常见中式英语

1.

带来

In Chinese texts, abstract emotions like happiness, pressure and benefits may be ―brought‖, but in English

this is usually considered, at the very least, a bit awkward or, at the very worst, bizarre. In any case I

would advise forgetting the word ―bring‖ altogether and substituting it for a specific verb or a different

structure. Some examples as follows:

带来快乐

-

―Bring happiness‖ is a little weird to my ears; depending on context, ―brighten up‖, ―make

someone happy‖, ―please‖ (as a verb) and other str

uctures would be much preferred. Thus:

他的课给我们带来很多快乐。

Might be rendered as: ―His classes make us so happy‖ or perhaps ―His classes really brighten us up.‖

You

could even say, ―His classes put us in a good mood.‖ A literal translation of ―His classes bring

us a lot of

happiness‖ sounds strange in English.

带来压力

-

―Bring pressure‖ is possible, though a bit awkward. In English the common collocations are

―put pressure on someone/something‖ or ―feel pressure from something/someone‖. But there are other

ways to express the same thing, economically, in English, as can be demonstrated in this example:

这个作业给我带来很多压力。

You might say: ―This work is really stressful‖ and avoid a literal translation altogether. Again, avoiding the

word ―bring‖ works wonders. Another good e

xample:

这个情况给不少企业带来压力。

My suggested translation is: ―This situation puts a lot of pressure on a number of enterprises.‖ Of course,

the main idea is that you avoid using the word ―bring‖.

带来利益

-

You may have come across the Chinglish expression ―bring benefits‖ which, whilst is not

unheard of in English, could be improved greatly by simply using the verb ―benefits‖. ―Something has

benefits‖ or ―something is beneficial‖ may also be possible. Consider:

娱乐园的正式开放，给周边的很多行业都带来利益。

Literally: ―The official opening o

f the amusement park has brought benefits to many of the surrounding

industries.‖

More naturally: ―The official opening of the amusement park has

benefited many of the surrounding

industries.‖

It’s not a case of right or wrong –

and, indeed, there’s nothin

g grammatically wrong with the first

translation. However in good, formal English redundant words tend to be exchanged for more succinct

expressions.

2.

正确

Put simply, in Chinese logic, opinions can be labelled as ―right‖ or ―wrong‖, ―correct‖ or ―incorrect‖ with

relative ease. Whilst this kind of extreme reasoning may be used from time to time in English, you will

sound a lot more intelligent if you use higher-quality adjectives such as:

?

convincing or persuasive (

有说服力的

)

?

appropriate or suitable (

合适的

)

?

logical or rational (

逻辑的；有道理的

)

?

credible, believable or plausible (

可信的

)

?

equitable or fair (

公平的

)

?

rational or reasonable (

合理的

)

Now you might say, ―But we do say things are right and wrong, correct and incorrect in English!‖ and this

is true. In conversation, for example, you may render

我觉得你说得对

as ―I think you’re right‖ and that’s

totally fine. However in formal writing the vocabulary should be suitably high-level. Take a look at:

这个论点是正确的。

As you can imagine, there are many possible translations, but I would advise avoiding ―right‖ or ―correct‖

in any case for stylistic reasons. (If you really must know, I think ―This point is convincing‖ is a good

translati

on, but even ―point‖ may be omitted depending on the situation, since English prefers brevity

wherever possible.)

3.

培养

To be brief, whilst

培养

is often translated as ―cultivate‖, my opinion is this word has largely been

replaced by ―foster‖ in recent times

.

性格培养

-

To ―build one’s character‖ or ―character

-

building‖ (as a noun and attributive) are decent, albeit

formal, translations.

4.

外国的

/

外来的

For whatever reason, the word ―foreign‖ has developed slightly negative connotations in the past few

decades and, as a result, you should avoid using it when translating

外国的

or

外来的

. Take, for instance,

the fact that you’ll probably never hear a native speaker refer to students from other countries as ―foreign

students‖ unless it was a negative context –

―international

students‖ or ―overseas students‖ are the

standard expressions. More examples are as follows:

外国人

-

―Foreigner[s]‖ is a totally acceptable translation but my feeling is native speakers of English

would avoid this term. What would they substitute it with? I would think in most cases they would try to

use a more specific term like ―Chinese‖, ―Korean‖, etc, or even say something like ―international guests‖ or

―visitors from overseas‖.

外国旅客

-

―Foreign tourist[s]‖ sounds so Chinese to me; ―international tourist[s]‖ is much better, and

more common according to Google.

外国投资者

-

―Foreign investor[s]‖ is fine; ―international investor[s]‖ is more natural.

外语

-

This may be one of the exceptions; ―foreign language[s]‖ appears to be the accepted term. ―A

as a

second langu

age‖ is a very common structure as well.

To sum up, I’m not saying that English native speakers never use the word ―foreign‖ in a positive or

neutral sense, but rather that the word seems to be falling out of fashion and thus should be avoided

whenever possible. This could be seen as part of the Political Correctness (PC) phenomenon, a broad

concept which goes beyond the idea behind this post.

5.

高技术

When translating

高技术

―high technology‖ is perfectly acceptable but ―advanced technology‖ is much

more common in English according to Google. Note that there are no problems with the adjective

―high

-

t ech‖.

6.

导致

/

造成

导致

and

造成

have three main renderings in English, the small differences of which I will try to explain

here:

?

Result in / cause

–

implies a relatively quick result, e.g., ―The government’s proposal will

cause /

result in

higher unemployment rates.‖ (

政府的提议会导致更高的失业率。

)

?

Produce / create/ engender (formal)

–

implies a relatively quick result, usually in the form of a

product, e.g., ―His behaviour created a bad impression.‖ (

他的行为造成了不好的印象。

)

?

Breed

–

implies a negative result that is gradually formed, e.g., ―Disaster breeds famine‖ (

灾难

造成饥荒

) or ―Hatred breeds ignorance‖ (

仇恨导致无知

).

Notably, the differences here are very subtle and consequently the three senses may be interchangeable

at times. One good strategy you can use to avoid getting confused with the structures these words

produce is to introduce

a phenomenon in one sentence and then start a new sentence with ―As a result…‖

or ―Consequently…‖. I would imagine this structure is more common in modern, formal English anyway.

7.

引发

In contrast to

导致

, one should remember that

引发

suggests a gradual process and thus is better

expressed as ―lead to‖, ―trigger‖, ―give rise to‖ or ―bring about‖. I’ve also seen ―initiate‖ as a translation

but my feeling is that this is less common in English. Consider this example sentence:

科学家们认为污染排放会引发严重的环境问题。