Translating Vietnamese Sentences Containing the Word Rồi into English Related to English Tenses

Abstract

In Vietnamese, rồi can help translators choose appropriate English tenses to translate Vietnamese sentences into English. With this study, the researcher wants to indicate the influence of rồi in four Vietnamese works’ sentences on their translators’ selection for appropriate English tenses to have semantically equivalent translations. The study refers to six tenses of simple present (a), simple past (b), present perfect (c), past perfect (d), simple future (e), and near future (f). These sentences were translated into English with (a) if rồi denotes the emphasis on the reality of the event. (b), (c), and (d) are preferred when rồi implies the event that happened in the past. However, using (e) and (f) is not dependent upon the occurrence of rồi because this word does need combination with other words or phrases to denote the meaning of the future. Therefore, understanding the influence of rồi in Vietnamese in different contexts helps Vietnamese people learning English know how to choose the appropriate English tenses when translating Vietnamese sentences containing it into English.