be inserted in some lists: Cena instalacniho materialu (kabely, vodice, pomocny material)
Price of installation material (cables, conductors and auxiliary material)
"And" needs to replace "or" in some lists