[lojban] Re: What is the most direct translation on English.

["komfo,amonan" <komfoamonan@gmail.com>]

On Fri, Sep 19, 2008 at 9:19 PM, Opi Lauma <opilauma@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I need to translate a sequence of lojban sentences:
>
> .i le ctuca cu vecnu le fanva le cukta
> The teacher sells to the translator the book .
>
> .i te cukta te vecnu le ctuca le fanva
> The book is sold by the teacher to the translator.
>
> .i le fanfa se vecnu le ctuca le cukta
> The translator ...
>
> I have problem here. Is that possible to say that in English? I know that the first to sentences would be a correct translation for the third sentence. I also know that I could you "buy"... But I would like to have an English translation which is as close as possible to the original lojban-sentence (and which is still grammatically correct (but not unnecessarily nice)).
>
> Thank you in advance.

1a: le ctuca cu vecnu le cukta le fanva
1b: The teacher sells the book to the translator.

2a: le cukta cu se vecnu le ctuca le fanva
2b: The book is sold by the teacher to the translator.

3a: le fanva cu te vecnu le cukta le ctuca
3b: The translator is sold the book by the teacher.
3c: The translator buys the book from the teacher.

I think (3c) would be the normal translation of (3a). (3b) is also
correct, although I can't think of another European language that
allows that kind of formulation with the passive voice and the
indirect object.

mu'o mi'e komfo,amonan


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