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Translation from English to Katakana. 2007/9/17 02:02
Hi, Can anyone help me translate two words from English into horizontal Katakana. I would like the words "poverty" and "success" translated
by Phil Sharpe  

. 2007/9/17 10:32
Poverty and success translated into Japanese wouldn't be written as Katakana.

They can be translated then written in either in Kanji or Hiragana:

(k)- Kanji (h)- hiragana

Poverty
(k) 貧困
(h) ひんこん

Success
(k) 成功
(h) せいこう
by John rate this post as useful

. 2007/9/17 12:38
"Poverty and success translated into Japanese wouldn't be written as Katakana."

That's true but here they are:

Poverty:ヒンコン
Success:セイコウ
by Tokyonet rate this post as useful

... 2007/9/17 12:54
I agree, yes, those are now in katakana, but we (=Japanese) simply would not use katakana to write those words. I wonder why the original poster wanted it in katakana (the writing system mainly for non-Japanese names, imported words, etc.) in the first place :)
by AK rate this post as useful

Katakana 2007/9/17 13:03
Or do you mean, you want the English changed to Japanese phonetics and then written in katakana? For example,
success=sukusesu
Poverty would be really tricky, I'd say maybe "pabuchi".

If so:
success: スクセス
Poverty: パブチ
by TheRage800 rate this post as useful

hmm 2007/9/17 13:34
As others suggested I would go with the Japanese words when translating those because they simply don't mean anything when phonetically changed from English. My katakana is painfully weak but i'd disagree with the poster above me - the SU from success should change to サ PO from poverty should stay as ポ but the VE sound would become バ. Here's my attempt for what it's worth.
Success = サックセス
Poverty = ポバーチ
by Impy rate this post as useful

. 2007/9/17 13:37
I'd go back to the original poster and ask what he meant and what he wants to use it for.

Alone using katakana wouldn't make much sense. Even if you wanted a direct phonetic translations of the english saying instead of the japanese saying wouldn't really be going with correct convention.
by John rate this post as useful

Second post... English to Katakana 2007/9/17 22:24
Hey I am the one who posted... "Can anyone help me translate two words from English into horizontal Katakana. I would like the words "poverty" and "success" translated." Yesterday, I was quite nieve and i was not aware of the different styles of writing, i now know that to translate it into Katakana would not be possible. I think it would be translated in Hiragana. My friend has a tattoo that he told me was Katakana. So i wanted "poverty" and "success" translating for a tattoo and assumed it was Katakana, i was wrong and ignorant in thinking so. I was not aware of the styles of writing. I apologise if i offended any one. I think the translation is from English to Hiragana. As i want the writing to look The same size and style (sans-serif) horizontally. I think i will be able to do that now with the posts i have recieved, but any suggestions would be helpful. Thankyou
by Phil Sharpe rate this post as useful

... 2007/9/17 23:01
People normally, if they want any Japanese tattoos, go for kanji :) Check with your friend again :)
by AK rate this post as useful

. 2007/9/17 23:28
Take a photo of your friends tattoo and post it here, it'll only be a photo of the tattoo so the public still won't know who the person it is.

Often times I find that people who get tattoos "written in Japanese" it turns out that the words are incorrect, or just jibberish.
by John rate this post as useful

Impy 2007/9/18 07:38
To Impy, I still say poverty should be written as パ and not ポ as Poverty is pronounced pä-v&r-tE. And success should be with be with ス as it would be pronounced as a shorter ス to match the original pronunciation.
by TheRage800 rate this post as useful

Poverty and success 2007/9/18 07:53
Rage and Impy,

You could have used a dictionary rather than just guessing...

Poverty: ポバティー
Success: サクセス
by Dave in Saitama rate this post as useful

Dictionary? 2007/9/19 05:55
Why would those be in a dictionary, since they're not real words?
by TheRage800 rate this post as useful

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