In Chinese, there's those sounds that get added onto the end of sentences that have vague meanings but can't really be translated. Such as 'ba' (吧) 'ah' (阿) 'oh' (哦) and so on. Is it better to completely remove them or keep them? Ex: for 否则你就哭去吧 is it better to translate it as 'Otherwise, you'd cry.' or 'Otherwise, you'd cry ba.' ? I get there isn't really a right way since I've seen both used but I can't decide which I should use when I translate so I'm looking for opinions aha. Personally I think it'd be better to remove it in serious situations as it ruins them a bit but in some situations it also adds some flavour which is nice. I can't just keep switching back and forth whenever it suits me though so I'm a bit stuck.
To keep it consistent, I would say, just remove it as when I'm reading, I usually skip over those little sounds and it helps keep the tone even and not too exaggerated or overdramatic
Definitely remove. There’s only downsides to keeping it. I mean even if you keep them and people get used to them. You run the risk or weebs starting to use them in cringey ways like japanese honorifics
The downside to removing it is if you aren’t translating the sentence with the implication of these sentence particles. 吧 indicates an suggestion, a decision one is unilaterally making, a suggestion that will be deferred to, a statement of truth and will be adhered to 呢 depending on dialectal usage is a request for input, a reference to a previous subject matter replacing the old subject matter’s actor with the new actor 喔 expressing surprise or sudden realization, stronger entreaty 哦 expressing doubt, expressing surprise or sudden understanding 欸 calling someone, expressing assent or disapproval 哇 crying, replacing 啊 啊 expressing enthusiasm, assent, strong affirmation, questioning tone, impatience, rhetorical statement
This isn't really that much a downside because the dialog will usually express these sentiments without the particles. Ideally, the particles should be replaced with the English-language equivalent, but most of the time they contain relatively little new information so it's safe to skip them most of the time.
“I don’t think so.” “Uh, I don’t think so.” “Hm, I don’t think so.” “Huh, I don’t think so.” “Oh, I don’t think so.” These convey different emotions and have different interpretations. It isn’t an excuse to remove the Chinese particles which do convey extra information, specifically on how to interpret the sentence in context. These particles are context interpretations of the speaker’s intent. 你去 does not have the same interpretive understanding as 你去吧. It is up to the translator to appropriately convey. The literal meaning may be the same, but the contextual meaning and intentions of both parties are lost by merely writing, “You go.” Most translators, professional and amateur alike, usually don’t address this.
Building on my comment of 你去vs你去吧 你去吧 is better written as: Hey, you should go. Eh, you should go. Better you go than not go. Why don’t you just go? Go, just go. Consider going more than any other option. You going is better/best. Take my advice and go. Listen to me and go. In my opinion you should go. The listener then considers the other’s opinion and makes a decision. So a conversation like: 你去吧。 好我去。 Is not: You go. Okay I’ll go. It is: My opinion is you should go. Okay, I trust in your opinion, I’ll go.
Ending sound can be translate as anything. Ask you editor, you can just leave it. If not, ya can just go and cry, ya. If not, ya can just sit and cry, ya know.
There are some with intentionally adding that 尾音。 Usually when they said with the ending its like nano-desu, you can put it as it is. Or you can ignore it (not recommend) or replace it. Usually with 尾音are sentence that 带口音。 example, 我们来装鸡吧。without further a do, let us begin setting up our pc. But this is a really rare case that only/mostly appear specific community. the "ba" is a must.