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.
Italian to English translations [PRO] Social Sciences - Social Science, Sociology, Ethics, etc. / the family
Italian term or phrase:single
DON'T SWITCH THE LANGUAGE PAIR pls As I understand it "single" in English means very simply that you are unmarried as in tick the box married of single. While in Italian it has a slightly different meaning of a person who is both unmarried and living away from home in a flat, without a partner. What's an Italian single in English, in one or two words, if poss.
La forza dei processi di individualizzazione e di solidarietà familiare può essere osservata analizzando la distribuzione degli individui adulti europei in quattro situazioni familiari tipiche: essere single, essere partner in una coppia senza figli, essere genitore con figli conviventi, essere figlio convivente con i genitori.
The passage seems to be talking specifically about cohabitation, in which case English-language social science-speak would tend to prefer "household" to "family situation" on the grounds that it describes circumstances while making fewer assumptions about relationships.
The other groups might also be expressed as subcategories of two-person ("childless couple") and multiple-person ("parent/s with child/ren" and "child with parents") households.
Cheers to you both! Definitely agree with adult child - sounds a lot better. The only problem with one-person households is that it excludes "fictive" families like friends living together. Maybe you could use just single adults.
Hi Julie, I've researched quite a bit, adult offspring and adult child, in the context of the international male breadwinner debate. A careful look (not just a head count and not just oh most of these are not native English) at the first two links followed by the third sums it up, we are children all our lives, but I will probably throw in a few offspring among the children:
My father was an only child, he outlived his mother at the age of sixty. My parents had three children, the middle one is me and at fifty four I'm the middle one, still playing around with all sorts of things. I'll turn the air conditioning up a little uncork an Oltre Po Pavese Barbera and reciprocate.
Thanks very much Jim. I'll uncork a Friulian white to your and Julie's health. Cheers from an offspring who doesn't mind being described as somebody's child, even at the age of fifty-three, Giles.
Thanks for the offspring tip Julie, jumping deep into rush job sociology after hundreds of pages of financials. Mind you sticking to the technical jargon doesn't always make for successful readable papers, I'll be separating the households from the families tomorrow morning when I'm a wee bit more lucid. He's analysing Eurostat census data so "single person households" in English simply got abbreviated in the Italian as "singles" would you believe? Nothing to do really with marriage. Having understood that I looked for a way to take this down, but Giles will be able to drink to my health when I give him the points.
don't want to further complicate the situation here but maybe you should reconsider using "child" and "children" and replace them with "adult offspring" or something similar. By the way I quite like "unattached" (adults)
Read it! There's no doubt what the guy means, he's using the word for anybody living alone
Emerge da questa analisi (vedi tabella 1) come l’essere single costituisca un fenomeno che caratterizza le due fasce estreme d’età: i giovani adulti e ***gli anziani. ***
Different words clearly mean different things to different people. Giovanni's view on the word is very interesting.
Giovanni Pizzati (X)
Italy
11:03 Jun 19, 2007
NON SONO DEL TUTTO D'ACCORDO CON LA SUDDETTA DEFINIZIONE SOPRA DA ME FORNITATI
Giovanni Pizzati (X)
Italy
11:02 Jun 19, 2007
single agg. angloamericano (propr., solo, unico) usato in italiano come agg. e sm. o f. Riferito a persona (uomo o donna) che vive da sola; celibe o nubile. § L'espressione single è entrata nell'uso... confermare l'espansione della condizione di single, la marcata contrazione dei matrimoni (circa 300.000
I don't think that's what he/they are saying. The def. you're going with means that four students living together in a flat here in Bologna, p.es., who are neither married nor coupled, would be completely invisible for purposes of the study in question.
If you really think they're talking about people living alone, that's your call; I don't think it fits into the list because, if you interpret it that way, you complete exclude the category of people who are not in couples (or "unmarried," if you like).
My sociologist author is using it for anybody living alone including widows and widowers.
Giovanni Pizzati (X)
Italy
10:57 Jun 19, 2007
pesante termine di zitella che spregiava la donna non sposata, quella che voi chiamate spinster. Ed anche per unificare al bisenso il termine burocratico maschio/femmina, celibe e nubile.
Wendell this is how I understood it from discussions with students before looking in the dictionary to check
sin|gle s.m. e f.inv. ES ingl. persona che vive da sola e senza un legame sentimentale stabile, spec. per scelta
Giovanni Pizzati (X)
Italy
10:54 Jun 19, 2007
Jim, perché stai a romperti il capo per niente. Noi dicamo single per dire scapolo, nubile, unmarried. Con questo non intendiamo il modus vivendi, se in compagnia o sa solo. Single è stato messo in giro soprattutto dalle donne non sposate, per ovviare al
distinguishes "single" from "essere partner in una coppia," they're not making a distinction between married and unmarried by betw. being "single" and "in a couple." I'd simply use single -- adding that lots of people who live with their parents
And this is the next sentence!!! Single includes the elderly
Emerge da questa analisi (vedi tabella 1) come l’essere single costituisca un fenomeno che caratterizza le due fasce estreme d’età: i giovani adulti e gli anziani.
I'm not sure I agree w/the distinction you make betw. single in IT and EN (I've heard it used in all kinds of contexts), but the problem w/unmarried is that it excludes people in couples who CAN'T get legally married or who don't want to. Since the text
The strength of individualisation and family solidarity processes can be observed by analysing the distribution of European adult individuals in four typical family situations: to be single living away from parents, to live in partnership as a couple without children, to be a parent living with children, to be a child living with parents.
Automatic update in 00:
Answers
34 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +2
one-person (household)
Explanation: Hi Jim 'n' Wendell,
The passage seems to be talking specifically about cohabitation, in which case English-language social science-speak would tend to prefer "household" to "family situation" on the grounds that it describes circumstances while making fewer assumptions about relationships.
The other groups might also be expressed as subcategories of two-person ("childless couple") and multiple-person ("parent/s with child/ren" and "child with parents") households.
FWIW
Giles
Giles Watson Italy Local time: 14:08 Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 24
Grading comment
Excerpt from email from author:
sìi costanzo
At 17.11 20/06/2007, you wrote:
Tu per “single” intendi un “single person household” giusto?
The wine was perfect
Cheers
Notes to answerer
Asker: Yep I always use household in economics for family. I'm just putting "living alone" so far.
44 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +1
unattached
Explanation: Forgive me, I did not read the *entire* discussion (but did read all of the query); this struck me immediately as the correct translation.
xlationhouse United States Local time: 05:08 Works in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 4
Login or register (free and only takes a few minutes) to participate in this question.
You will also have access to many other tools and opportunities designed for those who have language-related jobs
(or are passionate about them). Participation is free and the site has a strict confidentiality policy.
peer agreement (net): +2