News from JMS
Welcome to our blog, where we plan to feature news, views and translation clues. Things like: did you know that English cats say ‘meow’, German moggies ‘miau’, French felines ‘miaou’, and Spanish Siamese ‘miau’. Pause for thought…
Translating into American English
George Bernard Shaw said that ‘Britain and America are two countries separated by a common language’ and he was right. We are often asked to translate books into US English. It involves much more than inserting a few serial commas, losing a few vowels (color, humor, labor, etc.) and changing verb endings from ‘s’ to ‘z’. The vocabulary can be quite different, particularly in cookbooks. It’s not just a question of chips versus French fries. British cooks use aubergine, courgette and chicory, Americans use eggplant, zucchini and endive. US and UK pints are 20 and 26 fluid ounces respectively and to complicate things more, fluid ounces are slightly different in size too. Americans measure many ingredients by cup. And pan names vary between countries. How skilled with your skillet are you? It’s an Alphabetti Spaghetti minefield but we know how to unravel it. We have translated lots of cookbooks for international publishers, including Octopus, Hachette France, Sterling and Whitecap, and we now know our transatlantic onions (or scallions or shallots).