前两天刷朋友圈看到了某英语机构的广告,仔细看了一下,视频广告里面有三处比较明显的问题:
上图中的这些问题也是很多人容易犯的错误,这里分析一下:
(1) If you are still afraid to speaking English. 应该改为If you are still afraid to speak English. 即be afraid to do something,这里出错的原因是受到了be afraid of doing something的影响,导致动词形式用错。
这里如果写成"If you are still afraid of speaking English."也是可以的,但be afraid to do something与be afraid of doing something存在一些细微区别:be afraid of doing something除了可以表示“不敢做某事”之外,还可以指“担心某事会发生”(frightened or worried that something might happen as a result of your action),比如:They were afraid of damaging their careers. 此时句子不能写成:They were afraid to damage their careers.
(2) “对大部分英语学习者来说”被翻译成As is known to most of English learners,这里应该改为:For most English learners
As is known to XX意思是“对XX来说,众所周知的一点是……”,用在这里不是很恰当,可以改为for,但句子更大的问题在于most的使用。句子中“大部分英语学习者”是一个泛指的概念,应该说:most English learners,而不能说:most of English learners,因为most of用在特指的情况,并且需要和限定词连用,比如:
(1) Most of the houses in the capital don't have piped water. 首都的大部分房屋没有自来水。
(2) Most of the people I had invited turned up. 我邀请的人多半都来了。
(3) “领取试听体验课”被翻译成experience a demo class,这基本上是机器翻译的结果,完全不知所云。那么我们常说的“免费使用”应该怎么翻译呢?英文里面有一个对应的说法:free trial,比如韦氏词典里面有这样一个例句:If you choose to use the software beyond the 30-day free trial period, you are required to pay for it. (如果你在30天的免费试用期结束后还想继续使用软件,那么你需要付费)
“免费体验课程”这一概念在国外不少产品官网上也可以见到,比如微软的客户支持页面就有一个说法:Do you offer a free trial lesson? 因此“领取试听体验课”我们可以翻译成:join a free trial lesson
在翻译其他类似概念时我们也可以去国外网站找找看有没有现成的说法,这样翻译出来的结果才更加地道。
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