this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2025
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[–] Wilco@lemm.ee 20 points 1 day ago

Seems so bad now, Yoda's fucked up language pattern does not.

[–] IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

我从酒店街对面的店里面看到了一套西装我想试 (I think this is gramatically correct?)

I, from hotel, across the street, store, saw, a suit, I want to try.

Lol, reminds me of my mother saying "I today" for 我今天

Like she always say "I today went to the mall"

[–] andros_rex@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

好久不见-“long time no see” In 汉语, not 日语 lol

[–] tvbusy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I too have the same problem with German. After 3 years of continuous learning have I still not get the problem, when prefix of verbs comes at the end, over with. When the prefix comes at the end of the sentence, have I always the verb forgotten.

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 day ago

Fremdsprache schwierig ist, Yoda says.

[–] Gladaed@feddit.org 18 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The hotel's neighbor across had a suit I wanted to try on.

You can find less complicated constructions that parallel their order.

[–] Soggy@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Sure, but that sounds clumsier and hides the meaning of the statement at the end which isn't usually how English speakers talk. It may be a less complicated translation but it isn't a better one.

[–] joshthewaster@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

Sure. But if you knew how to construct your scentence to make translation that easy you probably wouldn't need a translator.

[–] xia@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 day ago

Maybe for an ideal translation, but I think even real-time transliteration would be awesome... and might even start blending grammar patterns across borders.

[–] Berry_Bows@lemmy.world 50 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Haha, you could also read this as someone speaking in a way where he constantly interrupts himself--like a really excited little kid.

"I--the hotel is across the street from this store, and in there, I saw this suit I want to try on!"

Japanese is a really fun language, I thoroughly enjoyed the classes I took before my depression swallowed me up for a bit. Absolutely reccomend, it's only about half as scary as it looks--the syllabary is not difficult to remember, and Japanese is a decently structured, ordered language. The main challenge is expanding your vocabulary, and keeping track of Kanji.

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[–] uis@lemm.ee 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

А странного что такого? Слов порядок тут обычный.

Translation(order preserved): And wierd what's here? Of words the order here is common.

Если бы я услышал такой порядок слов, я бы подумал, что русский - не твой родной язык. Звучит стремно

[–] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 92 points 2 days ago (4 children)

This Japanese interpreter did a TEDx talk about her work. She mentions a few issues with going between Japanese and English, like how subjects in Japanese are often dropped from sentences, so she once made the assumption to give a CEO a male pronoun only to find out that the CEO was female when she walked in the room shortly after.

The interpreter also says that you can't wait to have all the information about a sentence to start translating, so she likens it to "watching a thriller" because you don't know whether the verb at the end is "going to negate the whole sentence".

https://youtu.be/P-ggxpMY9q0?t=143

[–] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 65 points 2 days ago (1 children)

"That's so cool... NOT."

But an entire language like that.

[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 34 points 2 days ago (4 children)

That’s literally how negation works in Japanese lol

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That last part is really funny for me currently learning Japanese. The differnece between desu and janaidesu is always at the end, but makes (in my head) a "it's like that" into a "it's not like that" thus negating the whole sentence. A constant lookout for a "NOT" at the end of each sentence.

[–] baltakatei@sopuli.xyz 20 points 2 days ago (3 children)

What if you take the speculative execution strategy and have multiple interpreters translating every possible semantic branch and then throwing out the recordings of the interpretations that were incorrect? 🙃

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[–] CuriousRefugee@lemmy.ml 85 points 2 days ago (4 children)

One of my favorite passages from Mark Twain's "The Awful German Language":

There are ten parts of speech, and they are all troublesome. An average sentence, in a German newspaper, is a sublime and impressive curiosity; it occupies a quarter of a column; it contains all the ten parts of speech -- not in regular order, but mixed; it is built mainly of compound words constructed by the writer on the spot, and not to be found in any dictionary -- six or seven words compacted into one, without joint or seam -- that is, without hyphens; it treats of fourteen or fifteen different subjects, each inclosed in a parenthesis of its own, with here and there extra parentheses which reinclose three or four of the minor parentheses, making pens within pens: finally, all the parentheses and reparentheses are massed together between a couple of king-parentheses, one of which is placed in the first line of the majestic sentence and the other in the middle of the last line of it -- after which comes the VERB, and you find out for the first time what the man has been talking about; and after the verb -- merely by way of ornament, as far as I can make out -- the writer shovels in "haben sind gewesen gehabt haben geworden sein," or words to that effect, and the monument is finished. I suppose that this closing hurrah is in the nature of the flourish to a man's signature -- not necessary, but pretty. German books are easy enough to read when you hold them before the looking-glass or stand on your head -- so as to reverse the construction -- but I think that to learn to read and understand a German newspaper is a thing which must always remain an impossibility to a foreigner.

[–] TheBrideWoreCrimson@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

With all due respect, but he seems to have been talking out of his ass here. Either that, or he's been reading legal language. Or maybe language was that different in his day.
I'd argue that nowadays, in German, very nested sentences are seen as "good style" in poetic writing only. Plus, the tenses he mentions are an issue specific to English language which has like 23 of them. In German, I've heard people with a Master's degree get by with using one (1) for any situation in everyday life.

[–] CuriousRefugee@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 day ago

Mark Twain was a writer in the late 1800s in America who wrote some real novels, but also is mainly known for his humorous and satirical writing. He's exaggerating here for comedic effect, not trying to be serious. So it's probably a combination of the older language and the fact that he's trying to be funny.

