Translation S-Chinese to English

[Corbin]

I have two Simp-Chinese machine translations attached below, for the the sentence "My wife is Chinese". The first five characters are the same, but the final two or three are different ??

 

For you native Chinese speakers, which of these two would be viewed as most accurate ?? I do understand that machine translation leaves much to be desired.

 

 

ÎÒµÄÆÞ×ÓÊǺºÓï (Babel Fish)

 

 

ÎÒµÄÆÞ×ÓÊÇÖйúÈË (Google)

If you run both of these through Babel Fish, they both come out "My wife is the Chinese" and if you run both through Google, they come out "My wife is Chinese"

 

Remove this (ÎÒµÄÆÞ×ÓÊÇ) from the front of both;

 

Babel

ººÓï - Chinese

ÖйúÈË - Chinese

 

Google

ººÓï - Chinese

ÖйúÈË - Chinese people

 

confused yet...............

[tonado]

I have two Simp-Chinese machine translations attached below, for the the sentence "My wife is Chinese". The first five characters are the same, but the final two or three are different ??

 

For you native Chinese speakers, which of these two would be viewed as most accurate ?? I do understand that machine translation leaves much to be desired.

 

 

ÎÒµÄÆÞ×ÓÊǺºÓï (Babel Fish)

 

 

ÎÒµÄÆÞ×ÓÊÇÖйúÈË (Google)

If you run both of these through Babel Fish, they both come out "My wife is the Chinese" and if you run both through Google, they come out "My wife is Chinese"

 

Remove this (ÎÒµÄÆÞ×ÓÊÇ) from the front of both;

 

Babel

ººÓï - Chinese

ÖйúÈË - Chinese

 

Google

ººÓï - Chinese

ÖйúÈË - Chinese people

 

confused yet...............

 

Forget these translator tools. ÖйúÈË is Chinese people. ººÓï is Chinese language.

[Randy W]

The pinyin for the (google's) Chinese characters is "wo de qi zi shi zhong guo ren"

 

ººÓï is "han yu"

Edited April 14, 2008 by Randy W (see edit history)

[griz326]

The Babel Fish translation says she is Han. The Google translation says that she is from the middle kingdom.

 

Both are correct if your wife is Han.

 

Within China, the first one may be more correct than the second. I have heard Chinese people describe themselves by their ethnicity several times when there.

[Randy W]

they are both wrong....

 

1. drop the "de"... or else she's going to drop you with a mop slap !!

 

Using "de" conveys she is your possession

 

Just say, "wo qi zi..."

 

2. That is also using: Qi Zi for wife... which is fine.

 

but Lao Po and Tai Tai are used also... best to find out what she likes you to use...

 

Jiaying and I ALWAYS include the 'de'

[tonado]

The Babel Fish translation says she is Han. The Google translation says that she is from the middle kingdom.

 

Both are correct if your wife is Han.

 

Within China, the first one may be more correct than the second. I have heard Chinese people describe themselves by their ethnicity several times when there.

 

wrong

 

ÎÒµÄÆÞ×ÓÊǺºÓï means "My wife is Han Language"

 

This is the right way

 

ÎÒµÄÆÞ×ÓÊǺºÈË means "My wife is a Han person"

[Smitty]

How about this, as it might help some out in the future.

 

Óï - the character for language, so xÓï is the language of x.

 

¹ú - the character for country or kingdom. In this case, with China being the middle kingdom, China uses the character for middle or center for it's short hand representation. So Öйú is China.

 

ÈË - the character for people. Very confusing when you are studying optics and the primary character used in optics is the Greek character for lambda and you are trying to remember which one is which in a test! Anyway, slap this one on to the end of a country, and you have those people. ÖйúÈË is Chinese people.

[tonado]

Actually most Southern Chinese call themselves ÌÆÈË (from Tang Dynasty). Tang Dynasty was very prosperous.

 

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han

Edited April 14, 2008 by tonado (see edit history)

[Don]

Machine translation is rarely completely correct, but the studies show that Google's version is normally the most correct. Just remember that they only give you a close translation.

[david_dawei]

it would be good to know if this was meant for formal writing or informal speech.. If the former than I agree with Tony to stick with Qi Zi... But if the latter, she is still best to say which form of wife she prefers.

 

Randy: Maybe she doesn't want to correct you?

 

I'm not saying it's grammatically wrong but I'd ask her, how does she address her own sister (or mother): wo jie jie or wo de jie jie... I've read that it is customary to drop "de" with family due to what is called "isomorphism" between language and life... I've not heard chinese refer to members of their own family with the "de"....

[griz326]

 

wrong

 

ÎÒµÄÆÞ×ÓÊǺºÓï means "My wife is Han Language"

 

This is the right way

 

ÎÒµÄÆÞ×ÓÊǺºÈË means "My wife is a Han person"

 

 

You are correct tonado, I see my error now.

[Randy W]

it would be good to know if this was meant for formal writing or informal speech.. If the former than I agree with Tony to stick with Qi Zi... But if the latter, she is still best to say which form of wife she prefers.

 

Randy: Maybe she doesn't want to correct you?

 

I'm not saying it's grammatically wrong but I'd ask her, how does she address her own sister (or mother): wo jie jie or wo de jie jie... I've read that it is customary to drop "de" with family due to what is called "isomorphism" between language and life... I've not heard chinese refer to members of their own family with the "de"....

 

I would think that "wo mei mei" would have to be an informal usage, since it is ambiguous except in a specific context and usage, including a complete sentence. Maybe regional.

 

She's been known to call herself "ni de lao po", but I'll check with her when she gets home.

[Randy W]

it would be good to know if this was meant for formal writing or informal speech.. If the former than I agree with Tony to stick with Qi Zi... But if the latter, she is still best to say which form of wife she prefers.

 

Randy: Maybe she doesn't want to correct you?

 

I'm not saying it's grammatically wrong but I'd ask her, how does she address her own sister (or mother): wo jie jie or wo de jie jie... I've read that it is customary to drop "de" with family due to what is called "isomorphism" between language and life... I've not heard chinese refer to members of their own family with the "de"....

 

I would think that "wo mei mei" would have to be an informal usage, since it is ambiguous except in a specific context and usage, including a complete sentence. Maybe regional.

 

She's been known to call herself "ni de lao po", but I'll check with her when she gets home.

She doesn't have a clue what I'm asking, but I get the impression that she's heard it both ways (but definitely prefers the 'de').

 

I think she's getting pissed off because she thinks I'm asking if she's my wife. That's enough for now.

[Randy W]

My rule of Chinese grammar is simple - No Redundancies.

 

Don't say things like '2 pencils' - the 's' is redundant since you already know there are 2.

 

No multiple words that mean the same thing - I me my, etc.

 

And no say this instead of that just because it's grammatically correct even though it means exactly the same thing.