Thread: really - just - so

Estoy traduciendo una entrevista y el entrevistado no deja de decir «really», «just» y «so» todo el tiempo. Primero trataba de traducir los términos empleando diferentes sinónimos (p. ej, «really» por realmente, verdaderamente, de veras, etc.), pero ahora me doy cuenta de que por respeto a la lengua española lo mejor es en muchos casos dejar de traducir estos términos en absoluto. ¿Qué opinan?

I believe these are 'discourse markers', utterances that give the speaker a chance, albeit distracting, to group thoughts somewhat like: pues, entonces, sea, and bueno in Spanish.

All right, but what I mean is that sometimes we could omit them in a translation in order to have respect for the Spanish language. What do you think?

It's a style of talking, a register. Leaving it in or taking it out depends on the situation and the purpose of the person requesting the translation. I know it's an interview, but is it a job interview or is it an interview of a celebrity for a newspaper or is it an interview of an expert to obtain specific information? If you are after factual information I think you could leave those words out. If you want to capture the style and personality of the speaker, you might want to leave them in.

Originally Posted by mariaklec

It's a style of talking, a register. Leaving it in or taking it out depends on the situation and the purpose of the person requesting the translation. I know it's an interview, but is it a job interview or is it an interview of a celebrity for a newspaper or is it an interview of an expert to obtain specific information? If you are after factual information I think you could leave those words out. If you want to capture the style and personality of the speaker, you might want to leave them in.

I agree I find it annoying when people talk this way and I think that most of the time you can leave them out, however if are trying to capture the personality it would be best to leave them in (as annoying as they are)

Originally Posted by mariaklec

It's a style of talking, a register. Leaving it in or taking it out depends on the situation and the purpose of the person requesting the translation. I know it's an interview, but is it a job interview or is it an interview of a celebrity for a newspaper or is it an interview of an expert to obtain specific information? If you are after factual information I think you could leave those words out. If you want to capture the style and personality of the speaker, you might want to leave them in.

I Agree completely. Sometimes, English speakers overuse some expressions like "you know". Good Spanish subtitles, often ommit the "you know" in some occasions as it becomes repetitive and, as you pointed out, annoying :-)

As mvictoria said, it may sound pretty annoying for the reader to come across these terms so often in the interview. Perhaps it's better not to translate them at all.

Saludiños,

Bel

yeah, I quite agree, or, you could just translate them a couple of times, not every time you have them in English!

Thank you all, great team! I have decided to stand in the middle: I will translate some and will leave some out. Of course, this is not an exact science and it will be sort of arbitrary, but I guess it is the best option both for accuracy in translation and respect for the Spanish language.