This site uses cookies. Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site, while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used. For more information, please see the ProZ.com privacy policy.
Cookie settings
onderhoudsbedrijf
Afkorting "rga" na het woord "arts"
Feb 10, 2010 14:43
15 yrs ago
5 viewers *
Dutch term

vakantiedagen

Dutch to English Other General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters
I'd like to know how speakers of UK English would translate this:

'Vacation days'? Or 'holiday days'? Or 'holiday time?'

The context is 'opgespaarde vakantiedagen'. Someone wants to know how many opgespaarde vakantiedagen he has coming....

What would sound most natural for a UK speaker to ask? How many saved-up vacation days do I have? How many saved-up holiday days? How much holiday time do I have saved up? Or...?

Thanks.
Proposed translations (English)
5 +1 how much holiday have you got left?
4 +4 annual leave
4 +3 how much leave do I have left
4 +1 Vacation days (us). Holiday days (uk)
4 +1 leave daus due
5 leave days
Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

Non-PRO (1): Buck

When entering new questions, KudoZ askers are given an opportunity* to classify the difficulty of their questions as 'easy' or 'pro'. If you feel a question marked 'easy' should actually be marked 'pro', and if you have earned more than 20 KudoZ points, you can click the "Vote PRO" button to recommend that change.

How to tell the difference between "easy" and "pro" questions:

An easy question is one that any bilingual person would be able to answer correctly. (Or in the case of monolingual questions, an easy question is one that any native speaker of the language would be able to answer correctly.)

A pro question is anything else... in other words, any question that requires knowledge or skills that are specialized (even slightly).

Another way to think of the difficulty levels is this: an easy question is one that deals with everyday conversation. A pro question is anything else.

When deciding between easy and pro, err on the side of pro. Most questions will be pro.

* Note: non-member askers are not given the option of entering 'pro' questions; the only way for their questions to be classified as 'pro' is for a ProZ.com member or members to re-classify it.

Discussion

Andrew Howitt Feb 12, 2010:
Susan: Unfortunately your ""How much saved up holiday time do I have?" does not sound "natural." If you want to have the number of days also quantified with the question, then use my suggestion as restructured here:- "How many days holiday have I got left (this year)".
Annabel pointed out that the use of "got" is to be avoided when using very strict UK English but when you are looking for day-2-day spoken English and also bearing in mind the continuous development of any language, then the question I have put here would be what most UK English speakers would use. N.B. Vacation is more American and leave is, as I pointed out earlier, more often used by bodies like the military, police etc.
Suzan Hamer (asker) Feb 12, 2010:
One last question: What about "How much saved up holiday time do I have?" Then, as Moira suggested, of course, the answer can be x days. Does the question sound natural in UK English?
Suzan Hamer (asker) Feb 11, 2010:
Oh my goodness. I almost wished I hadn't asked. Who knew this would generate so much debate! But thank you all for your input. As much of the original sentence as I can give without betraying client confidentiality: "...en informeerde bij Annamiek naar opgespaarde vakantiedagen." Actually though, my task is to rewrite the Dutch to make it flow and read like fiction in English, so I'm not sure the original will help much.
writeaway Feb 11, 2010:
Please post the actual Dutch sentence Just for the sake of clarity, please post the sentence in Dutch.
jarry (X) Feb 11, 2010:
@ Andrew Howitt Written South African English is identical to British/Mid-Atlantic English.
Andrew Howitt Feb 10, 2010:
Ref "Got is slang..." @Annabel: Yes, Annabel, for those brought up on "perfect English" and educated along the lines of Sir Ernest Gowers'"The Complete Plain Words, the rule is to avoid the use of "got". HOWEVER...the average UK English speaking person today will and does use it widely in their day-2-day conversation and also (IMO regrettably) in their written correspondance. If one is going to answer the question properly and as it has been posed, then at least read the question properly: "What would sound most natural for a UK speaker to ask?" Therein you will find the clue!
Andrew Howitt Feb 10, 2010:
What's Natural for a UK English speaker? @Jarry: The questioner asks about UK English; i.e. NOT South African English. Secondly the aim is to find out what a UK English SPEAKER would ask. Take a poll amongst the work force and you will probably find around 10-15% actually would ask about "leave." Leave may appear in documents and forms but not very often in spoken day-2-day conversation - at least NOT in the UK; Maybe in RSA but in the instance, that is not the issue.
jarry (X) Feb 10, 2010:
@ Andrew Howitt Like our President, Jacob Zuma, one can make a song and dance about this. The fact is that in payroll jargon there are many kinds of leave days: leave day entitlements,leave days taken, leave days due, etc. The asker specifically said that the context was "opgespaarde vakantiedagen". IMHO, the correct translation for this, colloquial or otherwise,is leave days due'
Annabel Rautenbach Feb 10, 2010:
got is slang... gespaarde vakantiedagen could be (keeping with my answer of leave days) accumulated leave days. Barend: how many accumulated leave days do I have left, got is really not very good grammar
Andrew Howitt Feb 10, 2010:
"...have I got left..?" or "do I have left..? "@Barend:- The questioner asked about colloquial use of English. I'll bet you a pound to a penny that very few people, when faced with the choice of which exact use of words here, would use your suggestion. In more formal written English, maybe; in spoken colloquial English, if put to the test, it would be almost like trying to find out who is English and who is not: think of the so-called famous Dutch test in WWII asking undercover Germans in The Netherlands to pronounce "Scheveningen" correctly....
Barend van Zadelhoff Feb 10, 2010:
voor de duidelijkheid misschien "gespaarde vakantiedagen" verwijst volgens mij naar het aantal verlofdagen dat je niet hebt opgenomen van het jaarlijks toegekende verlofbudget
strikt genomen (!) kan je niet van "gespaarde vakantiedagen" spreken als het jaar nog niet voorbij is
het aantal "gespaarde vakantiedagen" is in dit licht gezien het aantal verlofdagen dat je hebt overgehouden van het jaarlijks toegekende verlofbudget

