Translation - appearances (English)

Not transferring the Swedish meaning properly. The Swedish expression 'skenet bedrar', = "appearances can be deceptive", is used with the negation 'aldrig', = never, in this case.
I would therefore suggest: "Appearances can never be deceptive."

You can (aff.) never(neg.)
You can't (neg.) ever (aff.)

Or- You can't go by appearances. Never.

This is the matching expression that I found.

This might be just academic, but to me Porfyhr's suggestion sounds better.

In fact it means quite the opposite.

We should ask a native wich one is better.

And why do you think it's the opposite?
You can't go by appearances. With an ever to denote continuity.
If I say 'you can't never' I will be using a double negative.
So if you change it to positive, you'll say: "You can ever go ..." <<This>> is against the real meaning.
My guess is that there is no opposition to the swedish text at all.

For Greeks and Trojans it's edited.

The Swedish source text say:

'What you can see is never fraudulent.'

Caspers edited translation:

"You can never go by appearances."
(Sw: Du kan aldrig lita på åsynen.)

Sorry Casper but I think Wkn is still right and you have misunderstood the phrase.

Done.

What a mess I made here, huh?

Well Casper...
I don't say that I'm always right. I know that this expression is vague and difficult to deal with and I'm sure that both Maribel and Wkn would say the same. The requester has made it even more difficult by adding "aldrig" to the expression. We never say that "Skenet bedrar aldrig." although it is correct Swedish. "Skenet bedrar" is frequently used.

Yes. Here we say 'as aparências enganam' (appearences are deceptive).
But she's saying the opposite, that 'they are never deceptive', wich is a quite wrong way to think.
I am a very good example of it.
I seem to be a very rude person (my semblance) but I'm very kind and just.

Hello everyone!
I was also wandering immediately after I saw the sentence for translation, since as it was said before here, we don't say "Skenet bedrar aldrig", but we say "skenet bedrar" which means exactly "appearances are deceptive". So - with "aldrig" which means "never" the sense of the whole idiomatic phrase is totally altered, because it then means "Appearances are never / can never be deceptive". So, is there a mistake in it from the beginning, i.e. in the very sentence submitted for translation or does the person who submitted the sentence for translation DELIBERATELY want to change the idiomatic meaning?
Have a nice day
Katherine

Maybe she likes only beautiful people. (kidding)

I think that you guys should vote again, huh?

Well Katherine_Z and I think that the same translation should be used and I therefore suggest that samanthalee choose our suggestion. Not to be rude to anyone but just to get rid of an academical curiosity...
Otherwise we know what happened to the cat!

Well. Your suggestion is right there Appearances are never deceptive.

Why not say "Ungoodlooking are never irresistible to no one blind ever.". o_O (joke)

Hej!
Tack allesammans för att ni försökt översätta "skenet bedrar aldrig". Frasen kommer från Tage Danielsson, som var en klurig figur när det gäller att "vränga" ord, grallimatik, heter det väl med ett annat ord. Finns en fras till som jag klurar på . Var och en är sig alltid lik. ???? Försök med den ni

Lisesan,

Jag ville inte vara en glädjedödare. Det är ju ett tämligen ovanligt begrepp utom i "Grallimatiken" men det är korrekt svenska...
Varför inte lägga till den föreslagna frasen för översättning. Men tag den bara till engelska annars går det roliga förlorat.

/Porfyhr

Hej igen och tack Porfyhr!
Alltså bör med humor inkluderat översättningen bli
"Appearances can never be deceptive." ????
Min engelska är väl OK, men att få "knorr" på den och humor, då blir det värre.

Hej Lisesan,
tja... att göra en "Tage Danielson" på engelska är inte lätt, och framför allt inte att få översättarna här att acceptera...

"Skenet" är den springande punkten eftersom vi, i svenskan, kan se det som utstrålning/utseende, dvs engelskans "looks". Skall man behålla humorn så skulle jag översätta det med "The looks never deceives the look.". Men det skulle vara svårt att argumentera för att få det accepterat.