Quality Check on Russian Translation

Lironah

Space Cadet
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 22, 2014
Messages
98
Reaction score
15
Location
USA
Website
www.joanalbright.net
Heyas,

My Russian's a bit (read: very) rusty, and I want to make sure Google Translate isn't having me on. (I know it can't do Japanese, lol.)

I need to say something along the lines of "Do you need feed for your horse?" I didn't like what I was getting so I simplified to "Do you need to feed your horse?" and got this:

Вы должны кормить вашу лошадь?

First of all, does it make sense? Does it really mean what Google says it does? And second of all, is the below transliteration correct, or would you suggest a different way?:

Vy dolzhny kormit' vashu loshad'?

Also, I can just use "Da" for the response, but I would prefer something like "Thanks," or "Yes, please." Google gives me "pozhaluysta" as the transliteration and that just sounds wrong to me. Isn't it more like "pozhalsta"?

Edit: For context, the first phrase is spoken by a man being polite to a woman he believes is a stranger. The response is spoken by the woman, who is like a sister to him and does know who he is.
 
Last edited:

EJMatthews

closeted rhetorician
Registered
Joined
Nov 10, 2014
Messages
30
Reaction score
2
Location
USA
Disclaimer: I'm Slav, not Russian. My family emigrated to the USA many many years ago, so my language is (also) rusty and I don't know much in the way of slang or current popular speech. Just the bare basics. Enough to get in and out of airport security, basically.


Cyrillic: Вы должны кормить вашу лошадь?
Looks okay-enough. I'm not the best judge due to the dialect barrier.

Phonetic: Vy dolzhny kormit' vashu loshad'?
I find Google translate likes adding extra "h"s on Russian translations. Also looks okay-ish.

Pronunciation: Please
Phonetically, in Slavic we're closer to "puz-HAL-sta" while Russian is, as Google says, "pah-zal-ooy-sta". Dialects and accents can vary a lot by region.


Hope this helps!
 

Olga

New Fish; Learning About Thick Skin
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 5, 2010
Messages
50
Reaction score
9
Location
Los Angeles
This is exactly why it is a bad idea to use Google Translate.

Yes, technically it is a correct translation. Unfortunately, it doesn't mean what you want it to mean.

Вы должны кормить вашу лошадь?
, depending on what word you stress, means either Is it your responsibility to feed the horse? or a very general Does your horse need to eat (as opposed to surviving on air)

A better one would be

Вам нужен корм для лошади?

It means "Do you need feed for the horse?" It can be asked by a person who is either selling feed or just wondering if she needs it. If he offers to feed the horse, it will be something else, like

Вы хотите чтобы я покормил Вашу лошадь?

Do you want me to feed your horse?


If he is asking if she needs to feed the horse before doing something else

Вы должны покормить Вашу лошадь?


Something like Do you need to feed your horse now? without actually saying now.

If none of these are what you need, you can PM me with more details or post it here, but please, please, please don't just put any Russian phrase there. Or you will end up with "troika pulled by three horses" as in Shadow and Bone (means three horses pulled by three horses).

Da, pozhaluysta is probably fine, depending on the first sentence. It may sound a little different, but you are not writing a pronunciation guide, you are transliterating it. Otherwise, to a person who knows Russian it looks like a mistake.)

Good luck! (I surely am happy that I don't need to study Russian.)
 
Last edited: