Feb 15, 2012 16:20
12 yrs ago
Russian term

В тот вечер он поймал пять крупных рыб.

Not for points Russian to English Art/Literary Poetry & Literature Fiction
This is just from a story by a Russian author living in the Russian Federation and speaking normal literary Russian.
Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

Non-PRO (2): Angela Greenfield, Mark Hamlen

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Discussion

Judith Hehir Feb 15, 2012:
One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish... Sorry. Couldn't resist. This is one funny discussion here.
Angela Greenfield Feb 15, 2012:
I've never heard of a substance called "fish" Is it a "controlled substance"? LOL
dacs04 Feb 15, 2012:
What about five big specimens of fish? "Five big fish" is good enough. But if the translator feels it is necessary to underline that there were five instances of substance called "fish", then the above could be an option.

There is usually a way of bypassing the limitation of "only singular" and "only plural" forms of nouns for countable things.
Mark Hamlen Feb 15, 2012:
and louses or lice
MariyaN (X) Feb 15, 2012:
Houses for mouses or hice for mice ...
Diana Casu Feb 15, 2012:
one fish
five fish
fishes = different species of fish
Mark Hamlen Feb 15, 2012:
One fish, two fish, three fish One sheep, two sheep, three sheep

(Yes, fishes exists, but please don't use it).
Ian Mansbridge Feb 15, 2012:
seems a bit fishy to me... (sorry)
MariyaN (X) Feb 15, 2012:
To Asker: But you still need help, don't you? Why not award points to the person who helped you with that "fish problem" of yours?
Nicky Brown Feb 15, 2012:
I don't understand but maybe I'm missing the point In English this would just be "That evening he caught five huge/enormous fish"
Eugenio 85 (asker) Feb 15, 2012:
You know, Michael, it's a pure "fish matter" that annoys me, for рыба in English is fish, ловить рыбу is to fish, одна рыба is fish, много рыб is fish ! How, do you think, one should go about this "fish problem" when translating from Russian into English ?
Mikhail Kropotov Feb 15, 2012:
Any reason it's not for points?

Proposed translations

+4
38 mins
Selected

That evening he caught five big fish.

That evening he caught five big fish.
Note from asker:
Diana, I have chosen your version as most simple and acceptable to me. Thanks, once again.
Peer comment(s):

agree IvanKo
27 mins
thank you!
agree MariyaN (X)
1 hr
thank you!
agree Angela Greenfield
3 hrs
thank you!
agree cyhul
29 days
Something went wrong...
Comment: "Thank you, Diana !"
4 hrs

His harvest that night was 5 big fish

a little rephrased, a bit more stylistically colored. If that fits into the style of the context
Something went wrong...
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