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Q&A Using the grammatically correct way or the casual way to express the same idea in another language?

In casual conversation, it is perfectly fine to end a sentence with a preposition. How many job applications did you apply to? The grammatically correct way is supposed to be: To how many jo...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by Double U‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T10:02:24Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/39706
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Double U‭ · 2019-12-08T10:02:24Z (almost 5 years ago)
In casual conversation, it is perfectly fine to end a sentence with a preposition.

- How many job applications did you apply to?

The grammatically correct way is supposed to be:

- To how many job applications did you apply?

If the original language's sentence is grammatically correct, then does that mean the English translated sentence must be grammatically correct as well? Or should the casual form be adopted instead to just get the meaning across?

My biggest fear is that a monolingual English speaker will read the line in English and interpret that line as being grammatically incorrect, assuming the source language is grammatically incorrect as well, even though the main purpose is not the grammatical correctness. It's the casual tone that is being translated. The characters may in fact be speaking grammatically correctly, just in a different language.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-10-29T14:27:04Z (about 6 years ago)
Original score: 1