[–] Xanthrax@lemmy.world 18 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

To be fair, we have compound words in English. Firefly, sunflower, etc... if you get into latin prefixes and suffixes joined with root words, you can create some incredibly long words.

"Subpostactuallismian."

[–] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 66 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Donau­dampfschiffahrts­elektrizitäten­haupt­betriebs­werkbau­unterbeamten­gesellschaft.

The Association for Subordinate Officials of the Head Office Management of the Danube Steamboat Electrical Services.

German is on another level when it comes to compound words.

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[–] TheBrideWoreCrimson@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

Pineapple and hedgehog are some examples which are compound words in English, but not in German.

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[–] quantenzitrone 12 points 2 days ago

"Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz fachsimpeln haben sind gewesen gehabt haben geworden sein." 🥰

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[–] PillowTalk420@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago

Having been a relay operator for a few years, this is true even in English. You might be able to guess what someone is saying (and the floor managers always encouraged trying to) but you'll never have 100% accuracy and it's far less confusing to the person getting the "translation" if you don't have to make any corrections by actually waiting for the person to finish their sentence.

[–] AI_toothbrush@lemmy.zip 28 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Lol try slavic languages and hungarian where the word order is extremely flexible. Ive always had a hard time translating between hungarian and english even tho im basically native in both of them. For example "A kutya kergeti a macskat", "A macskat kergeti a kutya", "Kergeti a macskat a kutya", "Kergeti a kutya a macskat", "A macskat a kutya kergeti" and "A kutya a macskat kergeti" are all valid and mean the same thing but the emphasis is on a different part of the sentence. Kinda insane from the perspective of english where "The dog is chasing the cat" and "The cat is being chased by the dog" are the only valid orders and even that is cheating as i would translate the second one a bit different into hungarian because once again the focus changes. Also there are a lot of things in common speach that i dont know how a translator would translate. In hungarian for example we have a ridiculous amount of curse words and combinations that are simply lost when translating. "A ménkű csapjon bele a jó dagadt gecis faszszopó román kurva anyádba" is something(or idk it was similar to this) i have actually heard from a real person in a real conversation. I wont translate it becauase its extremely vulgar but you get the point. The other thing is, returning to japanese for example, there are a few things that can be represented in one language but not in another one like honorifics for example. Last thing is when translating without context pronouns probably get completly lost. How would an ai looking only at the text know who the "you" was aimed at. Especially when translating to languages where even you has different forms depending on gender for example. All things thatll have to be solved i guess.

[–] ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago

The only word I recognized is Kurva.

[–] Etterra@discuss.online 12 points 1 day ago

Trying to parse that in that backwards order makes my brain hurt.

[–] Tagger@lemmy.world 25 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Is it odd that I want a whole website of these charts where I can compare the way many many different languages translate the same sentence and see the lines between the meaning components in them?

[–] littlewonder@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Then you and I are both odd because that sounds fascinating.

[–] The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world 18 points 2 days ago

If you find one, please share with the rest of the class. That would be cool to see.

[–] kitnaht@lemmy.world 18 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I've often wanted a direct literal translation in the subtitles.

Like, I want my subtitles to read

I hotel from the street across that's a shop I saw a suit on try want to.

Because then at least I can learn to understand "Watashi" is self-reference, and match up the phonetics with the words.

[–] dwemthy@lemmy.world 16 points 2 days ago

I love this idea!
The translation isn't as direct as the lines in the image imply though. "Watashi wa" becoming "I" hides that "wa" is a grammatical marker for the topic, kind of, of the sentence. More complete it's like, "I, as the topic of this sentence". You end up with a direct in place translation of "I, as the topic, a hotel's across the street, as a location, a shop, as a setting, exists, saw a suit, to which, wearing as a desire, is true"

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[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 21 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

If i were to real time translate, it would be something like: I went to a shop across the hotel, I saw a suit there, and I wanted to try it on.

[–] june@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 day ago

More like:

My hotel's vicinity, within it there is a store where I saw a suit that I want to try on.

It doesn't say anything about going to the store and it is in the current tense of wanting to try on something that you past-tense saw within the subordinate clause.

[–] saltnotsugar@lemm.ee 16 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Ah the joy of learning Japanese as an English speaker. Oh you learned all the hiragana? Bro there’s katakana and kanji. Oh you don’t know the kanji!? BRO. Have fun learning how to look those bad boys up using radicals!

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[–] lewdian69@lemmy.world 15 points 2 days ago (6 children)

What are the last two characters?

[–] captainjaneway@lemmy.world 22 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I don't speak a lick of Japanese but I found this online:

です is used to mark words as polite if they cannot conjugate to show politeness themselves... です is one of the most fundamental words in the Japanese language. It’s super useful — it can be attached to just one other word to form some basic sentences. It’s also quite safe to use since it’s part of the polite form, so you’re unlikely to offend someone with this word... です can be tacked onto the end of a noun, な-adjective, or い-adjective to form a polite, positive, present tense sentence (say that ten times fast 😉). In other words, it allows us to talk about something that is true, and relevant to the present moment and/or the future—all in a polite way of course.

source: https://www.tofugu.com/japanese-grammar/desu/

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

So it's bitte for Japanese?

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[–] TheWonderfool@lemmy.world 15 points 2 days ago

While the other answer is correct and more comprehensive, in this phrase the particles are purely used to make the phrase "polite". Take them out and the phrase is semantically correct and has the exact same meaning, but it can now only be used in an informal settings (between friends, family, ...)

Disclaimer: I have only basic knowledge of Japanese, and my Japanese teacher would enthusiastically confirm.

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