Which is the hardest word to translate in this sentence?
哪一個單詞是這個句子中最難翻譯的?
"Know" is easy to translate. "Pep rally" doesn't have a direct analog in a lot of languages and cultures, but can be approximated.
“know”是很容易翻譯的。“pep rally”(比賽前的動員大會)在許多語言與文化中沒有一個直接的對應(yīng)意義但是可以被猜出含義。
But the hardest word there is actually one of the smallest,"you".
但是最難的詞實際上是短詞之一,“you”。
As simple as it seems, it's often impossible to accurately translate "you" without knowing a lot more about the situation where it's being said.
在不大清楚具體應(yīng)用語境的情況下,盡管“you”看起來很簡單,實際上經(jīng)常很難準(zhǔn)確翻譯出來。
To start with, how familiar are you with the person you're talking to?
首先,你對你講話的對象到底有多熟悉?
Many cultures have different levels of formality.
許多文化中都有著不同標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的禮節(jié)。
A close friend, someone much older or much younger, a stranger, a boss. These all may be slightly different "you's."
親近朋友,大很多或小很多的人,陌生人,上司,這些人用“you”的時候都有細(xì)微的差別。

In many languages, the pronoun reflects these differences through what's known as the T–V distinction.
在許多文化中,代詞通過T-V distinction(即用復(fù)數(shù)形態(tài)來表示來表示敬語)來反映這些差異。
In French, for example, you would say "tu" when talking to your friend at school, but "vous" when addressing your teacher.
比如在法語中,你可能在學(xué)校里和朋友聊天時用“tu”來稱呼對方,但當(dāng)與老師講話時便會用“vous”。
Even English once had something similar. Remember the old-timey "thou?"
甚至英語中也曾有過相似現(xiàn)象。還記得古英語的“thou”嗎?
Ironically, it was actually the informal pronoun for people you're close with, while "you" was the formal and polite version.
諷刺的是,它實際上是對親近之人的非正式人稱代詞,現(xiàn)在所用的 “you”才是一種更加正式、禮貌的版本。
That distinction was lost when the English decided to just be polite all the time.
不過這種差異在英語決定只維持禮節(jié)性之時就遺失了。
But the difficulty in translating "you" doesn't end there.
不過在翻譯“you”的時候這種差異并沒有就此終結(jié)。
In languages like Hausa or Korana, the "you" form depends on the listener's gender.
比如在豪薩語和科拉納語中,“you”的形式取決于聽者的性別。
In many more, it depends on whether they are one or many, such as with German "Du" or "ihr."
而在更多的情況下,它取決于聽者是一個還是很多個,比如說德語中的“du”和“ihr”。
Even in English, some dialects use words like "y'all" or "youse" the same way.
即使在英語中,某些方言有類似于“y‘a(chǎn)ll”或是“youse”的詞。
Some plural forms, like the French "vous" and Russian "Вы" are also used for a single person to show that the addressee is that much more important, much like the royal "we."
有些復(fù)數(shù)形式,比如說法語中的‘vous’和俄語中的“Вы”也都是由一個人來表示語言接收方的至關(guān)重要性,非常像高貴版的“we”。
And a few languages even have a specific form for addressing exactly two people, like Slovenian "vidva."
并且很多語言甚至都有特殊的形式來額外強(qiáng)調(diào)僅僅兩個人,比如說斯洛文尼亞語的“vidva”。
If that wasn't complicated enough, formality, number, and gender can all come into play at the same time.
如果還不夠復(fù)雜的話,關(guān)系、數(shù)量與性別都可以同時出現(xiàn)對選詞產(chǎn)生影響。
In Spanish, "tú" is unisex informal singular, "usted" is unisex formal singular, "vosotros" is masculine informal plural, "vosotras" is feminine informal plural, and "ustedes" is the unisex formal plural. Phew!
在西班牙語中,“tu”是一個陰陽皆宜的非正式單數(shù)詞,“usted”是一個陰陽皆宜的正式單數(shù)詞,“vosotros”是一個陽性的非正式復(fù)數(shù)詞,“vosotras”是一個陰性的非正式復(fù)數(shù)詞,“ustedes”是一個陰陽皆宜的正式復(fù)數(shù)詞。唉喲!
After all that, it may come as a relief that some languages often leave out the second person pronoun.
說了那么多,讓人釋然的是,有些語言常常省略掉第二人稱代詞。
In languages like Romanian and Portuguese, the pronoun can be dropped from sentences because it's clearly implied by the way the verbs are conjugated.
在羅馬尼亞語和葡萄牙語中,代詞可能從句子中省略掉,因為動詞結(jié)合的方式很明顯地順便就將其給指了出來。
And in languages like Korean, Thai, and Chinese, pronouns can be dropped without any grammatical hints.
又比如在韓語、泰語及漢語中,代詞可以在沒有任何語法暗示的情況下給省略掉。
Speakers often would rather have the listener guess the pronoun from context than use the wrong one and risk being seen as rude.
講話的人常常寧愿聽眾根據(jù)文本來猜這些代詞,而不是冒著被當(dāng)成粗魯?shù)娘L(fēng)險使用錯誤的代詞。
In one extreme example, 18th-century scholar Wang Xihou was executed, along with his family, simply for referring to the Emperor in a too familiar way.
舉一個極端的例子,18世紀(jì)的學(xué)者王錫侯與他的家人被執(zhí)行了死刑,僅僅因為以一個太親近的方式提及了皇帝。
So if you're ever working as a translator and come across this sentence without any context: "You and you, no, not you, you, your job is to translate 'you' for yourselves"...Well, good luck.
所以如果你曾當(dāng)過筆譯者,然后碰見沒有任何上下文聯(lián)系的這個句子,"You and you, no, not you, you, your job is to translate 'you' for yourselves",那么,祝你好運(yùn)咯。
And to the volunteer community who will be translating this video into multiple languages: Sorry about that!
對于那些要把本視頻翻譯成多種語言的義務(wù)翻譯者們說抱歉咯!