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Translation help

de rann, 9 janvier 2016

Messages : 9

Langue: English

rann (Voir le profil) 9 janvier 2016 01:29:25

How would you translate the phrase "as long as", as in "He is nice as long as everyone is respectful?

Would it be: Li estas agrabla dum ĉiu estas respekta.

Vestitor (Voir le profil) 9 janvier 2016 01:57:58

Perhaps:

Li estas agrabla kondiĉe ke ĉiu estas respekta.

?

sudanglo (Voir le profil) 9 janvier 2016 12:31:09

Li estas afabla kondiĉe ke oni montras al li respekton.

The meaning of 'as long as' in your sentence is probably 'provided that' rather than
'for the duration that'.

Dum has two uses (during and contrastive).

Pluvis dum la nokto
Mi estas afabla; dum mia fratino estas ...


'Kiel longe' is used to ask a question (how long?), but can also be used in the sense of 'as long as'.

kiel longe la nubo super la tabernaklo restis super ĝi, la Izraelidoj restadis tendare kaj ne elmoviĝadis; sed kiam ĝi leviĝis ... (old Testament)

00100100 (Voir le profil) 9 janvier 2016 16:21:55

sudanglo:The meaning of 'as long as' in your sentence is probably 'provided that' rather than 'for the duration that'.
I'm not understanding the distinction you're using here. Why isn't duration involved?

He showed up and somebody was rude immediately, he stopped being nice immediately. He showed up and everyone was polite for ten minutes and then someone was rude; he was nice for ten minutes and then stopped being nice. He showed up and everyone was polite for the duration of the event, he was nice the duration of the event.

Or, to put it another way, what is an example of 'as long as' that is 'for the duration that' and not 'provided that'?

devilyoudont (Voir le profil) 9 janvier 2016 18:11:51

When a word has multiple meanings, it is fairly common that there will not be an identical word which covers all of the same meanings within a foreign language.

From http://www.thefreedictionary.com

as long as
conj.
1. During the time that: "I'll stay as long as you need me."
2. Since: "As long as you've offered, I accept."
3. On the condition that: "I will cooperate as long as I am notified on time."

On the other side of things:

http://vortaro.net/#dum

I'll try to summarize but I've never been a good translator

dum
I. A preposition showing the time in whose duration something occurred
II. To make a dependent clause which means
1. The time in whose duration something occurred
2. An action or occurrence opposite to what is referred to (as opposed to tio & ke)
III. A prefix which is used in the same sense as the preposition
IV. Independently used as a morpheme (duma & dume)

The example sentence definitely falls under sense 3 of "as long as," a sense which does not exist for "dum."

Polaris (Voir le profil) 9 janvier 2016 18:46:06

rann:How would you translate the phrase "as long as", as in "He is nice as long as everyone is respectful?

Would it be: Li estas agrabla dum ĉiu estas respekta.
I've seen both "dum" and "kondicxe ke" as others have noted. If a condition is not involved (as in, do this for as long as necessary), then "tiom longe, kiom..." works well.

I'm actually glad that this thread came up as my first inclination was to say "cxiam ke", but apparently the above responses are current and more likely to be understood.

Miland (Voir le profil) 10 janvier 2016 11:23:34

rann:How would you translate the phrase "as long as", as in "He is nice as long as everyone is respectful?

Would it be: Li estas agrabla dum ĉiu estas respekta.
Depending on what you want to emphasize, dum, se, with perhaps nur before either might be appropriate. To distinguish that it is others who need to be respectful I might use aliaj or ĉiuj aliaj instead of ĉiu.

So one alternative suggestion might be
Li estas agrabla se aliaj estas respektaj.

Alkanadi (Voir le profil) 10 janvier 2016 13:44:47

Are these correct?

- Li estas agrabla, kiam ĉiu estas respekta.
- Li estas agrabla, se ĉiu estas respekta.

Miland (Voir le profil) 11 janvier 2016 08:44:08

Alkanadi:Are these correct?
- Li estas agrabla, kiam ĉiu estas respekta.
- Li estas agrabla, se ĉiu estas respekta.
They look all right to me.

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