2 Conversion of the Affirmative into Negative
By “the affirmative” in English we mean that sentences have neither such negative words as “no”, “not”, “never”, “none”, “neither”, “nobody”, “nowhere”, “nowise”, nor words with such negative prefixes or suffixes as “dis-”, “im-“, “in-“, “ir-“, non, “un-”, “-less”.

By “the negative” in Chinese we mean that sentences have such negative characters as “不”, “非”, “否”, “无”, “没”, “别”, “勿, “莫”, “休”.

It is sometimes advisable and even necessary to convert affirmatives (often implying negation) in English into negatives in Chinese to differences in the way of thinking and in the mode of expression.

Read Also: How to Translate the Materials on Subjects in Which You Are Not an Expert

Example:

Difficult

Affirmative form: 困难的

Negative form: 不容易的

Certain

Affirmative form: 肯定，确信

Negative form: 无疑，毫无疑问

Difficult

Affirmative form: 困难的

Negative form: 不容易的

Dying

Affirmative form: 奄奄一息的，垂死的

Negative form: 还没咽气的

I hate to get personal, but you’re much older than Byron.

我不喜欢过问私事，不过你比拜伦要大得多。

I’ll chase you down and bring you under, you’ll see!

我要迫得你无路可走，把你制服住，瞧着吧！

3 Conversion of the Negative into Affirmative

a．Conversion of English words with Negative Prefixes or suffixes into Affirmative Forms.

Example:

incomplete

Negative form: 不完全的

Affirmative form: 残缺的

infrequent

Negative form: 不经常的

Affirmative form: 偶尔有之的

unasked

Negative form: 未经邀请的

Affirmative form: 自高奋勇的

infelicitous

Negative form: 不完善的

Affirmative form: 有缺点的

b. Conversion of Negative sentence into Affirmatives

Example:

My overcoat would not wear out.

我的大衣十分耐穿。

Nothing is more deceitful than the appearance of humility.

谦虚的外表是最易使人上当的