Dec 16, 2005 08:31
18 yrs ago
2 viewers *
German term

unglückliche Formulierung

German to English Other General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters general vocabulary
if the wording of a sentence or term is chosen in a way that the sentence/term becomes unintentionally ambiguous or unclear.
Change log

Aug 22, 2007 14:52: Steffen Walter changed "Field (specific)" from "Other" to "General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters"

Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

Non-PRO (1): Steven Sidore

When entering new questions, KudoZ askers are given an opportunity* to classify the difficulty of their questions as 'easy' or 'pro'. If you feel a question marked 'easy' should actually be marked 'pro', and if you have earned more than 20 KudoZ points, you can click the "Vote PRO" button to recommend that change.

How to tell the difference between "easy" and "pro" questions:

An easy question is one that any bilingual person would be able to answer correctly. (Or in the case of monolingual questions, an easy question is one that any native speaker of the language would be able to answer correctly.)

A pro question is anything else... in other words, any question that requires knowledge or skills that are specialized (even slightly).

Another way to think of the difficulty levels is this: an easy question is one that deals with everyday conversation. A pro question is anything else.

When deciding between easy and pro, err on the side of pro. Most questions will be pro.

* Note: non-member askers are not given the option of entering 'pro' questions; the only way for their questions to be classified as 'pro' is for a ProZ.com member or members to re-classify it.

Proposed translations

+6
5 mins
German term (edited): ungl�ckliche Formulierung
Selected

unfortunate choice of words

-
Peer comment(s):

agree Frosty
6 mins
neutral Louise Mawbey : Wouldn't unfortunate mean that the words made the text insulting/ offensive, rather than just making it unclear? Maybe poor choice of words would be better?
7 mins
auch, aber nicht nur - the same goes for the German, BTW
agree stahat (X)
8 mins
agree Alison Jenner
16 mins
agree Terence Ajbro
47 mins
agree Sarah Downing : I'd go for this because I feel that the German is a euphemism too and bad seems to harsh - Germans are good with euphemisms, particularly in job references ...
1 hr
agree Richard Benham : Or just "unfortunate formulation"?
3 hrs
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Selected automatically based on peer agreement."
+1
4 mins
German term (edited): ungl�ckliche Formulierung

bad style

You could probably call it "bad style" - something translators encounter all too frequently in source texts, and something we're probably all guilty of injecting into our translations from time to time. "Poor wording" or "bad/poor phrasing" would also be good.
Peer comment(s):

agree Louise Mawbey : poor phrasing/ wording is better than bad style IMHO
7 mins
OK, thanks Louise.
neutral Cilian O'Tuama : bad style too general IMO - covers a multitude of sins
9 mins
I did make more specific suggestions as well (poor wording/bad phrasing). But what's wrong with covering a multitude of sins? ;-)
Something went wrong...
1 hr
German term (edited): ungl�ckliche Formulierung

the expression chosen was not exactly ideal

I think if you put it like this, you cover any eventuality. I know it's a bit long, but...
Something went wrong...
9 hrs
German term (edited): ungl�ckliche Formulierung

awkward sentence (structure)

Depending on what causes the ambiguity this might be a possibility.
"A sentence that combines two or more segments in a confusing or inaccurate manner is normally called an awkward sentence"
Source :
http://www.gpc.edu/~shale/humanities/composition/writers_gui...
See also:

Something went wrong...
Term search
  • All of ProZ.com
  • Term search
  • Jobs
  • Forums
  • Multiple search