How to translate?

chanelle77

January 04, 2009 at 07:34 AM posted in General Discussion

Hello, is there someone that can help me to translate the following: "Prêt-à-Porter" and "custom-made". I have no idea how this can be translated in Chinese. Any help is appreciated!

changye

January 04, 2009 at 11:37 AM

Hi chancelle77,

Well it is a non existing word ;-).

It seems I was pursuing phantoms, and you are asking for the moon, haha.

from a lazy expat guy

chanelle77

January 04, 2009 at 10:51 AM

Hahaha! Be careful what you wish for ;-)

calkins

January 04, 2009 at 10:25 AM

Good term, I like it....an engineer of all things pretty? Sounds like an enjoyable job. The lazy expat wife sounds nice too! I'd love to be a lazy expat boyfriend/husband/gigolo in Taiwan. Anyone? ;)

Well it is a non existing word ;-). It is supposed to be a (funny) name for a (Chinese) business card, maybe that explains it a bit...I wanted to write as a title: "aesthetic engineer & lazy expat wife", it is my weird sense of humor haha!

changye

January 04, 2009 at 09:06 AM

Haha, I don't know what "aesthetic engineer" is in the first place. How about "审美设计师"？

cassielin

January 04, 2009 at 08:59 AM

审美工程师？or美学工程师？

The translation is kind of weird!:-D

changye

January 04, 2009 at 08:58 AM

P/S. As cassie wrote, "订" (ding4) is sometimes used instead of "定" (ding4) for these words.

chanelle77

January 04, 2009 at 08:53 AM

Hi cassie, "Prêt-à-Porter" is French for ready-to-wear and is often used in a fashion context.

Great, thx again Changye!

This is a word I made up, but could one translate "Aesthetic Engineer" to 审美程师 ? :-)

cassielin

January 04, 2009 at 08:46 AM

I have no idea what does "Prêt-à-Porter" mean, I don't think it is English!

uncle changye is right,custom-made means定做的or订制的in chinese.:-)

changye

January 04, 2009 at 08:41 AM

Hi chanelle77,

My pleasure. I think your sentence is OK. In this case, just saying 定制首饰 (without using 的) might be better.

chanelle77

January 04, 2009 at 08:37 AM

Changye, thank you very much for your quick reply. I wanted to translate the following sentence: "Prêt-à-Porter and Custom-made Jewellery".

Could one simply say 高级成衣和定制的首饰(设计)?

changye

January 04, 2009 at 08:19 AM

Pret-a-porter 高级成衣，高级现成服装
Haute couture 高级定制时装，高级定制女装，高级定制男装，

It seems there are some other variations for them. If you would like to mean "custom-made" simply, saying "定制的～" or "定做的～" would be OK, like 我有一件定做的大衣(coat).