how much annual leave have I got left ?
how many leave days have I got left ?

"have I got left (Andrew)" sounds better to me than "do I have left"
MoiraB Feb 10, 2010:
even better... "how many days' leave/holiday do I have left?", as Chris more or less suggested.
Andrew Howitt Feb 10, 2010:
In the contxt asked for, it is NOT annual leave. See my answer
Barend van Zadelhoff Feb 10, 2010:
leave days "how many leave days do I have left" perhaps?

the essential question here is did she have any leave days left

Many examples on site: co.uk
Suzan Hamer (asker) Feb 10, 2010:
Maybe I should have put this under "English" instead of "Dutch to English." I want to know what a native UK speaker would say... I didn't see any place that I could specify "Only for speakers of UK English".... did I miss something?

Proposed translations

+1
1 hr
Selected

how much holiday have you got left?

In normal IK English parlance, one person speaking to another would ask:- "how much holiday have you got left (this year)? Some people might use "leave" but this word is more often used by "official" bodies, like the police, military etc.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2010-02-10 15:48:35 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

If the person is asking for themselves, they would ask: "how much holiday have I got left?"
Note from asker:
Thanks, and for your comments in the discussion. This was not an easy choice to make .. .
Peer comment(s):
agree MoiraB : Nice and simple, though I disagree with your comment about "leave". Very common when I worked in industry.
6 mins
Moira, so did I - for more than 40 years but if you carefully read what I wrote, it says 'leave' is more often used by official bodies i.e. not to the exclusion of industry.
neutral jarry (X) : 'do I have left' methinks.
5 hrs
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thank you, Andrew."
+1
4 mins

Vacation days (us). Holiday days (uk)

