{"id":490,"date":"2016-06-01T19:56:57","date_gmt":"2016-06-01T19:56:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/?p=490"},"modified":"2017-09-20T19:57:20","modified_gmt":"2017-09-20T19:57:20","slug":"grammatically-correct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/2016\/06\/01\/grammatically-correct\/","title":{"rendered":"Grammatically Correct"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"grammar-389907_1920\"<\/p>\n

This & That \u2015\u00a0Vignettes of a Professional Journey
\na column by\u00a0Ines Bojlesen<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

I often get into interesting arguments with translators and editors over the use of a certain word, a verb, or terminology in general. I thoroughly enjoy that this interaction is possible. Not all agencies allow me to contact the translator or editor, or sometimes even to know who they are.<\/p>\n

The Portuguese language is rich and complex. Grammar exercises should be a daily practice. I remember some of the rules by heart since they are used frequently. Others, however, send me digging into grammar books or resorting to expert grammar peers.<\/p>\n

When questioned about an issue, nothing is less reassuring to your editor or translator than explaining a linguistic choice \u201cbecause it sounds right.\u201d Or even more daunting is saying, \u201cI googled it.\u201d So many gross errors are perpetuated online!<\/p>\n

I have quite a collection of grammar books, the\u00a0Moderna Gram\u00e1tica Portuguesa<\/em>\u00a0by Evanildo Bechara being the primary reference. Other references I use are:\u00a0Dicion\u00e1rio de Verbos e Regimes\u00a0<\/em>by Francisco Fernandes,\u00a0Dicion\u00e1rio de Regimes de Substantivos e Adjetivos<\/em>\u00a0by Francisco Fernandes,\u00a0Dicion\u00e1rio de Quest\u00f5es Vern\u00e1culas<\/em>\u00a0by Napole\u00e3o Mendes de Almeida,\u00a0Manual de Reda\u00e7\u00e3o Jur\u00eddica<\/em>\u00a0by Jos\u00e9 Maria da Costa, and\u00a0Dicion\u00e1rio Anal\u00f3gico da L\u00edngua Portuguesa<\/em>\u00a0by Francisco Ferreira dos Santos Azevedo.<\/p>\n

Many agencies I work with ask me to justify the editing or corrections I make on an editing or proofreading project for an English-into-Portuguese text. The project manager needs to understand my comments, so explanations need to be in English. I always found it tricky to explain Portuguese grammar in English until I found an excellent source to help me out:\u00a0Modern Portuguese \u2013 a Reference Grammar\u00a0<\/em>by M\u00e1rio A. Perini.<\/p>\n

And then there are the cases when grammarians, peers, or other resources cannot solve or assure me of the correct answer. In one of these instances, the translation did not \u201csound right to me\u201d so I changed it to what I believed was correct. The feedback from the translator was that my correction was wrong and she would not accept it. We went back and forth with examples. In this particular case the translator had the final word, so her version was used.<\/p>\n

Not quite convinced, I decided to write to the\u00a0Academia Brasileira de Letras<\/i><\/a>, and use their link to\u00a0ABL Responde<\/a>. It was late on a Friday afternoon. I did not expect to receive an answer, let alone so fast. Two hours later I received an email with the explanation I needed:<\/p>\n

ABL RESPONDE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pergunta:\u00a0<\/strong>Agradecemos seu interesse na empresa ou Agradecemos seu interesse pela empresa (carta para candidato a um emprego)<\/p>\n

Resposta:<\/strong>\u00a0Prezada In\u00eas: as duas reg\u00eancias s\u00e3o aceitas, com a preposi\u00e7\u00e3o\u00a0em<\/i>\u00a0ou com a preposi\u00e7\u00e3o\u00a0por<\/i>\u00a0(pela).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have resorted to the\u00a0Academia Brasileira de Letras<\/i>\u00a0website several times since then and have always received a timely answer.<\/p>\n

I use the same criterion when translating into English. Grammar rules are a routine challenge, even when writing a simple email to a client. It gets as much dedication and research as I give to Portuguese.<\/p>\n

I know this may sound like a shallow subject to bring to this blog. But I experience it daily in my translations. Even in technical manuals, I sometimes get stuck on a grammar issue. After all, grammar is the fabric of our language, especially in its written form. As translators, we cannot underestimate the importance of conveying the message in a grammatically correct manner.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This & That \u2015\u00a0Vignettes of a Professional Journey a column by\u00a0Ines Bojlesen I often get into interesting arguments with translators and editors over the use of a certain word, a verb, or terminology in general. I thoroughly enjoy that this interaction is possible. Not all agencies allow me to contact the translator or editor, or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-490","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-this-that","7":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":491,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490\/revisions\/491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}