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Translating Idioms

 

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  #1  
Old September 19, 2016, 02:00 PM
bigsmile bigsmile is offline
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Translating Idioms

I am trying to translate the following into Spanish:

Quote:
Did you hear are about the Brexit referendum? I am a supporter of small governments. I think big governments are out of touch with the people. So I voted to leave. On the downside, there was a lot of panic. Plus the value of the pound fell, so now everything is expensive.
Google translate did the following:

Quote:
¿Escucho son sobre el referéndum de Brexit? Soy un defensor de los pequeños gobiernos. Creo que los gobiernos grandes están fuera de contacto con la gente. Así que he votado para salir. En el lado negativo, había mucho pánico. Además el valor de la libra cayó, así que tanto ahora todo es caro.
I think it is being too literal. “Out of touch” should be “están al corriente” (instead of “están fuera de contacto”) “So” should be “Por lo tanto” (instead of “así que”)

Quote:
¿Escucho son sobre el referéndum de Brexit? Soy un defensor de los pequeños gobiernos. Creo que los gobiernos grandes están al corriente con la gente. Por lo tanto he votado para salir. En el lado negativo, había mucho pánico. Además el valor de la libra cayó, por lo tanto ahora todo es caro.
However, I am struggling to find a Spanish equivalent for on the downside (“En el lado negativo” seems to literal). “la desventaja” is Spanish for downside. But I don’t think “en la desventaja” would sound correct.

What would the Spanish equivalent for “On the downside” be?
Also are my other corrections correct?

I've tried to search for translations for some of the other Idioms I have used, but have not had much luck.

Thanks in advance for any help that can be offered!
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  #2  
Old September 19, 2016, 04:25 PM
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aleCcowaN aleCcowaN is offline
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In your third version you're saying the opposite of what you intended.

The idiomatic way is "Pienso que un estado grande no llega a la gente".

Your "be out of touch" becomes "can't reach" in Spanish. Gobierno is the group on people circumstantially in charge, May & Co. etcetera, estado is the set of public institutions that gobierno and all the public servants manage.

There's a lot of troubles with vocabulary there, and you choice in you user page saying "gender: I prefer not to say" makes it impossible to translate into Spanish. There's no way you can avoid your gender talking in Spanish.
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Old September 23, 2016, 06:38 AM
bigsmile bigsmile is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aleCcowaN View Post
There's a lot of troubles with vocabulary there, and you choice in you user page saying "gender: I prefer not to say" makes it impossible to translate into Spanish. There's no way you can avoid your gender talking in Spanish.
My gender is male, so how would I translate it? thanks for any advice you can offer.
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Old October 01, 2016, 11:50 AM
bigsmile bigsmile is offline
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I would really appreciate it if someone could help with this. Thanks!
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Old October 01, 2016, 04:26 PM
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JPablo JPablo is offline
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I give you a clue on this sentence:

I think big governments are out of touch with the people.

Creo que los gobiernos (demasiado) grandes no están en contacto directo con la gente - con el pueblo.

https://es.oxforddictionaries.com/tr...-spanish/touch

Touch # 5 can give you some inspiration for this one sentence.
  • they're completely out of touchno tienen ni idea
Oxford translates this one as "they have no idea" "they don't have a clue"

Me parece que los grandes gobiernos no tienen ni idea de lo que la gente quiere.

Maybe you can work on the other sentences using the examples in the Oxford dictionary (or others...)

Going sentence by sentence, it will be easier for other forum members to help you. And it will be easier for you taking one thing at a time.

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