Tercüme - You forget me, don't you? Can I call you Mert? (İngilizce)

Hi guys,

Well, this seems to me to be a non-native speaker's version of either

You're forgetting about me, aren't you?
As in, there is something going on, and "Mert" is forgetting to include the writer in the activities.

or (more probably)

You've forgotten me, haven't you?
As in, it's been a long time, and you don't remember who I am, do you?

The second sentence in the original is an easier call, because there is no comma. If the writer meant to say

Can I telephone you, Mert?

there would have to be a comma between "call" and "Mert".
Without a comma, in written English there's only one option: the sentence has to mean

Is it okay for me to call you by the name "Mert" when I'm speaking to you?

(This is in grammatically-correct native speaker writing, of course: just what wild & wonderful things some people may have in mind when they write in English is another story...)
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Couldn't resist putting in my 2 cents!
English: Speak of the Devil and he appears.
French: We speak of the wolf and we see his tail.

Guys, why are you argueing so much All thing is that the meaning of the phrase is depends of situation/context it's used. For the model verbs - ok "may" is more suitable than "can", but "can" can also be used in a situation/context. Don't you think so?

@ Ian : Thanks a lot for your input! Yes, you're right saying : ""...just what wild & wonderful things some people may have in mind when they write in English is another story..."

@ ice_beauty : No, we don't.

Yeah, "it depends on the situation/context", as you said, but if you don't mention this context in the remarks field, no one except you will know exactly what it is about. When a text is possibly translatable with two different meanings, the requester has to mention which meaning is to be used in the target language, eg : "call : call by phone" or "call : call by name".

This way there would be no ambiguity at all in the text that is to be translated, so that you won't have to send the addressee a second message afterwards, eg : "You didn't understand me right - I didn't mean to call me, I wanted to know if I can call you by name ... "

And as we said above, please submit texts in your mother-tongue, this way there will be no ambiguity at all.

BTW, which one of your accounts do you want me to remove, ice_beauty or merian86?

As we've got a rule here about users, it is based on "1 user, 1 account". No matter if you've got two personal computers, one user can have only one account here, it's just a fair rule, don't you think so?

I understand.
you can remove merian86
thank you

Hi everyone,

I know there's a little ambiguity, here. That's why, before validating the translation, I added in the remarks field the other possibilities. So, don't worry about the translation, it's ok.

1) Ian, if you look at my comments above (right under the translation, 31 July 2010 02:08 ), I said exactly what you said.

2) ice_beauty, we are not arguing about can/may - that issue has been resolved.

The problem here is that you made a grammar mistake in your first sentence. In English, you canNOT say "You forget me, don't you?" - that tense does not work. Because of that, we had to GUESS which tense you wanted, and Lilian even thought you might have chosen the wrong verb.

That is why we want you to make your translation requests in a language you know well (Bulgarian).

Because of the first mistake, we weren't sure that you had written the second sentence correctly, as the addition of a comma would completely change the meaning.

That is why 44hazal44 gave the alternative meanings in her translation.

Basically, we don't know what you meant to say!

Hi kafetzou,
Well gosh darn it, you did!
Guess I should check out the depth of the pool before I go and jump in feet first!
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Lord, let my Words be Sweet and Tender today, for I may just have to Eat them tomorrow...