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Which is right?
Thread poster: jyuan_us
jyuan_us
jyuan_us  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 14:55
Member (2005)
English to Chinese
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TOPIC STARTER
My point Jun 29, 2020

James Plastow wrote:

The idea is "space travel since 1972 has not been very far, and not as far as it probably should be"
In English, we commonly use the construction "not much more/better/farther than..."

I do not know for Chinese, but for Japanese I believe you would want to express this idea using a sentence construction with "less than" (perhaps choosing two other cities) or else it would be a very clumsy sentence.


In Chinese, "not much more/better/farther than..." will not make the sentence clumsy. The use of "Not much more/better/farther than..." will not make the sentence less natural than the use of "less than."
 
James Plastow
James Plastow  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 19:55
Member (2020)
Japanese to English
I see Jun 29, 2020

I see, no excuses then!
 
Eliza Hall
Eliza Hall
United States
Local time: 14:55
French to English
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Bad translators Aug 24, 2020

jyuan_us wrote:

You may want to see the featured answer to a similar question raised by someone on this webpage https://hinative.com/en-US/questions/13939632:

"It’s basically saying that the distance we have traveled into space is less than the distance from Des Moines (Iowa) to Chicago (Illinois)"


Wow, there are some terrible translators on that thread. It is mind-boggling to me when alleged translators who clearly don't know what they're talking about insist that XYZ is correct. How do ignorant people manage to form such strong opinions about things they don't understand?!?!

Maybe you should refer the Chinese translators you know who insisted on the incorrect translation to this thread. Don't ask them to believe you -- ask them to believe native EN speakers who are also translators.

Basic rule: "not much farther" means FARTHER. All the "not much" does is tell you that it isn't dramatically father.

Or to get more universal: "not much [comparative form of X: farther, bigger, stronger, etc.]" MEANS X... just not dramatically more X.

[Edited at 2020-08-24 19:26 GMT]
 
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Which is right?






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