Please help me with understanding of one sentence.

Question

Hi my EnglishForward friends,can you please help me with understanding of this sentence?After the big disaster, people do what they can to help, all the while knowing, it wont be enough...I would personally paraphrase it like: "After the big disaster, people do what they can to help, even if they know, it wont be enough".Can you please confirm my theory? thank you very much.Best wishes JCD

BarbaraPA · Accepted Answer

Pretty much. It means that during the same time they are trying to help, they have the knowledge that more help is needed.

In your rewrite, you should omit the final comma.

JCDenton · Answer

Grammar GeekPretty much. It means that during the same time they are trying to help, they have the knowledge that more help is needed.

In your rewrite, you should omit the final comma.

Thanks GG,

you're just great! I'm translating last episode of Desperate Housewives for my gf. This part of the text was from there...

thank you again.

Best wishes

JCD

BarbaraPA · Answer

Oh, I haven't seen that episode yet. It was just on last night, right? I got confused - did Lynette and the neighbor lady end up in a DIFFERENT house in that bathtub? And then when they got out they saw that the house they were supposed to be in was the one that was completely destroyed?

Poor Gabi - her $10 milllion is gone. But at least she and Edie don't want to kill each other anymore.

Delmobile · Answer

I am going to have to catch that show in reruns, I guess, or on DVD. Last night I was talking with a group of people and one of them said, "Well, from what I've heard, they could change the name of that street to Wisteria Lane," and everybody laughed except me.

I would make one small change in your sentence: "even though they know it won't be enough." That is, if you want a definite sense that the help surely won't be enough.

JCDenton · Answer

Thank you again for your help, girls.

Yesterday I ended the translation of this episode at 50 %, after Gaby visited Carlos in hospital. Today, I will finish the rest after I return from the work.

For now I can say, except of the "flapping the gums" phrase, it's really easy english in there.

My gf promised an romantic dinner for this episode, so I'm doing my best..;-)

Best wishes

JCD

Hzh-fa · Answer

Hi,I am new comer.

It seems fun,even though i don`t understanding completely.

JCDenton · Answer

Hi Grammar Geek and Delmobile and other DH fans,

I just finished the translation of the whole episode of DH 4x10. Last 10 minutes were a little hard..:-( , but there were a lot of interesting idioms I have never heard before...like

- that apple pie just made my mouth water.

- she promised it to me if she kicked the bucket first.

and so on...But I handled it...:-). The only problem were these two sentences.

1) He realized the folly of being so shallow. Orson said this sentence in order to express, that now Andrew doesn't like young musceled boys...He outgrown that...:-) Please is this sentence some kind of US pun ??? Please could it be paraphrased like "Now, he doesn't care about the visage." Or something like that...

2) Please are you guys in states using the word "strike" in order to express that you were busted before by police?? Context: Ms. McCluskey said.

Thank *** those cops let us off with a warning.
I was this close to my third strike.

Please what is the point of the word strike here?? My theories are

a) I was to close to my third heard attack. (She is very old lady)

b) I was to close to be busted again.

thank you in advance for your help. And btw translation of this episode was again excellent english training...I love that. It's my hobby.

Best wishes

JCD

Anonymous · Answer

I think I can do these. Okay, easy one first: "third strike." The original metaphor is from the game of baseball, in which the batter gets three attempts to hit the ball while at bat; if he swings and misses, or if the ball is properly thrown and he fails to swing, it's a "strike," and after three of these he is "out" and loses his turn at bat. But this particular use of "third strike" refers to the fairly new "three strikes" laws in many American states (and maybe US law too, I'm not sure) under which a person receives a mandatory and very harsh sentence for his third criminal offense. (These laws have led to some ridiculous and very sad situations; for example, someone's third offense might be a very small crime, but he nonetheless is sent to prison for many years because it's his "third strike.")

"Shallow" can mean to value the superficial; you're right that this one could be translated as not caring about the "visage," but a shallow person might also value something like money or fame or social position above "real" values like integrity, compassion, etc. So, "shallow" points to valuing that which is not really important, rather than valuing appearance in particular. I think if you said, "he realized it was foolish to only care about someone's appearance..." it might be a little more accurate.

ps Is "make my mouth water" really idiomatic? I would have thought salivating at the sight of delicious food would be a more or less universal trait

Delmobile · Answer

I think I can do these. Okay, easy one first: "third strike." The original metaphor is from the game of baseball, in which the batter gets three attempts to hit the ball while at bat; if he swings and misses, or if the ball is properly thrown and he fails to swing, it's a "strike," and after three of these he is "out" and loses his turn at bat. But this particular use of "third strike" refers to the fairly new "three strikes" laws in many American states (and maybe US law too, I'm not sure) under which a person receives a mandatory and very harsh sentence for his third criminal offense. (These laws have led to some ridiculous and very sad situations; for example, someone's third offense might be a very small crime, but he nonetheless is sent to prison for many years because it's his "third strike.")

"Shallow" can mean to value the superficial; you're right that this one could be translated as not caring about the "visage," but a shallow person might also value something like money or fame or social position above "real" values like integrity, compassion, etc. So, "shallow" points to valuing that which is not really important, rather than valuing appearance in particular. I think if you said, "he realized it was foolish to only care about someone's appearance..." it might be a little more accurate.

ps Is "make my mouth water" really idiomatic? I would have thought salivating at the sight of delicious food would be a more or less universal trait

JCDenton · Answer

Delmobile, thank you so much for your perfect answer! It wouldn't have occured to me that the "third strike" is an allusion to the three strike law. I also found a nice chapter about this law at wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_strikes_law And btw, this law sucks...:-) Politicians in our country wants to establish an similar law. *** help us!..:-(

Yeah, make someone's mouth water is an idiom and it's very nice idiom. Fact is, that in my country, we're saying similar phrase in order to express that we're gonna eat the particular food. I had been finding this idiom at the freedictionary.com page first, before I realized that fact. It just didn't come into my mind, when I was making the translation.

I found it here..

http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/make+mouth+water

thank you again for help.

Best wishes

JCD

Btw: Delmobile...Isn't that a little strange nick name for a girl?...;-)

Please help me with understanding of one sentence.

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