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eine kurze oder lange Liste

English translation: any number of

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
German term or phrase:eine kurze oder lange Liste
English translation:any number of
Entered by: Roddy Stegemann

23:11 May 23, 2002
German to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary / letter to a friend
German term or phrase: eine kurze oder lange Liste
Jedes Mal, daß sie einen Fehler macht, hat sie auch nun immer eine kurze oder lange Liste von Ursachen, um ihn zu rechtfertigen.

This is about a person, who will refuses to admit that she is ever wrong.

No one that I know would ever say 'a short or long list' in this context. Any ideas?
Roddy Stegemann
United States
Local time: 17:51
she always has a long list of reasons/excuses to justify/explain her mistakes
Explanation:
literally

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Note added at 2002-05-23 23:15:16 (GMT)
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sorry - ...a list, whether it be long or short,...
Selected response from:

Cilian O'Tuama
Germany
Local time: 02:51
Grading comment
Thanks to everyone for your large array of contributions. Even those that were later repressed were very useful.

I have finally decided on Cilian's response since it awards the greatest number of people and chose the phrase:

'She always comes up with any number of excuses in order to justify her mistakes.'

It captured best the idea of invention for the purpose of covering up one's own mistakes.

Johanna's contributions was especially funny, but perhaps too agressive for the person targeted in the letter.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +11she always has a long list of reasons/excuses to justify/explain her mistakes
Cilian O'Tuama
4 +2she has a whole variety of reasons...
Trudy Peters
4 +2she has any number of excuses / a whole string of excuses
Mary Worby
4 +1a list
Chris Rowson (X)
4... she always comes up with a short or long list of reasons to justify it
Sarah Downing
4a list of justifications to the mistakes made, be it either short or long one
kahramana
4Sentence option:
brute (X)
2a short or a long list of reasons
Evi Wollinger


  

Answers


2 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +11
she always has a long list of reasons/excuses to justify/explain her mistakes


Explanation:
literally

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2002-05-23 23:15:16 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

sorry - ...a list, whether it be long or short,...

Cilian O'Tuama
Germany
Local time: 02:51
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in pair: 7294
Grading comment
Thanks to everyone for your large array of contributions. Even those that were later repressed were very useful.

I have finally decided on Cilian's response since it awards the greatest number of people and chose the phrase:

'She always comes up with any number of excuses in order to justify her mistakes.'

It captured best the idea of invention for the purpose of covering up one's own mistakes.

Johanna's contributions was especially funny, but perhaps too agressive for the person targeted in the letter.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Kim Metzger: or long or short laundry list of reasons?
5 mins
agree  Evi Wollinger: posted at the same time, I like your sentence better!
6 mins
agree  jccantrell: sounds more natural than 'short or long'
9 mins
agree  BBW,linguist (X)
50 mins
agree  NGK: "short or long list" is no more unusual than "kurze oder lange Liste"
2 hrs
agree  Elvira Stoianov
6 hrs
agree  Petra Winter
7 hrs
agree  jerrie
8 hrs
agree  Jeannie Graham: long list of excuses
11 hrs
agree  Sheila Hardie: I like the first option (without the short) best - it sounds more natural to me in English:)
14 hrs
agree  Steffen Walter: just long list is alright
21 hrs
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4 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 2/5Answerer confidence 2/5
a short or a long list of reasons


Explanation:
Sometimes she has a lot of reasons to justify her mistakes and sometimes just a short list of reasons (depending on the validity of the reasons, I guess)

Evi Wollinger
Germany
Local time: 02:51
Native speaker of: Native in GermanGerman
PRO pts in pair: 47
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

16 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
... she always comes up with a short or long list of reasons to justify it


Explanation:
Every time she makes a mistake, she always comes up with a short or long list of reasons to justify it -
I think \"come up with\" would work well in this context,

Personally, I think \"short or long list\" is just fine.

Sarah Downing
Local time: 20:51
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in pair: 247
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +2
she has a whole variety of reasons...


Explanation:
why not simply say that?

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2002-05-24 01:19:10 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

or: she now has a whole arsenal of excuses to...

Trudy Peters
United States
Local time: 20:51
Native speaker of: Native in GermanGerman, Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in pair: 3087

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Johanna Timm, PhD: I like "arsenal of reasons"!
3 hrs
agree  Steffen Walter: with Johanna
20 hrs
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2 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
a list of justifications to the mistakes made, be it either short or long one


Explanation:
rather sofisticated style that matches the literary style!

kahramana
Egypt
Local time: 02:51
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7 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +1
a list


Explanation:
I know what you mean about "short or long list". I think it can work, but it does feel a bit strange. It´s somehow unnecessary. So how about just "she always has a list of reasons ..."?

"Auch" and "nun" can drop out here too!

Chris Rowson (X)
Local time: 02:51
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in pair: 768

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Steffen Walter
13 hrs
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9 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +2
she has any number of excuses / a whole string of excuses


Explanation:
Just another couple of options ... sorry, I can't do explanations in Japanese!

HTH

Mary

Mary Worby
United Kingdom
Local time: 01:51
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in pair: 2770

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  brute (X)
6 hrs
agree  Steffen Walter: Mary again! I like your options.
11 hrs
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16 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
Sentence option:


Explanation:
To justify her mistakes, she now justifies them by a short or sometimes less so, string of excuses; every time one happens!

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Note added at 2002-05-24 15:37:27 (GMT)
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rather: To justify her mistakes, she now does so by short or less so, string of excuses; every time one happens!

brute (X)
PRO pts in pair: 255

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  Cilian O'Tuama: not English to my ear
2 hrs
neutral  Steffen Walter: Right Cilian
5 hrs
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