Pretty sure about this.
Note from asker:
Well, that's why I asked.... As an American I would say vacation days, and from what I know of UK English, I would think a UK speaker would say holiday days, but that sounds so.... repetitive, to say the least.
Peer comment(s):
neutral Chris Hopley : You wouldn't say "holiday days", but you could say "how many days holiday have I got".
29 mins
agree Verginia Ophof
30 mins
neutral MoiraB : doesn't sound like the sort of thing I'd say as a UK native, if anyone ever gave me any days' holiday.....
39 mins
neutral Annabel Rautenbach : Holiday days sounds very clumsy, we always use leave days
52 mins
neutral jarry (X) : Leave days (due) is the word
14 hrs
Something went wrong...
+3
29 mins
Dutch term (edited): opgespaarde vakantiedagen

how much leave do I have left

I've still got some leave left this year
Note from asker:
Thanks Bernard. A good solution, but I need a term using the word "days" so it will fit into the text. The answer is a number, and that's important to the overall text.
Peer comment(s):
agree MoiraB : Sounds fine to me. The answer could be "x days" if "days" has to be mentioned.
18 mins
Thank you, Moira.
agree André Linsen : To me this seems the most logical question. Or maybe: How many days off have I still coming?
30 mins
Thank you. I'm not sure of: "have days off coming". I associate it with:"have something coming": deserve what one receives: You had that reprimand coming for a very long time.
agree David Walker (X) : Simple, straightforward and very English
3 hrs
Thank you, David.
Something went wrong...
+4
7 mins

annual leave

In spoken UK English, you might say "how much annual leave have I got?". More formally: "how much annual leave am I entitled to?" or "how much annual leave have I earned/accrued?"

See refs. below, for example.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 36 mins (2010-02-10 15:20:37 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Another option: "how many days holiday do I have?". E.g.:

-> "You are entitled to a minimum of 5.6 weeks' holiday a year. This is called statutory holiday.
To work out how many days holiday you can take a year, you need to multiply 5.6 by the number of days you work in a week."
http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/your_money/employment/ho...
Reference:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/Timeoffandholidays/DG_10029788

http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/personneluas/leaveabsence/index.shtml

Note from asker:
With Annabel, it's not about annual leave. The person wants to know how many vacation/holiday days he has saved up; i.e., how many days does he have saved up that he can use to take some time off (and still be paid).... And it has to be a number of days.... to fit in with the text.
Peer comment(s):
agree Ghislaine van der Burgt : Wholeheartedly!
8 mins
Blimey, thanks! :)
neutral Annabel Rautenbach : the reference does not necessarily refer to annual leave.
22 mins
1st ref.: "All workers have a right to at least 5.6 weeks’ paid annual leave"; 2nd ref.: "The annual leave entitlement of all staff is specified in their contract of employment, but for the majority of staff it is 38 days a year".
agree MoiraB : "how many days' holiday do I have?" if "days" has to be mentioned. Whether you've saved them up or it's your annual entitlement, it's all leave!
35 mins
Thanks, Moira. I agree entirely with your comment.
neutral André Linsen : Even though the statutory leave days are also annual leave, it is apparent that "annual leave" tends to be a bit confusing in this context!
55 mins
agree Siobhan Schoonhoff-Reilly : and with Moira.
1 hr
agree writeaway : so much confusion, such basic terminology. Imo, a non-pro question
18 hrs
Something went wrong...
+1
4 hrs
Dutch term (edited): opgespaarde vakantiedagen

leave daus due

http://www.etraffic.co.za/affiliates-vippayroll-hr-payroll-s...

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 4 hrs (2010-02-10 19:24:52 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Sorry, that should of course be 'leave days due'
Peer comment(s):
agree Annabel Rautenbach
1 hr
Thanks Annabel
Something went wrong...
26 mins

leave days

Depending on the company's policy, it should be taken once a year or can be taken all year long. If the words wettelijke is also included, it refers to public holidays.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 5 hrs (2010-02-10 20:32:03 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

accumulated leave days
Peer comment(s):
neutral MoiraB : not a phrase that would trip off the tongue in normal speech, which is what Asker seems to want / tautology makes it sound worse, I'm afraid ;-)
19 mins
How many leave days of my annual leave do I have left?
Something went wrong...
Close search
Term search
  • All of ProZ.com
  • Term search
  • Jobs
  • Forums
  • Multiple search