Lirik
Faction 4
Posts: 108
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Post by Lirik on Feb 28, 2016 6:33:55 GMT
Hi, everyone. My friends and I had a discussion recently about correct translation of nicknames of different historical personalities and imaginary characters. And the biggest problem appeared with definite article “the”. For example: William the Conqueror, Peter the Great, Ivan the Terrible… BUT Eric _ Bloodaxe, Henry _ Curtmantle, Philip _ Augustus… And at last: Nicholas the Bloody BUT Mary I _ Bloody! WTF? Same with Warcraft characters: Moogul the Sly , Jorn the Redeemer, Malak the Avenger, Manadar the Healer, Zann the Defender.BUT Negal Fireye, Kazil Darkeye, Magis Coldeye, Morg Wolfson, Kathris Starsong, Adora Nightshade, Mora Moonsinger, Felore Moonray, Anara Chillwind, Kera Stardragon , etc. So the question is, when to use “THE” in nicknames? Admin , Amberlight ?
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Post by Admin on Mar 2, 2016 14:40:54 GMT
The short answer is "it depends" and "it doesn't matter." There isn't really a hard grammatical rule to it, but a basic one is that you use "the" when the second part is a real word/title/verb/adjective/noun.
Jack the Ripper. As in Jack, the guy who rips. Jorn the Redeemer. Jorn the guy who redeems.
If it's a more made up word/title that describes the person, normally no the.
Negal Fireye. Negal who has eyes like fire.
In your real life examples, William was THE conquerer of many lands. Which peter? The GREAT peter.
But Eric wasn't a bloody axe. Bloodaxe was his title.
Nicholas the Bloody and Bloody Mary are cases where both types work.
So, short answer, English is weird XD
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