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Sean

Chinese translation: It depends...

21:30 Jan 13, 2003
English to Chinese translations [Non-PRO]
English term or phrase: Sean
Sean Michael Gallagher
Dianne Gallagher
Chinese translation:It depends...
Explanation:
on whether you want an "authentic" (or nearly authentic) Chinese name, which would be usually three, but sometimes two, Chinese characters. The first character is the surname, which is chosen from a fairly small pool of candidates, and usually would be something that starts with the hard "g" sound to match your surname. The other two characters could really be anything. Usually parents choose the characters for meaning and a nice sound, although in this case you're starting with the phonetic sound and going backwards.

No offense to the previous poster, but the phonetic sound of the name suggested is not "shawn" as "sean" is pronounced, but more like "shiau un". You really can't get away from 2 syllables if you are using 2 characters, so that's not the problem...Actually "Sean" is a really tough name no matter what language you're talking about (used to have a handicapped friend named Sean whose speech synthesizer had to be trained for hours to say his name correctly!)

If you just want the name to put on a decoration or similar, then the suggestion above is fine, nothing offensive about it, certainly.
Selected response from:

Terry Thatcher Waltz, Ph.D.
Local time: 02:07
Grading comment
Thank you very much for your help. You provided a wealth of information that has helped me to understand the Chinese language more.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +5肖恩
Chinoise
5 +1It depends...
Terry Thatcher Waltz, Ph.D.
4 +1辛恩
Scott Li


  

Answers


2 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +5
肖恩


Explanation:
肖恩

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-01-13 21:37:15 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Sean Michael Gallagher = 肖恩 . 迈克尔. 格拉戈

Chinoise
Local time: 03:07
Native speaker of: Native in ChineseChinese
PRO pts in pair: 2689

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  mghnyc
5 mins
  -> Thanks!
agree  Donglai Lou (X): a good suggestion
3 hrs
  -> Thanks a lot!
agree  Kevin Yang
4 hrs
  -> Thanks!
agree  Danbing HE
4 hrs
  -> Thanks!
agree  taoyuting
5 days
  -> Thanks!
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

2 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +1
It depends...


Explanation:
on whether you want an "authentic" (or nearly authentic) Chinese name, which would be usually three, but sometimes two, Chinese characters. The first character is the surname, which is chosen from a fairly small pool of candidates, and usually would be something that starts with the hard "g" sound to match your surname. The other two characters could really be anything. Usually parents choose the characters for meaning and a nice sound, although in this case you're starting with the phonetic sound and going backwards.

No offense to the previous poster, but the phonetic sound of the name suggested is not "shawn" as "sean" is pronounced, but more like "shiau un". You really can't get away from 2 syllables if you are using 2 characters, so that's not the problem...Actually "Sean" is a really tough name no matter what language you're talking about (used to have a handicapped friend named Sean whose speech synthesizer had to be trained for hours to say his name correctly!)

If you just want the name to put on a decoration or similar, then the suggestion above is fine, nothing offensive about it, certainly.


Terry Thatcher Waltz, Ph.D.
Local time: 02:07
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in pair: 316
Grading comment
Thank you very much for your help. You provided a wealth of information that has helped me to understand the Chinese language more.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Kevin Yang: Some people like to use sound translation ( it is hard to get the exact sound), and some like to pick a Chinese name like the Chinese people do. The Chinese name is shoter and easy to use.
1 hr
  -> Thanks, Kevin
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

6 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +1
辛恩


Explanation:
another suggestion.

Scott Li
Hong Kong
Local time: 14:07
Native speaker of: Native in ChineseChinese
PRO pts in pair: 62

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  zhiyu liu
59 mins
  -> thank !
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)



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