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wettelijke herhaling
Sep 20, 2010 12:15
14 yrs ago
Dutch term

punten en komma's overnemen

Dutch to English Other General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters
"Een meerderheid van de goederenvervoerders vindt dat X te weinig doet met hun opmerkingen tijdens het consultatieprocess: [zij zeggen] 'X neemt alleen de punten en komma’s over'"

Does this mean something like 'X only integrates the unimportant/minor details in its report'...?
Proposed translations (English)
3 +3 to (merely) scratch at the surface

Discussion

Johan Venter Sep 20, 2010:
I think it is clear that a few of us professionals do not agree as to exactly what the author meant, so the best solution would be to ask the client, or to leave it out if the text allows for that, as the Asker indicated.
Lianne van de Ven Sep 20, 2010:
forest for trees ...it is not. It is more or less suggested they are lame at taking the main point and make it appear they did something. I think the 'not listening' (not taking to heart) part is important.
Buck Sep 20, 2010:
Sort of with Lianne Maybe "don't really listen"?
Oliver Pekelharing (asker) Sep 20, 2010:
Come to think of it, I think I might suggest leaving it out. I don't think translating it will add anything to the text.
Barend van Zadelhoff Sep 20, 2010:
agree with Lianne all that is meant imo is that X may do something about problems that are of minor importance to them but does nothing about the problems they really want to be dealt with
Elien Coppens Sep 20, 2010:
see the forest for the trees I think dot the i's and cross the t's is an equivalent of "puntjes op de i zetten", which means something else, namely doing something thouroughly, fully, pay attention to everything, even the details.

The problem here seems to be tat they ONLY see the details, not the whole picture, so they don't see te forest for the trees seems better fot me.
Johan Venter Sep 20, 2010:
Dot the i's and cross the t's? I would say that this is the equivalent phrase in English, **but** with the word ONLY added to change the meaning. In other words, they don't see the forest for the trees.
Lianne van de Ven Sep 20, 2010:
focus I'd say they focus on minor details and skip the main message.

Proposed translations

+3
4 hrs
Dutch term (edited): [alleen de] punten en komma's overnemen
Selected

to (merely) scratch at the surface

Just a suggestion related to taking a superficial interest in something.

I would proffer that using "at" here is critical to the idiom. It adds nuance in the sense of this being a deliberate action that is indicative of disinterest (as opposed to one having indeed taken an inveterate interest in a topic, only to find out later that they really don't know much at all about it and, thereby, have merely scratched the surface).
Peer comment(s):
agree Tina Vonhof (X) : That would be a good translation imo.
8 hrs
agree Elien Coppens : nice idiom!
14 hrs
agree Elsje Apostel : nice one !
16 hrs
Something went wrong...
3 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Clever solution, though I've opted to leave the quote untranslated, so I won't use it!"
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