"of origins" or "of the origins"?

Question

I've got to translate "Il cinema delle origini" from Italian into English.

Which of the following sentences sounds more "natural" in English?

1) The Cinema of the Origins
2) The Cinema of Origins

in other words, is the second "the" necessary?

Thank you in advance!

Kooyeen · Accepted Answer

Hi Thais,
welcome to EF.
I saw no one answered, so I decided to try to help you and bring this thread up on the page.

There's a problem: I don't know what's that "Cinema delle origini"... I really don't t know what it refers to or what it means, sorry.

It could be something like "The origins of cinema" or "The cinema of our origins", but I'm just trying to guess. If you want to find the right translation, you should try to post some more context, for example what concept that title is supposed to convey. All in English. Then the native speakers will probably be able to help you... because, you know, there aren't many people who know Italian here

BarbaraPA · Answer

Kooyeen, thanks.
I was feeling a little dumb for not knowing what "Comedy of the Origins" was, thinking it was an Italian thing, but I'm glad to see it wasn't purely my own ignornace.

Thais, welcome to the forums. As Kooyeen suggests, please give a little more context.

Thais · Answer

Thank you for your replies and for your welcome!

You're right, I have to explain it: it's not "the origins of cinema", but the concept is similar.
I have to convey the idea that the cinema we're talking about is not the contemporary one, but the one at the beginning of the history of cinema.

I think the only difference with "the origins of cinema" is that the subject of the sentence must be "the cinema". So I thought "the cinema of the origins" was correct...even if I was in doubt whether it would be better to use "beginnings" instead of "origins".

I'm sorry, my explanation is a mess!

BarbaraPA · Answer

Maybe... Cinema at the Beginning? The Beginnings of Cinema?

Hoa Thai · Answer

Hi,

How about one of these:

- Cinema the Beginning
- Original Cinema
- Cinema at Dawn
- Cinema at dawn of the 20th century

Best wishes,
Hoa Thai

Thais · Answer

aw, is "the cinema of the origins" so wrong grammatically speaking? What about "the cinema of the beginnings"?

Thank you Hoa Thai, but I can't change the sentence so much

Kooyeen · Answer

ThaisThank you Hoa Thai, but I can't change the sentence so much

Why not? It's often imposssible to translate something in good English without rewording it. Anyway, if you really want to have a title as similar as possible to the Italian one... I just thought of this:

"Cinema at its origins"

But there's a problem: I'm really not sure that's ok, in good English. You'll have to wait for Grammar Geek or some other native speaker to be sure that's a good title.

Thais · Answer

That's a good solution! Thank you very much, I'll wait for some English native speaker <img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' alt='Emotion: smile'/>

BarbaraPA · Answer

... at its origins is okay.

Cinema of the Origins sounds like movies made about the Book of Genesis.

Thais · Answer

ok! thank you all, you were really helpful!

"of origins" or "of the origins"?

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