ThE MAStER OF TRANSlAtiON

The
Master of
Translation
The shock-and-awe approach to translating from
German into English for the intermediate
to high-level English student
Stephen Krug
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
7. Unit 1 – Shock and Awe
Chapter 1 – Everything about Word Order
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• the kernel sentence
• prepositional phrases
• exercise: prepositional phrases
• inserted clauses (relative clauses)
• exercise: relative clauses
• the word order of relative clauses
• relative clauses of time, place and reason
• using commas with relative clauses
• exercise: using commas with relative clauses
• word order review (”Carla drinks coffee...“)
• the position of adverbs
• the position of adverbs in questions
• exercise: the position of adverbs
• the position of adverbs of manner
Chapter 2 – Translating on the basis of word order
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• identifying the kernel sentence
• exercise: identifying the kernel sentence
• our first translation (”Ingrid...“)
• our 2nd translation (”Leif Eriksson...“)
• exercise: our 3rd translation (”die spanische ’conquista’...“)
• exercise: 6 sentences without relative clauses
• about cosmetic adjustments
• info: Chinese proper names
• info: ”im kommenden Jahr“
• info: ”Innenstadt“
• exercise: 7 sentences with relative clauses
• info: capitalization of adjectives referring to countries etc.
• exercise: capitalization of adjectives referring to countries etc.
• info: ”persons, peoples?“
• monster subjects
• info: ”in turn“
Chapter 3 – Translating compound sentences
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• translating compound sentences (”Ich verbrachte den Sonntag...“)
• exercise 1 (”Die Kapuzinerkresse...“)
• exercise 2 (”Eine Monarchie aufrechtzuerhalten...“)
• exercise: 8 compound sentences
• info: ”je“
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Chapter 4 – Translating monster sentences
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• a 90-word monster sentence (”Volksdeutsche aus Kasachstan...“)
• exercise: a 95-word monster sentence
• incomprehensible monster sentences
• monster sentences in contracts
• exercise : monster sentences in contracts
• exercise: 10 not-so-monster sentences
• exercise: 13 sentences
89. Unit 2 – Grammar and stuff
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• introduction
Chapter 1 – Monster adjectives
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• monster adjectives
• info: ”Arabian“
• exercise: monster adjectives
• exercise: a monster sentence with 2 monster adjectives
Chapter 2 – What’s in a dictionary?
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• there’s more in your dictionary than meets the eye
• exercise: translating words that are not in the dictionary
Chapter 3 – Punctuation
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• punctuation
• commas
• structuring terms and phrases (discourse markers)
• the notorious German comma-sentence
• exercise: 16 comma-sentences
• hyphenation of compound adjectives
• exercise: compound adjectives
• more on hyphenation
• dots and commas in numbers
• one billion = eine Milliarde
• punctuation in direct speech
• exercise: punctuation
Chapter 4 – reported speech
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• reported speech
• ”to say / to tell“
• exercise: reported speech – 6 sentences
• info: ”to lay / to lie / to lie“
• exercise: ”to lay / to lie / to lie“
• info: ministers and their ministries
• reported speech that goes on and on and on and ...
• exercise: ”Verkäuferin mit Kopftuch“
• info: ”the city of Cologne“
• info: ”economic / economical“
• exercise: ”Raucher: Jetzt leuchten sie im Dunkeln“
• exercise: ”Kein Ersatz für Petersilien-Ziegen“
• exercise: ”Mitsubishi und Daimler bauen in Thüringen“
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• info: the federal states of Germany
• exercise: ”Große Zuversicht“
• info: city names used as adjectives
• exercise: city names used as adjectives
• exercise: ”Teuerste Städte der Welt in Japan“
• info: ”according to...“
• exercise: ”according to...“ – 10 sentences
Chapter 5 – Miscellaneous grammar & vocabulary I
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• ”a / one“
• exercise: ”a / one“
• ”maximal“
• ”insgesamt“
• exercise: ”maximal“ / ”insgesamt“
• exercise: translation – ”maximal“ / ”insgesamt“
• animals and their flesh
• exercise: ”Immer beliebter...“
Chapter 6 – The passive voice
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• the passive voice
• exercise: passive voice
• exercise: passive voice, without an object
• the passive voice with ”get“
• exercise: passive voice – 16 sentences
Chapter 7 – Conditional sentences
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• conditional sentences
• the three basic forms
• exercise: supplementing if-clauses
• example of a text using the improbable condition
• ”if I were...“
• exercise: supplementing a sentence with an if-clause
• exercise: ”Jeder Sechste würde für Geld früher sterben wollen“
• info: ”one out of ten“ / ”one in ten“
• exercise: if-clauses – 12 sentences
• exercise: a monster conditional sentence
• exercise: one more monster conditional sentence
• ”if / when“
• exercise: ”if / when“ – 12 sentences
• ”if / whether“
• exercise: ”New Orleans ist eine Warnung“
Chapter 8 – Miscellaneous grammar & vocabulary II
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• ”zwar“
•exercise: ”zwar“ – ”Wirtschaft wächst wieder“
• info: ”...im Vergleich zum Vorjahreszeitraum...“
• group nouns
• exercise: singular nouns / group nouns
• about being consistent...
