Let’s say I want to ask someone if he is up to the task (swimming in freezing temperature, climb the mountain, etc.)
Google Translate gives this 你准备好挑战了吗？ Is this correct?
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"the challenge" in “Are you up to the challenge? “ is a noun; "挑战" in "你准备好挑战了吗?" is a verb. You need to fix that – Tang Ho♦ Oct 18 '20 at 14:36
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1There is absolutely no need to translate nouns into nouns, verbs into verbs, etc. Good translation is simply a rendering of the source language into the most natural expression in the target language. If the most faithful and natural expression of the target language does not use the same part of speech, then so be it. The best translation is one where readers cannot tell it's been translated.. – monalisa Oct 18 '20 at 18:06
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@monalisa: so was that Google translation alright for that English phrase? – EmilyJ Oct 18 '20 at 23:18
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1No, it's not. I was answering Tang Ho's comment. The problem with this translation isn't that the noun becomes a verb; it's that it doesn't convey what the original says. I would say, 你準備好迎接這個挑戰了嗎？or 你準備好接受這個挑戰了嗎？ 這個 is important because the original says "the challenge", meaning a specific challenge. – monalisa Oct 19 '20 at 4:03
Simplest translation:
敢不敢？ ： Are you up to it (the challenge)?
迎接挑战 : meet a challenge
你准备好去迎接挑战了吗?
挑战 is more verb than noun in Chinese. So 你准备好挑战了吗 sounds like "are you ready to challenge others?" If you want to enforce 挑战 to be a noun, you can add a verb before it, also to indicate the direction, saying 你准备好 接受 挑战了吗
你準備好挑戰了嗎？ There is no problem in your context.
e.g.
你準備好挑戰冬天在冷冰冰的河裡游泳嗎？
攀登世界第一高峰聖母峰，你準備好挑戰了嗎？
