Nonsensical Spanish--need help fixing it
Heidita says that the following Spanish sentence doesn't make sense. I don't know what the problem is. I put it in the translator and perfect English came out (I know that doesn't always mean it's right). I want to fix it, but I don't know how. Can someone point me in the right direction?
No mire ahora, Jimbo, pero creo que hay algo raro y escurridizo sobre los tramoyistas que han sido contratados para nuestra sesión de grabación.
Don't look now, Jimbo, but I think there's something squirrelly about the tech crew they've hired for our recording session.
8 Answers
Well, a big part of the problem here is what, exactly, do you mean by "squirrelly"
Some dictionaries don't have the word at all. Merrian-Webster defines it as:
- tending to move around a lot
- very odd, silly, or foolish
Somehow, from the context, I don't think either is quite what you mean.
Another problem is that you probably wouldn't use a "tramoyista" for a recording session. Tramoyista is a "stagehand" most commonly used in theater and stage concerts than in recording studios.
So you're faced with the main reason why tools like Google Translate and similar things never work well, and it's that they necessarily provide literal translations. It will probably take many more years of AI development before they're truly reliable.
So while your sentence may be "technically" correct, it looks very weird and unnatural in Spanish.
Let me put is this way, by turning the example on its head. If I wrote something like:
"Jim do refrain from glancing presently, nonetheless it is my thinking that a behaviour resembling a rodent's is to be observed over the stagehand workforce that is providing contractual labor for the instance of chronicling where we participate."
This is essentially a correct, if awkward, sentence. But your average native English speaker is very unlikely to come up with something like that - or understand exactly what I mean.
Don't worry, your sentence isn't quite that weird, but it does not seem natural.
How could it be different? Well, here's one possibility:
"No mires, Jimbo, pero me parece que hay algo muy raro / muy sospechoso con esos técnicos que contrataron para nuestra (sesión de) grabación."
If you put this through Google Translate, it will not give you the same sentence that you wrote in English, but it is less likely that a native speaker would question it.
That's the difference between literal translation and interpretation. The first one is easy, but unsatisfactory. The second one is a lot harder, and requires much reading, listening and practice of your target language.
A couple of comments regarding this particular post:
First, I didn't think that AnnRon had used Google Translator. I just wanted to make the point that literal translations tend to be less successful than interpretations, particularly as the translated text becomes longer. I mentioned Google Translator because that is how the tool works.
I use it, myself, when I need a starting point for a particular difficult translation, or when dealing with a language I just don't know at all, and I employ the same test AnnRon used: if it translates back in a meaningful way, it's probably a good enough sentence.
As we just learned, however, that trick doesn't always work.
Second, , yeah, I know what "squirrelly" means in that context. I wanted to point out that because there are several possible meanings, and the one intended is one least shown in the online dictionaries, that would make finding the right word that much harder. Notice that in my interpretation, I opted for simply dropping it off altogether. Trying to squeeze it in just creates redundancy and confusion. Once again, these are the kinds of decisions you learn to make with experience and lots of practice.
Nonetheless, I thought that AnnRon's attempt was actually pretty good, and I found the question to be interesting enough to warrant the long reply. I usually just like to keep it short.
I am in fact kind of surprised that other native speakers didn't understand it. I thought the phrasing was weird, but I understood what she meant.
Ah, my "grano de arena":
"Squirrel", "squirrelly", "to squirrel", "to squirrel out of" are quite common the the Midwest US.
A former President of the US said, "It depends on what the meaning of 'is" is." That was a squirrelly reply to a difficult question. He was trying to squirrel out of an embarrassing situation.
A squirrel is a person who twists and turns and will do anything to get out of something in which he is involved, but doesn't want to admit. He will lie, twist the truth, omit things, blame others, lead people on a "wild goose chase", etc.
A squirrel is not a trustworthy person.
Hi ann, good for you to post this here, good job 
No mires, Jimbo, pero me parece que hay algo muy raro / muy sospechoso con esos técnicos que contrataron para nuestra (sesión de) grabación."
Seeeeeeee, I would not have been able to do that; after all, here we are talking about a bilingual speaker,..
Gekko, eres un crack...yo ni había entendido la frase ..
A couple of minor issues maybe:
Jimbo sounds pretty informal, so probably "No mires ahora."
The passive "se han contratado" - "have been hired" could be better?
The major issue may be with the usage of "escurridizo"? Maybe "squirrelly" just doesn't translate well into Spanish?
I have no idea though Ann. Those are just possibilities. I look forward to a proper answer 
Thanks to everyone who responded. I'm one of those people who has very limited opportunity to speak Spanish with anyone, much less a native speaker, so this forum is a sort of Spanish lifeline. Learning has its fits and starts. I feel like the world's slowest learner at times, so everyone's input and everyone's patience is much appreciated.
Hi Ian, for me it was more or less clear too what she wanted to say ...however, her Spanish sentence made no sense and I had no idea how to word that in Spanish.
There is something fishy going on.
It was like translating this one to :
Hay algo pescado pasando.
You would get blank stares.
Ann, it hadn't even occurred to me to think that you might have used a translator.
Too late to affect the responses on this thread.
For me it was obvious what was meant in the English.
We often use words based on animals - some have meanings we all know.
For example "There is something fishy going on." That has nothing to do with fish.
Squirelly is more elusive and probably not obvious even to English speakers apart from there being only squirrels in the picture and probably not translatable into Spanish..
