Lost in Translation? We are here to help...

Anyone out there to do mine? Into French pleasies?

Collaboration is the term used to describe treason towards forces occupying one’s country. During wartime France, it refers to the Vichy regime, as well as French civilians who approved with Nazi Germany’s actions

!أهلا وسهلا اميلي

Before I comment on your translation, let me invite you to the "world of Arabic transcription". Everytime I recieve or give help regarding Arabic, the following is used to transcribe the letters. It'd be great if you could learn - a lot of people use them now (I don't know how it all originated though). I won't do every single letter now, just the ones that I can see in your translation. So here goes:

ح = 7 (the number 7 - to seperate it from: ﮬ, which is "h")
T = ط (as opposed to ت, which is lower case: t)
ع = 3 ((ayn) - the guttural vowel sound - the number 3)
ء = 2 (hamza)

random french question

is it,

ce n'est pas ce que j'en ai besoin

or

ce n'est pas ce dont j'ai besoin?


cheers

linguist - you language god!! i love you man. thanks soooo much. I have some other questions which are bugging me but i'll ask them later.. i don't feel so articulate at the mo lol..

thanks for being very precise - it helps!

random french question

is it,

ce n'est pas ce que j'en ai besoin

or

ce n'est pas ce dont j'ai besoin?


cheers

Ce n'est pas ce dont j'ai besoin is right.

Kevin's an American at the Goethe Institut in Berlin doing an intensive German course, and e-mailing home in German. Here's a couple of things he wrote me I can't figure out through the automatic Google translator. It might be his German's not that good yet. Any takers? Thanks from Notre Dame, Indiana.

Es ist warscheinlich das beste Geld, dass ich ausgegeben habe.
-What's warscheinlich? probably
Meine Gästefamilie ist auch ganz toll, obwohl am Anfang es ein bisschen schwer war, weil mein Deutsch nicht besonders gut war.
-This translates as his guest family is mad??? host family
Alles ist hier ausgezeichnet und Berlin ist vielleicht meine neue Leiblingsstadt.
- Berlin is his new what? favourite town
Entweder esse ich wahrsheinlich mit Freunden oder ich gehe spazieren.
-What is he eating? he's eating with friends
Die Deutsche Spezialität ist Currywurst und es gefellt mir sehr gut.
-Currywurst? Is he eating a lot of Indian curry or is it hot sausage? It's a sausage with curry ketchup

random french question

is it,

ce n'est pas ce que j'en ai besoin

or

ce n'est pas ce dont j'ai besoin?


cheers

Hope this helps.

Hi, how are you?

Danke, gut.
Danke, mir geht's gut.

Thanks, that does take some of the mystery out of it! But could "Meine Gästefamilie ist auch ganz toll," mean anything besides "My host family is mad"? Is it mad as in angry? Or maybe they're mad about soccer? I'm really wondering what he was trying to say.

What about "Berlin ist ein schöne Stadt mit veile Kunst und Geschicte"?

Thanks!

Hmmm, that's quite tough: normally toll means "great". However, if I say "ganz toll" I often mean it in an ironic way, i.e. "not so great".