Yaphe, John

Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience

Universidade do Minho: RepositoriUM

Rev Port Med Geral Fam 2014;30:75-675editorialthat can help authors avoid embarrassing errors.iAnother trap is the use of automatic translators, alsofound on line. In the medical context, “utente” is not awearer. It is a patient, user or client. (“Morte de utente”is not “death of the wearer”, as the authors of a recentconference abstract submitted for review tried to sug-gest.) A careful look at the title, text and key words of theoriginal English articles quoted in their references canhelp authors ensure that the most important words intheir submission have been translated correctly.Verbose translations of Portuguese medical jargonhave also provided a challenge for our editors. The KISSrule applies here. (Keep it Short and Simple.) It is notclear why some authors choose to write “pharmacolo-gic therapeutic interventions in the paediatric agegroup” when they mean: “drugs for children”. Transla-tors who are paid by the word (based on the Portugue-se version) may profit from this, but this journal favourssimple writing.Another bad habit that we have encountered is theuse of weasel words. The weasel is a sleek animal whocan dig under fences and turn up anywhere on a farm,often doing damage along the way. So can these words.They do no good in scientific writing. Words like “glo-balmente” or “basicamente” mean nothing and take upspace. We delete them in our editing of titles, abstractsand articles.Some parts of speech are tricky for non-native spea-kers. The possessive case in English can be indicated bythe use of apostrophe-s at the end of a word or by a pre-positional phrase beginning with the word “of”. Termslike “recommendation’s strength” sound strange in En-glish compared to the correct form “strength of recom-*Associate Professor, Community Health, University of MinhoJohn Yaphe*Medical English for Portuguesefamily doctors: Beware of falsefriends and other traps intranslationAs we begin a new phase with a new editorialboard of RPMGF, it may be helpful to reflecton some of the lessons learned during pre-vious three-year term. The journal has ap-plied for indexation in an international database, so ad-ditional efforts are being made to improve the qualityof the journal. One aspect of quality improvement is thequality of English in the titles, abstracts and articles thatwe publish. This piece will summarize some of the les-sons learned while editing recent submissions that mayhelp authors with their efforts to write in this rich, puzz-ling, and frustrating language.One deceptive and often humorous trap is called thefalse friend. Words that look and sound alike in Portu-guese and English may have very different meanings.When authors write: “In this study we pretend to esti-mate the prevalence of hypertension”, one may guessthat they have incorrectly translated the original Por-tuguese verb. “Pretende-se” does not mean pretend (fa-zer de conta). The sentence should say: “In this studywe intend to estimate…”Other famous examples of false friends are “consti-pação” (upper respiratory tract infection) and “consti-pation”. They are related, of course, because one is ablockage of the nose and the other is a blockage of thebowels. “Preservativo” (condom) used in contraceptionis not the same as “preservatives”, used in food. In thesame way “discutir” (argue) does not mean discuss, “es-quisito” (weird) does not mean exquisite, “letras” (lyrics)are not letters and a “novela” (soap opera) is not a no-vel. There are many good lists of false cognates on-lineRev Port Med Geral Fam 2014;30:75-6editorial76mendation”. Authors are advised to show manuscriptsto a native English speaker whenever possible beforesubmission to avoid this.The use of the different forms of the verbs “to be” and“to have” can be confusing for English speakers of Por-tuguese. A patient “is 65 years old” and does not “have65 years”. Another common error arising from this con-cept of age is the incorrect use of the phrase “patientswith over 65 years” rather than “patients who are over65”.It is hoped that readers will receive this piece in thelight-hearted and supportive tone in which it was writ-ten. Members of the editorial board of RPMGF areproud that English is one of the three official languagesof the journal. We make the effort to translate titles andabstracts of all our articles into English to help in the dis-semination of our articles to the rest of the world. Thiswill be especially important when we expand our formsof indexation. We are always ready to help our valuedcontributors to produce the highest quality journal thatwe can and will continue to edit your submissions withthis in mind.REFERENCES1. False friends. Available at: http://web.letras.up.pt/egalvao/5543219-False-Friends-English-and-Portuguese.pdf (accessed 04/22/2014).CONFLICT OF INTERESTThe author is a native English speaker and a member of the editorial boardof RPMGF and has no conflict of interest in the publication of this editorial.ENDEREÇO PARA CORRESPONDÊNCIAyonahyaphe@hotmail.com

Medical English for Portuguese family doctors: Beware of false friends and other traps in translation

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Medical English for Portuguese family doctors: Beware of false friends and other traps in translation

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Universidade do Minho: RepositoriUM

Universidade do Minho: RepositoriUM