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regarding hyphens

English translation: leave them out in English

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
German term or phrase:regarding hyphens
English translation:leave them out in English
Entered by: Olav Rixen

17:59 Nov 5, 2003
German to English translations [PRO]
Linguistics
German term or phrase: regarding hyphens
What is the conventional wisdom on translating a long list of hyphenated words such as Liefer-, Zahlungs-, Rückkaufs-, und andere Bedingungen? Do you use the hyphens in English as well, i.e. delivery-, payment-, buy-back-, and other conditions or do you leave them out?
Olav Rixen
Canada
Local time: 08:30
leave them out in English
Explanation:
generally speaking
Selected response from:

NGK
United States
Local time: 10:30
Grading comment
Thanks, Norbert, and William, too.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +9leave them out in English
NGK
4 +5Terms and Conditions of Delivery, Payment, etc.
William Stein


  

Answers


1 min   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +5
Terms and Conditions of Delivery, Payment, etc.


Explanation:
You can avoid the problem there. Otherwise its:
a-, b- and c-speaking participants

William Stein
Costa Rica
Local time: 09:30
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Teresa Reinhardt: only works for noun+adjective as in William's example
1 hr
agree  Maureen Holm, J.D., LL.M.: asker's terms not compound in English, so no correspondence -- WS's example DOES apply to English HYPHENATED words, e.g. English-speaking.
2 hrs
agree  Jeannie Graham
4 hrs
agree  Hilary Davies Shelby
4 hrs
agree  Harald Moelzer (medical-translator)
13 hrs
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2 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +9
leave them out in English


Explanation:
generally speaking

NGK
United States
Local time: 10:30
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish, Native in GermanGerman
PRO pts in category: 36
Grading comment
Thanks, Norbert, and William, too.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Louise Mawbey
2 mins
agree  CathyFS: (Not unless the words are normally hyphenated anyway)
2 mins
agree  Nicole Tata: definitely no hyphens in English although I do like William's elegant solution
4 mins
agree  Teresa Reinhardt
1 hr
agree  Trudy Peters
1 hr
neutral  Maureen Holm, J.D., LL.M.: better not to string them - WStein's solution more natural
2 hrs
agree  Stefan Simko
3 hrs
neutral  Hilary Davies Shelby: as others have pointed out, they must be normally hyphenated (as WS's example is) to be hyphenated in lists like that - in Olav's question, they would not be used in English
4 hrs
  -> I agree. That's why I said "generally speaking." "a-, b- and c-speaking participants" is an exception, but such exceptions are rare, for all practical purposes.
agree  Mario Marcolin
15 hrs
agree  David Moore (X)
18 hrs
agree  Gareth McMillan: If in doubt, leave them out!!
23 hrs
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