我的英语学习笔记:One of the most difficult words to translate.你绝对想不到,最难翻译的单词竟然是它?

Do you know where the pep rally is? Which is the hardest word to translate in this sentence.

"know" is easy to translate."pep rally" doesn't have a direct analog in a lot of languages and cultures, but can be approximated.

But the hardest world there is actually one of the smallest :"you".

As simple as it seems, it is often impossible to accurately translate "you" without knowing a lot more about the situation where it's being said.

To start with,  how familiar are you with the person you are talking to.

Many cultures have different levels of formality.

In French, for example, you would say "tu" when talking to your friends at school, but "vous" when addressing your teacher.

Even English once had something similar.Remember the old- timey, "thou"?

Ironically, it was actually the informal pronoun for people you are close with, while "you" was the former and polite version.

That distinction was lost when the English decided to just be polite all the time.

But the difficulty in translating "you "end there.In languages like Hausa or Korana the "you" form depends on the listener's gender.

pep rally 拉拉队

analog 对应物

approximate 近似的

as simple as it seems 看似十分简单

formality 正式程度，礼节

addressing 称呼

Old- timey 老式的