English - Greek (need help)

[Emma_85]

Hmm... I thought I might try and translate something from English into Greek (I've got an important exam coming up next week...). I've never tried to do this before and it took me absolutely ages! One hour for just this one sentence and I'm not even sure I got it right :'(. <br />Ok here goes:<br /><br />The sun was about to sink below the horizon when she noticed the two ships sailing away from the island had vanished from sight.<br /><br />Lol, now this is my very loose translation:<br /><br />[face=SPIonic]Nu~n h)~n pro\ h(li/ou du/ntoj,[/face] <br />[face=SPIonic]o(po/te h)|sqe/to au)th/ o(ti/ ta\s du/o nau~s pepleukui/aj[/face]<br />[face=SPIonic]a)po/ th~s nh~sous h)fani/smenai ei)si/n u(po/ th~s e)poyewj<br />[/face]. <br />I'm not sure about [face=SPIonic]h)fani/smenai ei)si/n[/face] and about where to put the accent on that last word, in the nominative it's on the first epsilon, but no idea where to put it, when the words in genitive. <br />Another thing I didn't know how to translate properly was she. ??? Because this is the first sentence I thought I couldn't just leave it as a 3rd person singular ending with nothing at all to go with it. Maybe it would be better to use the demonstrative pronoun instead of saying she saw it herself?<br /> :-\<br />Please help me, I'm so lost when translating English - Greek.

[Skylax]

[quote author=Emma_85 link=board=2;threadid=768;start=0#7702 date=1065271315]<br /><br />The sun was about to sink below the horizon when she noticed the two ships sailing away from the island had vanished from sight.<br />[/quote]<br /><br />I would say :<br /><br />[face=SPIonic]<br />(Hli/ou du/esqai me/llontoj u(po\ to\n o(ri/zonta ku/klon h)|/sqeto h( gunh\ o(/ti ai( nh=ej a)mfo/terai a)po\ th=j nh/sou a)napleu/sasai h)fani/sqhsan.[/face]<br /><br />Or :<br />[face=SPIonic]<br />To/t' h)/dh e)/melle o( h(/lioj du/esqai o(/te h( gunh\ ...<br />[/face]<br /><br />So, for "she" : "the woman"<br />First version if the departure of the ships is the most important thing.<br />Second version if the sunset is more important.<br />[face=SPIonic]u(po\ to\n o(ri/zonta ku/klon[/face]<br />is definitely not necessary, but I don't know what your horrible teacher wants you to do.<br /><br />

<br />I'm not sure about [face=SPIonic]h)fani/smenai ei)si/n[/face] and about where to put the accent on that last word, in the nominative it's on the first epsilon, but no idea where to put it, when the words in genitive.<br />

<br /><br />It was nearly correct ! In fact, it is<br />[face=SPIonic]h)fanisme/nai ei)si/n[/face]<br />but I wouldn't use a perfect here.<br />[face=SPIonic]e)/poyij, e)po/yewj[/face] It is an apparent exception, but the accent was put there when the word was still [face=SPIonic], e)po/yhoj[/face]. It changed later.<br />

[Emma_85]

Thanks a lot! ;D<br /><br />[face=SPIonic]mellw[/face] was the word I was trying to think of! I knew it existed, but I just couldn't remember it how ever hard I tried to! <br /><br />I thought I would use the Perfect because of its resultant aspect. But 'vanished', well it's already gone then. You're right it doesn't need the perfect, aorist is better. <br />And the woman does sound better than what I tried . Thank you!

[Skylax]

Oooops ! The plural nominative of [face=SPIonic]h( nau=j, new/j[/face] is [face=SPIonic]nh=ej[/face], not my [face=SPIonic]nau=j[/face] :-[ , which is either singular nominative or plural accusative. Please correct it else the teacher will surely bite !

[Emma_85]

There are only two words we've had to learn of by heart like that, just naus and Zeus.