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Mini-contest 2012: "Yogi Berra Quotes"»  Source text notes: English

Source text notes should be used to make comments only about the meaning of the source text, or its style, sense, etc. Source texts notes should not be used to discuss translation of the text.

A good source text note is one that clarifies something about the source text, and therefore would be helpful to a person translating that text into any language. The purpose of these notes will be to help those evaluating translations (in any pair) to make well-informed judgments.

Examples:
Source textPossible source text note
We're lost, but we're making good time.In US English, 'making good time' means 'making good progress' (not 'having fun').
If the world were perfect, it wouldn't be.Grammatically, a contradiction. This adds to the impact of the remark.
I'm not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school like I did.'encyclopedia' sounds like something you could ride to school on. (That's the only reason this quote is notable.)

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Source text segment #6

- "The future ain't what it used to be."

Notes about this source segment

Rank by:
+35
Incongruity created by referring to the future using a past tense/construction. There's also some ambiguity by what is meant as "the future", is it "the way we think about the future. The perception of the future is not as it once was.
+9 | -2
Something like "Ah, the good new days!"
+4
A friend put it in another way, while reading the obituary in the newspaper: "The people who are dying now never died before." In other words, "change is inevitable".
+5 | -1
As you get older, your expectations and capabilities diminish. When you thought about the future in the past, it looked great!
+2
He is referring to the future as 'the good ol' days'.
+2 | -1
Past used to be a future too, for the time before THAT past.
Isang simpleng pagpapahayag na di nagkakatugma ang mga inaasahang mangyayarai sa hinaharap mula sa aktwal na nangyayari.
+2 | -2
We have an expectation of what the future will be like, but if something happens that we did not foresee, the future that we expected is no longer the future that will actually occur.
+5 | -5
To me it means that the future, as it becomes the present, is not turning out like we expected...(probably worse )
+1 | -6
future, being future, can't be as it was used to be.
No one knows what's going to happen.

Source text

Full source text (2)

#1 - "I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous." (29)

#2 - "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." (18)

#3 - "You can observe a lot just by watchin'." (15)

#4 - "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded." (24)

#5 - "I can't concentrate when I'm thinking." (12)

#6 - "The future ain't what it used to be." (10)

#7 - "I'm not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school like I did." (19)

#8 - "We're lost, but we're making good time." (12)

#9 - "Half the lies they tell about me aren't true." (8)

#10 - "A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore." (10)

#11 - "It's like deja-vu, all over again." (8)

#12 - "It ain't over till it's over." (11)

#13 - Mrs. Lindsay: "You certainly look cool." Yogi Berra: "Thanks, you don't look so hot yourself." (10)

#14 - "If the world were perfect, it wouldn't be." (22)