Translate This: damage, damages

Damage  is one English word that you should take extra care when translating. Why should I say so? Because you may inadvertently cause damage to someone’s reputation and in retaliation they may claim damages upon your action.

You   : Crap! They are not the same..??

Me    : No they aren’t, unfortunately.

You   : So which one is which then?

This car is damaged. The owner can claim for damages from the insurance company.

Even English native speakers got confused sometimes. Why, because they are spelled the same, carry a vaguely, closely, nearly, similar meaning. Let’s try to translate some text. Hmmm… those first two sentences look alright to me. The following may be the most possible translation (There are no right or wrong translation, only the more appropriate or lesser one that is):

"Damage" ialah satu perkataan Bahasa Inggeris yang anda harus terjemahkan dengan lebih berhati-hati. Mengapa harus saya katakan begitu? Kerana anda mungkin boleh secara tidak sengaja menyebabkan kerosakan terhadap reputasi seseorang dan mereka mungkin akan membalasnya dengan membuat tuntutan ganti rugi ke atas tindakan anda.

I hope you get it, if you don’t let me explain. The former refers to the direct effect of one’s action including defacement or loss of concrete or inconcrete values of another person’s property such as auto-vehicles, houses, reputations or businesses. All can cause the latter to incur. In other words, damages should always be translated in context of law, except when it is used as a simple present tense of a singular verb e.g. Kamariah’s action damages the company’s reputation (Tindakan Kamariah merosakkan reputasi syarikat itu). The company decided to claim damages from Kamariah (Syarikat itu membuat keputusan untuk menuntut ganti rugi daripada Kamariah). Bear in mind that damages in a law article always refer to monetary equivalent to the damage. Informally, damages can also mean money equivalent to something that is not really damaged e.g “So, what are the damages for that rewiring job on the second floor?” (“Jadi, berapa kosnya kerja pendawaian semula di tingkat dua itu?”).

Confused?

Oh, dear….

Before I can cause serious damage to you brain, I better stop now. But then again, if your brain is already damaged, surely no damages can be claimed because your brain is now considered useless and you now only fit to live in a shrink-house. Let’s just hope your relatives don’t find this article on the computer screen the moment that happened.

Quick! Quick!