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Translation - Danish-English - Bedre er at være forudseende end bagklog

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Title
Bedre er at være forudseende end bagklog
Text
Submitted by Bamsa
Source language: Danish

Bedre er at være forudseende end bagklog
Remarks about the translation
I need the British english version of this saying

Title
A stitch in time saves nine
Translation
English

Translated by kafetzou
Target language: English

A stitch in time saves nine
Remarks about the translation
Another possibility is "Better safe than sorry," but this is a bit more colloquial.
Last validated or edited by IanMegill2 - 24 October 2007 13:46





Latest messages

Author
Message

23 October 2007 16:06

pias
Number of messages: 8113
I believe 'Bedre er at være forudseende end bagklog
' has nothing to do with time ...

meaning of 'A stitch in time saves nine' : http://humanities.byu.edu/ELC/student/idioms/proverbs/stitch.html

that it is better to spend a little time to deal with problems or act right now than wait.
If you wait until late, things will get worse, and it will take much longer to deal with them.

I believe (??)this meaning is just saying that it is better to think before acting than
discover afterwards that you had made a misstake (or something similar)

but I am NOT a native danish speaker...that is just a guess

23 October 2007 16:17

IanMegill2
Number of messages: 1671
Look before you leap?
Or, as my father used to say
"Time spent on reconnaissance is never wasted"?

23 October 2007 20:02

wkn
Number of messages: 332
The literal translation is "It's better to anticipate (...problems...) that to know afterwards what you should have done".

"A stitch in time saves nine" captures this quite well. Another possibility (might at least go into the notes) is "better safe than sorry" which captures more of the sense of "bagklog" - sorry but wiser.

24 October 2007 12:52

IanMegill2
Number of messages: 1671
Okay, this sounds like a little closer approximation!
Thanks, wkn!
Kafetzou, do you think it would a good idea to change it to
Better safe than sorry
?

CC: kafetzou

24 October 2007 13:20

kafetzou
Number of messages: 7963
No, I don't, because the requester wanted British English,and "better safe than sorry" is a bit too colloquial, I think, but we can certainly put the other one in the commentary, as wkn suggested. I'll do that.

24 October 2007 13:23

kafetzou
Number of messages: 7963
The idea of "a stitch in time saves nine" is not really about time, pias. It means if you anticipate a problem and take a precautionary measure before the problem arises, you will save yourself a lot of trouble later.

24 October 2007 13:44

IanMegill2
Number of messages: 1671
I certainly agree with you that
A stitch in time saves nine
sounds more British!
This dumb Canadian has probably never used it in his life!

I guess I'll validate it now, then: thanks, everybody!

24 October 2007 15:58

pias
Number of messages: 8113
Ok Kafetzou, thanks for explaining.