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I wanted to say "Then I no longer have to listen to the native speaker whose pronunciation I can refer to", but then I realized that I had no idea how to express that sentence in Chinese.

How should I translate this in Chinese? I couldn't make up a sentence better than this" 那么, 我不必听到外国人, 这个人的发音我可以参考. But this sentence sounds a little awkward to me, since it consists of two different clauses, while the English sentence doesn't. Is there any more adequate or sound way to convey this sentence in Chinese?

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  • Native Chinese speaker or native English speakers?
    – Tang Ho
    Dec 9, 2017 at 0:51
  • Oh.. I'm sorry that I hadn't indicated that. I originally meant to say native Chinese speaker, because the topic of that conversation I had was about studying Chinese. Dec 9, 2017 at 0:53
  • relative clauses correspond to attributive phrases (using 的, discussed at this site before) native speaker? 外国人=foreigner, merely modifying Chinese text provided, 那么,我不必听到 其发音我可以参考的 外国人 Then I no longer have to listen to the foreigner whose pronunciations I can refer to
    – user6065
    Dec 9, 2017 at 1:04
  • w/o 其: 那么,我不必听到可以参考(他的)发音的那个外国人, 那个 can also be put before 可以参考
    – user6065
    Dec 9, 2017 at 1:25
  • Thank you very much for making these comments! but is it possible to put 其 in front of what it refers to?? Dec 9, 2017 at 1:35

3 Answers 3

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Actually,

我不用再去参考[那些][中文]母语人士的发音了

would also make sense, since "refer to pronunciation" implies that you would "listen to those native speakers".

If you want to save all words in your sentence, you may translate the attributive clause like this:

我不必再听那些可用来参考的母语人士的发音了。

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  • In English, the relative clause follow the object

Then I no longer have to listen to the native Chinese speaker('s pronunciations), [whose pronunciations I can refer to]

然后我就不再须要听, 母语为中文的人(的发音)[那些我可以参考发音的]"

"Then I no longer have to listen to the native Chinese speaker('s pronunciations)" is the main clause, and "native Chinese speaker('s pronunciations)" is the object

"whose pronunciations I can refer to" is the relative clause that add information about the object "Chinese speaker('s pronunciations)"

  • In Chinese, the relative clause precede the object

"Then I no longer have to listen to [whose pronunciations I can refer to] the native Chinese speaker('s pronunciations)"

" 然后我就不再须要听[那些我可以参考发音的], 母语为中文的人(的发音了)"

Notice you have to add '的' after the relative clause to indicate it is a relative clause for the following object

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  • Wow, thank you very much for this comment! I think I'm getting much better understanding of this matter thanks to this comment. 不好意思, 但我还有另一个问题! 您为什么使用这个'那些'? 是为了包含后面的 '发音'吗?? Dec 9, 2017 at 1:41
  • '那些' is a pronoun for "those" -- "那些人" = (those people); " 那些 ~ 的人" = (those who~);
    – Tang Ho
    Dec 9, 2017 at 2:26
  • '那个' is a pronoun for "that" -- "那个人" = (that person) ; "那个~ 的人" = (who~)
    – Tang Ho
    Dec 9, 2017 at 2:27
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Translating English sentences with clauses, especially long, complex clauses into Chinese is quite difficult. Chinese has no attributive clauses, so it will be incredibly hard to conclude the rules of translating such sentences into several handy rules. Each time I encounter such sentence, I will spend quite a long time to find an expression that fits the meaning of the sentence and doesn't sound too weird or too "Anglicized".
A good tip is to try breaking the sentence with attributive clause into parts, which means that you should use two or more simple clauses instead of a long sentence with multiple long attributives.
Example:
Then I no longer have to listen to the native speakers whose pronunciations I can refer to.
于是,那些可供我参考发音的母语人士,我已无需再听(他们的发音)了。
(Literally: Then, those able for me to refer to (their) pronunciation(, who are) native speakers, I no longer have to listen. )
Although it's not so apparent in this example, it's better than the following translation, which almost directly translates the entire structure as-is:
于是,我已无需再听那些我可以参考发音的母语人士(的发音)了。
P.S. Avoid using two or more attributives with 的 for one head in Chinese! Although it's not wrong to do so, it will make your words weird. If two or more attributives must be used, try to use compound words to replace some attributives.

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  • The way you construct the sentence makes it sounds very much like 鲁迅. By saying that I mean, probably that's not the best way to say it in modern Chinese (at least in mainland China).
    – zypA13510
    Mar 31, 2018 at 19:23

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