Relative Clause with a twist
Hi,
I have trouble figuring out if this is the right way to say this but the translation requires it. The reason for my confusion is that it looks like past perfect tense, which it isn't.
"He wanted to work on his thesis (which) he had written (he had someone else write it) but lacked the knowledge to do so." For those who want to separate this sentence like: "He had his thesis written and he wanted to work on it..." that's not what the text I'm translating from says. So, how do I use an elusive relative clause like this to imply he had it written and he wanted to work on it in a single structure? Is my example correct or is there a better way to say this?
Note: The reason I have to insist on using this structure is that I'm translating plenty of text from Turkish to English and Turkish is filled with these verbs that have this "-tir" suffix which gives almost every verb the meaning of to have something done. These verbs can very commonly appear in relative clauses and it makes my life very difficult.
Thanks
Top answer
There is no rule that a translation must preserve all of the grammatical features of the original language. Allow yourself more freedom to rearrange sentences in the target language if you need to do that to get the correct meaning across. I don't see why the following wouldn't work.
- There is no rule that a translation must preserve all of the grammatical features of the original language.
- Allow yourself more freedom to rearrange sentences in the target language if you need to do that to get the correct meaning across.
- I don't see why the following wouldn't work.
- He wanted to work on the thesis which had been written for him, but he lacked the knowledge to do so.
- It might not be necessary to write which he had had written for him , though that is another possibility.
Get the Weekly English Kit 📬
New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.
There is no rule that a translation must preserve all of the grammatical features of the original language. Allow yourself more freedom to rearrange sentences in the target language if you need to do that to get the correct meaning across.
I don't see why the following wouldn't work.
He wanted to work on the thesis which had been written for him, but he lacked the knowledge to
0
Related Questions