need help on translation.. those fluent in english
By larskie23
@larskie23 (866)
Philippines
July 24, 2007 12:23am CST
my little sister ask me if i could translate a tagalog word to english word.
then i said yes, but when she gave me the words.. i cant..
i really dont know how to translate it.
so i post it here so i can get answers and give it to her later. i hope i can get a good one. here it goes:
"PANG ILANG PRESIDENTE NG PILIPINAS SI GMA"
tough??
1 person likes this
5 responses
@secretbear (19448)
• Philippines
13 Dec 07
this is really hard. ^.^ so what I did is consult the brainies here at the office even our assistant regional director! LOL good thing she was in a good mood. ^__^
according to her, the question cannot be translated literally. I guess its one of those tagalog phrases and words which don't really have an accurate english equivalent like bahala ka, malay ko sa 'yo, etc. ^__^;; she thought about it carefully and this is what she gave me:
"under the Republic, in the line of succession, what number does PGMA occupies in terms of presidency?"
LOL I don't know if its correct, but it sounds okay so I guess it is. ^__^;; the reason for the word "republic" there is because there was the Commonwealth government and its different from the Republic. ^__^;; she's that specific. ^__^;;
1 person likes this
@secretbear (19448)
• Philippines
13 Dec 07
oh sorry, "bahala ka" could mean "its up to you". ^__^;; but you know what I mean there.
@larskie23 (866)
• Philippines
14 Dec 07
hi secretbear. thanks for your time asking people. actually this post has been long ago, and i really appreciate you askingd even your a assitant regional director. and yours i think is the best translation i can get. yes this kind of question cant be translated word by word but has to replace the words but must still have the same meaning. your boss had been very specific, she even mentioned with the kind of government we had before. cheers!! :-)
@earncommunity (1183)
• India
14 Dec 07
its amazing how these kind of questions circulate around the world in different languages!! I'm not able to understand what you have written in your language to translate, but I could very well guess the question form the responses that you have got! I think you are looking for the translation for the word "GMA" , there is no such word or usage in English language but this is the word which comes to us trying to get an absolute translation for that word... "Howmuchth" ??? am i right? or did i get it totally wrong? :P My local language is malayalam, and we have one similar to this circulating here aswell!!
@larskie23 (866)
• Philippines
14 Dec 07
hi there my friend, thanks for time reading and answering my post. but im sorry that your guess is wrong. Im asking for the translation of "pang ilan". the word GMA is the acronym of our current country's President. Actually, when translated literally the word "ilan" is "how much", maybe its the same question circulating in your place. but since the word "pang" is added to "ilan" that makes it "pang ilan" you cannot translate it to english directly. so i ask if people here specially filipinos if hey have encountered this question so i would know the answer. thanks again. happy mylotting.
1 person likes this
@kat_princess (1470)
• Philippines
24 Jul 07
I was asked the same question back in high school but it was just a prank.Ask your sister if it is really for school.Pero honestly,prank lang yan because it's impossible to translate as your diction will get distorted.Don't worry about it.You"re not stupid for not answering that question.
@larskie23 (866)
• Philippines
25 Jul 07
well, she didnt say its a school assignment, yeah maybe its just prank. anyway, id like to know too, coz im puzzled already. :-)
@larskie23 (866)
• Philippines
26 Jul 07
Hi there dbhattji. its written on our local language, which is "tagalog". actually its not really a joke, but its kinda being a joke, because there is not straight translation of the sentence that is being translated.
