Archives for: August 2010, 05

С — часть вторая (with)

August 5th, 2010 by Don

We mentioned the other day that the preposition "с" + the instrumental case means "with." There is another context where it means "with," but we don't translate it as "with," and that is when two nouns are joined together as the subject (or object) of a sentence. In these contexts we must translate "с" as "and." For example:

Глеб с Анной издевались над иностранцами. Gleb and Anna taunted the foreigners.
Милиционер остановил Петю с Андрюшей и попросил документы. The policeman stopped Pyotr and Andrei and asked for their identification.
Мама дала Вере с Таней изюм. Mama gave some raisins to Vera and Tanya.
Моя сестра постоянно болтает об Анжелине с Брэдом. My sister constantly chatters about Angelina and Brad.

In this context translating "с" as "with" sounds terrible in English and is a grammatical error.

Posted in Art of translation, S | 1 comment »