• ”je / desto“ (with exercise)
• ”umso“
• ”to take / to last“
• exercise: ”to take / to last“
• marathon exercise: ”to take / to last“
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• ”while / during“
• exercise: while / during
• ”traffic / trafficker“
• ”as well as“
• ”of which / whom“
• exercise: ”of which / whom“
• ”whom“
• ”erst“
• exercise: ”erst“
• ”because, as, since, for“
• ”sollen“ – ”is to“ (with exercise)
• info: ”Leiche“
• ”sollen“ – ”is said to“
• exercise: ”sollen“ – ”Hewlett-Packard schluckt Compaq“
• info: ”Branche“
• info: ”subsidiary“
• stressing borrowed words
• ”like / as“
•exercise: ”like / as“
• info: ”in China proper“
• info: About Indians and Eskimos and political correctness
• multiple adjectives
• possessive forms
• exercise: ”Kabeljau“
Chapter 9 – There’s more to adverbs than you think
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• all about adverbs
• exercise: adverbs that modify adjectives and other adverbs
• comparative adverbs
• exercise: comparative adverbs – 6 sentences
• evercise: ”Bitzel aus zweiter Hand“
243. Unit 3 – Translating without a
bilingual dictionary
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• translating without a dictionary...?
Chapter 1 – Translating individual words
without a bilingual dictionary
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• translating without a bilingual dictionary
• exercise: translating individual words
Chapter 2 – The art of rephrasing
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• the art of rephrasing
• rephrasing – at the possible expense of quality or style
• exercise: rephrasing – 6 sentences
• exercise: ”Magere Martinsgänse“
• exercise: ”Impeachment“
267. Unit 4 – Dos and don‘ts
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1.) use your dictionary!
2.) use plural forms
3.) don’t capitalize currencies
4.) placing currency symbols correctly
5.) don’t use contractions
6.) no initial capital after a colon
7.) ”in Cuba“ or ”on Cuba“?
8.) using articles before proper names
9.) ”a university“ or ”an university“
10.) capitalization of titles
11.) don’t offer alternatives!
12.) how to write numbers
13.) the use of ”e.g.“ and ”i.e.“
14.) ”someone has left his or her umbrella“
15.) ”the United States are...“?
16.) ”the U.S.“ or ”the U.S.A.“?
17.) ”man“ = ”one“, or ”you“ – or what?
18.) ”...so ein Firmensprecher.“
19.) work experiences...
20.) ”the Industrie- und Handelskammer“?
291. Unit 5 – Translation marathon
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• a final word before we close...
practice texts
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1.) ”Um Schloss Windsor weht bald ein Hauch von Dallas“
2.) ”Bombardier“
3.) ”Entzweite Welten“
4.) ”Ulan-Bator“
5.) ”Die Fledermausmenschen von Manila“
6.) ”Die Allianz-Arena in München“
7.) ”Geiselnahme auf Shell-Bohrinseln in Nigeria“
8.) ”Die Insel Neufundland“
9.) ”Guantánamo Bay“
10.) ”Neuer Streit um alte Tinte“
11.) ”Freudenberg schließt Gerberei“
12.) ”Traumziel: Griechische Inseln“
13.) ”Neues von der Feta-Front“
14.) ”Streitobjekt ‚Marrakesch’“
15.) ”Schuldenfalle Handy“
16.) ”Die Fremdenlegion“
17.) ”Knast für Geschlechtsbestimmung“
18.) ”Hurrikan ‚Rita’, Ölpreis und die G 7“
19.) ”Frauencrew fliegt über Pakistan“
20.) ”E-Mails als Stressfaktor?“
21.) ”Forum junge Wissenschaft“
22.) ”Csontleves“
23.) ”Wo die Liebe hinfällt“
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24.) ”Trost durch Freunde“
25.) ”Zeit zum Schweigen“
26.) ”Das Tote Meer stirbt“
27.) ”Der Master-Plan“
28.) ”Die Ausgewanderten“
29.) ”Der Indusdelfin“
30.) ”Dresdner Bank: Kreditgeber der SS“
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• comments on our Translation Marathon texts
340.
• Literaturangaben
Stephen Krug, born in Germany and raised and educated in Canada,
is a professional translator, but meanwhile earns his living mainly with
teaching. Besides teaching Translation and Canadian Studies at the
University of Mannheim, Grammar and Conversation / Discussion at
the University’s Studium Generale, and Business English at the SRH
Fachhochschule in Heidelberg, he prepares foreign-language-secretary
trainees for their IHK-exams (translation and business correspondence)
and gives job-specific English lessons to Berufsakademie interns and
other employees at a number of major companies in the region, among
them Freudenberg in Weinheim and SAP in Walldorf. Beyond that, he is
actively involved in a number of exam committees at the IHK Pfalz and
the IHK Rhein-Neckar.
In the course of his many years of teaching Translation at the university and to his foreign-language-secretary trainees, Stephen has developed and refined a systematic, step-by-step approach
to translating that never fails to amaze his students on account of its clear structure and relative
simplicity – provided the student contributes a certain degree of interest in the subject and a rather
good command of the English language to start with. His perenniel success with this systematic
approach eventually led him to put together the textbook ”The Master of Translation“ and to get it
published by the Mannheim University Press so that those students, trainees and business employees
beyond his direct reach might also benefit from it.
ISBN: 3-939352-15-2
ISBN: 978-3-939352-15-0