German sentence: "Der Terrorkrieger geniesst ein Gefuehl der Allmacht"
My translation: "The terrorist enjoys a feeling of almightiness"
My lecturer gave feedback to the class about this translation that we handed in last week and his suggestion for this sentence was "the terrorist enjoys a feeling of being almighty". He then said "and the person who wrote 'a feeling of almightiness' should take a long look at themself in the mirror!". I have no idea what's so wrong with my suggestion that it calls for group humiliation! Any suggestions would be helpful. Thank you!
2006-11-09 03:14:44 · 17 answers · asked by jammycaketin 4 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
Almightiness IS an English word: I've just found it in the Collins English dictionary and on merriam-webster online http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/almightiness . It's listed under 'almighty' as the noun from the adjective.
2006-11-09 03:24:19 · update #1
I can't see it either, both translations convey practically the same meaning in English. Maybe he thinks there's no such word as almightiness - maybe he's right about that I'm not sure - but it still loses nothing in its meaning all the same.
2006-11-09 03:18:56 · answer #1 · answered by Amy W 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Almightiness is not an English word but your teacher it an ars**ole for making fun of you. He could at least have brought it positively by saying, be careful with your English when translating, almightiness does not exist. Translating is an art and often when translating from languages like German which has a completey different structure from English, these silly mistakes creep in and you can no longer see your own error. You would never have made that error when writing an English sentence, it is only when translating that words seem to get invented and the thing is they look OK even when checking them!
2006-11-09 11:30:22 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think your lecturer is being very picky - the only problem with it is that almightiness is not a word in English, you just have to change the German noun to 'being almighty', I've studied German for most of my life and that's the best answer I can come up with!? As for taking a long hard look at yourself in the mirror - clueless.
2006-11-09 11:19:25 · answer #3 · answered by mishmash 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No such word.
But the way you translated sounds like:
the terrorist enjoys feeling".. in other words you have suggested he is the Alpha and Omega.. (the Almighty)
a feeling of "being almighty" only suggests the terrorist feels that he's has reached a state of being above all people.
"being "and then the non word "almightyness"
It was an insult..sentence.
Although I know you didn't mean it..and you didn't deserve to be treated by someone acting like your "sentence".. your lecturer acted in an almightiness way...lol
2006-11-09 11:37:25 · answer #4 · answered by gemma 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Nothing is wrong with it. I'm guessing your instructor is German and lacks a complete understanding of English. Technically, the grammatical construction is genetive, so the translation should be "...of the almighty". If the translation were to be "of being almighty" or "allmightiness", then the German word used should have been "Allmachtigkeit".
2006-11-09 11:22:57 · answer #5 · answered by blakenyp 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You don't by any chance go to Manchester University do you?
One of my lecturers constantly humiliated me when we did translations. Don't let it get you down, what they don't realise is:
a) They are native speakers, we are learning and will not always be perfect and besides although a multitude of answers are right, unless it's their exact answer you get marked down.
and...
b) Translation is a completely seperate degree! I hated doing translations as part of my German lessons. They were so difficult. Our lecturer even picked out translations where we had to look up some of the English words to start with lol.
Good Luck.
2006-11-10 07:51:53 · answer #6 · answered by Vicky A 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's not that bad, I didn't think - as a native English speaker, and a pedantic one at that, it doesn't seem worth making a fuss about. I hear worse every day.
Technically I suppose it should have been "almight" (in that mighty people have might, not mightiness), but that's not an English word. It's analogous to saying "power", and not "powerfulness".
You could always point out to him that "almightiness" is an entirely proper form according to the American Heritage dictionary...
(though I agree with others who have offered "omnipotence" as a superior alternative)
2006-11-09 11:25:04 · answer #7 · answered by gvih2g2 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
My opinion: I hate teachers who do that! Humiliating students is not the way to improve their skills. At least he said the person, not your name, so maybe your colleagues didn't understand it was you. Of course maybe there's no such word as almightiness, since the noun is "might", but that's no reason to be so insensitive. Some teachers have a high IQ, but emotional intelligence, nada! Please don't be saddened, that lecturer is just stupid!
2006-11-09 11:22:09 · answer #8 · answered by Atomin 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No such word as almightiness, I'm afraid, although the context is clear and your teacher should certainly not have singled it/you out - he/she is a bad egg. If you're ever tempted to add -iness to the end of a word, just think if there's a better way of saying it.
2006-11-09 11:19:53 · answer #9 · answered by PETER G 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i think maybe he means that you've made the statement into a fact..like "if you are a terrorist you are almighty", where as you should have *meant* "he feels as if he is almighty" lol, i think he was trying to be funny with his comment! dont worry translation is tricky!
2006-11-09 11:18:50 · answer #10 · answered by pseudoname 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