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Request to speakers of languages other than English, French and German (lemy.lol)

submitted 1 day ago by shads@lemy.lol to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

112 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hi thanks for looking at my query. I recently as a joke changed some writing on the board of a friends EAL (English as an Additional Language) classroom from English to German. She liked the idea, but using Google Translate resulted in an overly formal phrasing that made it seem more a demand than a suggestion or polite request.

So my ask, if you speak (or I guess write) another language I would love to request you take a moment to translate "Please stack chairs at the end of the day" into whichever language you can help me with, it should be a polite request though.

I'm really not sure what the composition of her class is but she is a fan of languages as a whole so even if it's not a language that is represented in her class I am sure it will be a bit of fun and a talking point to figure it out.

If you have the time and the skills to help I really appreciate it, otherwise I appreciate you taking the time to read this post. Have a fantastic day.

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[–] darkdemize@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Non-native Spanish speaker, but I believe it's in the directness of the command. Apila is telling someone to do it, whereas apile is just saying it needs to be done.

[–] capuccino@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Sorry, but is not like that. I've responded already to its question.

[–] darkdemize@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Wouldn't the tu version be apilas? I'm not super familiar with that particular verb.

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

Yeah, but that would be in active tense. "Apilas las sillas" would be "You stack the chairs".

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

Not exactly. Saying it needs to be done would look more like "Las sillas deben ser / deberán ser apiladas [...]"

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

Yeah, something like "las sillas deben apilarse" is not a direct translation but the idea is there.

[–] shads@lemy.lol 2 points 1 day ago

To everyone except me in this comment thread, I respect your superior knowledge, ability to translate between different languages and thank you for your time.

I would love to devote the time to learning Spanish, but I am afraid that's not practical for me right now.

That being said I obviously need to learn a little more about how this works so I will do some further reading about "usted".

You all rock! Thanks again!

[–] shads@lemy.lol 1 points 1 day ago

Ah, cool. If I understand, what I would achieve with extra verbosity in English is achieved by conjugation in this example. Or I am speaking out of my posterior. Either way thanks for the clarification.