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Un personaje para olvidar

English translation: Someone or something best forgotten

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
Spanish term or phrase:Un personaje para olvidar
English translation:Someone or something best forgotten
Entered by: Adam Burman

15:06 Nov 14, 2006
Spanish to English translations [PRO]
Marketing - Tourism & Travel / Interview
Spanish term or phrase: Un personaje para olvidar
More from the interview:

Un personaje para recordar
El subcomandante Marcos.

Un personaje para olvidar
La falange española.

How would personaje be best dealt with here?

TIA
Adam Burman
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:21
Someone or something best forgotten
Explanation:
since in one case it is a person and the other a group thereof
Selected response from:

CMJ_Trans (X)
Local time: 18:21
Grading comment
Great - thanks again CMJ_Trans!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +7Someone or something best forgotten
CMJ_Trans (X)
4 +2Someone to forget
Margarita M. Martínez
4a forgettable personality.
yolanda Speece
4a well-known entity (that would be) better forgotten.
Refugio
4something to forget
neilmac
4A person to remember
George Rabel
4A presence to forget (remember)
Ronnie McKee
4A character {to forget}/{best forgotten}
Carol Gullidge
4an (entirely) forgettable character
Stuart Allsop
4something we should forget
Barbara Cochran, MFA
4An historical figure (entity) to forget
Gad Kohenov
3A power to forget
Patricia Rosas


  

Answers


3 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
A power to forget


Explanation:
Just a suggestion:
Subcomandante Marcos: a power to reckon with.
The Spanish Falange: a power to forget...

Since the latter is a force or organization, "personaje" seems like a misnomer to me...

Patricia Rosas
United States
Local time: 09:21
Works in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 64
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4 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
a forgettable personality.


Explanation:
:)

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Note added at 5 mins (2006-11-14 15:12:04 GMT)
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A forgettable force. Non-descript....

yolanda Speece
Local time: 11:21
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 12
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8 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
a well-known entity (that would be) better forgotten.


Explanation:
another option

Refugio
Local time: 09:21
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 63
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21 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +7
Someone or something best forgotten


Explanation:
since in one case it is a person and the other a group thereof

CMJ_Trans (X)
Local time: 18:21
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 48
Grading comment
Great - thanks again CMJ_Trans!

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Vanesa Camarasa (X)
21 mins
agree  Jan Castillo
1 hr
agree  Robert Copeland
1 hr
agree  Refugio: I like this... entity doesn't quite do it.
1 hr
agree  Nedra Rivera Huntington: Yes, I like "best forgotten".
2 hrs
agree  Vocabulum (X)
3 hrs
agree  Silvia Brandon-Pérez: Con Nedra
13 hrs
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20 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
something to forget


Explanation:
Someone to remember -> Col. Marcos
Something to forget -> La Falange Española

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Note added at 20 mins (2006-11-14 15:27:47 GMT)
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This is the best way for this type of "tick list" text, in my opinion.

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Note added at 21 mins (2006-11-14 15:28:47 GMT)
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All the other suggestions sound rather awkward or odd to me, but maybe that's just me...

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Note added at 23 mins (2006-11-14 15:30:03 GMT)
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Except for CMTJ's...

neilmac
Spain
Local time: 18:21
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 93
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3 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
A person to remember


Explanation:
I would put it just like that.

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Note added at 35 mins (2006-11-14 15:42:22 GMT)
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A person to forget

I made a mistake the first time. I´d still phrase it this way


George Rabel
Local time: 12:21
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Spanish
PRO pts in category: 28
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
A presence to forget (remember)


Explanation:
Since it seems like it would be best to use the same word in both cases, i.e "a presence to remember" and "a presence to forget", I like the word presence because it can be used for either a person or and organization or group (the falange).

Ronnie McKee
Spain
Local time: 18:21
Works in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 12
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59 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +2
Someone to forget


Explanation:
This is what it says. When the question is posed nobody knew the answer. They are not asking for "something" but "someone" (despite the answer). And maybe it is "part" of the intention of the answer to answer with an organization (that includes quite a lot of "someones")...

It is my opinion.

Good luck and best regards, mmm

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Note added at 2 hrs (2006-11-14 17:38:35 GMT)
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Something I "feel" is that even all the other ways to make the question are right and could be answered in exactly the same way they have been answered, they make loose (or lose) the force of reaction the answerer is putting in the answer. If the question is not as "free" as the previous one, the reader will think the interviewer is "forcing" a specif ic answer. (And it does not seem to be the case).

Let's supose they are interviewing a politician (or someone serious that you would expect to talk about serious matters). You would probably as kas Alinka says for "someone to remember" and "someone to forget" (as in fact says in the original) and then this person says, after a predictible question (the second one) an umpredictible answer (let's imagine it is Garfield! Nobody expected such an answer. He/she hates Garfield! Why? Everybody will probably laugh and someone probably would think: Or is it that he/she is trying to say: "Hey! I am getting tired of the interview", or something else? Here, everybody expects a name and they find a whole institution. What is he/she trying to say? It is much more impactant. If the question were "Which is the Spanish political group during xxxx-xxxx (years) that should be forgotten in your opinion? Hey, you are forcing an answer. There is not much interest in the answer. An interviewer should not put the questions so predectible but give some freedom.... I insist, it is my opinion. :(

Margarita M. Martínez
Local time: 13:21
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in SpanishSpanish
PRO pts in category: 16

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Kalinka Hristova: If I was to write such a questionary, I would put it this way: Someone to remember/Someone to forget...
28 mins
  -> It is exactly what they have done. Here and anywhere if you ask a question is beacause you do not know the answer. (Other way why to ask?) And the point is "the answer" and how the answerer reacts. Here he/she could have said Donald Duck or the TV or...
agree  kurecova
5 hrs
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3 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
A character {to forget}/{best forgotten}


Explanation:
or "a character you would prefer to forget"

I think that the responder has chosen to personalise the Falange (rightly or wrongly), which means that it would be quite feasible to translate "personaje" as "character/person/someone"

Carol Gullidge
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:21
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 180
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6 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
an (entirely) forgettable character


Explanation:
.


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Note added at 6 hrs (2006-11-14 21:23:24 GMT)
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For Marcos, I would say "A totally memorable character", which contrasts nicely with "forgetable".

Stuart Allsop
Chile
Local time: 12:21
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 12
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12 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
something we should forget


Explanation:
No se refiere a una persona.

Barbara Cochran, MFA
United States
Local time: 12:21
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 4
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4 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
An historical figure (entity) to forget


Explanation:
Sucomandante Marcos - an historical figure to remember.
The Spanish Phalanx - an historical (figure) entity to forget

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Note added at 19 hrs (2006-11-15 10:57:18 GMT)
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* A historical figure* - of course.

Gad Kohenov
Israel
Local time: 19:21
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in FrenchFrench, Native in HebrewHebrew
PRO pts in category: 8
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