Article,
Coping with You
The Translation Journal, (2004)
Abstract
The PM was a bit green. And when the client asked for a few changes, he asked me, with pointed irony 'There must be an agreed translation for a simple word like contact. Don't you think so?' the language in Brazil is changing so fast that grammar books cannot keep the pace and what they recommend is not what sounds acceptable to many. Oh, well, when you translate a list of unconnected sentences, without any context whatsoever, which someone else is to feed into some existing translation, done by someone you never heard of, there is no telling whether a particular instance of contact should be treated as a noun (contato) or as a verb. In addition, if it is to be treated as a verb, we still must decide between infinitive (contatar) and imperative (contate). I know it could not be a present indicative, because there was no pronoun. But if it is an imperative, it can be singular and plural (contate/contatem). And, if it is an infinitive and the translation into Portuguese, there is a good chance we should use an inflected infinitive (infinitivo flexionado, which, in the case of regular verbs, is identical to the future subjunctive) - for Portuguese infinitives can change for person too, which is more than they can do in many other famous and excellent languages. That gives you quite a fistful of possibilities and does not take into account the fact that all those words may be spelt with ct, too: contacto, contactar, contacte,... an option preferred by many even in Brazil.
