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80 months ago

Barbara R Cochran (a guest user) asked this question:

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80 months ago

   wrote:

pours 40 thousand cubic meters per second!

My comment:

"quell'enorme fiume che riversa in mare ben 40mila metri cubi di acqua al secondo" :

"that great river that pours [surely / as much as / a whopping / at least] 40,000 cubic meters of water per second into the sea."

"ben" is only an intensifier and I think you don't have to translate it: 40K m³/second is impressive enough per se!...

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"One can imagine the impression of grandeur it made on the Portuguese people, accustomed to the flow of European waterways, that huge river that pours at least 40,000 cubic meters of water per second into the sea."

You can add an exclamation mark (!) at the end of the sentence in order to render the "ben" too:

"One can imagine the impression of grandeur it made on the Portuguese people, accustomed to the flow of European waterways, that huge river that pours 40,000 cubic meters of water per second into the sea!"

I, personally, would only just put the exclamation mark...

But I gave you other possibilities too...

My references:

"ben (= enfatico) (= "pure", "proprio"): as well; surely, really"

at https://www.wordreference.com/iten/ben

and

on Reverso Context you have a choice of the usual translations for "ben": https://context.reverso.net/translation/italian-english/ben

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"whopping": Wordreference says it is "slang": https://www.wordreference.com/enit/whopping

See examples: https://context.reverso.net/translation/english-italian/a+whopping

It reminds me of "the WOW effect"!...

See also: https://www.thefreedictionary.com/whopping :

"whop·ping (wŏp′ĭng, hwŏp′-) Slang

- adj.: **Exceptionally large**: "yet another whopping pay raise"
- adv.: Used as **an intensive**: a whopping good joke.

but lower it says:

"Adj. 1. whopping - (**used informally**) very large; "a thumping loss"

= banging, humongous, thumping, walloping

colloquialism - ***a colloquial expression***; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech"

=> it's only a colloquial expression, no slang, so I believe you could use it here if you absolutely want to translate the "ben" intensifier.

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https://context.reverso.net/translation/italian-english/fiume+che+riversa+in+mare

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Under "bene", sometimes abbreviated as "ben", you get some other translations that are intensifiers:

https://www.wordreference.com/iten/bene :

"d. (rafforzativo: appunto)

come tu ben sai : as you well know"

>>>> "e. (addirittura, non meno di) ***at least***

hai fatto ben 7 errori : you've made **at least** 7 mistakes

sono ben 3 giorni che non la vedo : I haven't seen her for **at least** 3 days

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In French, it would be "bien", in the sense:

"B.− [Avec une valorisation intensive] Plus qu'on ne pourrait s'y attendre :

Ces pauvres demoiselles! L'aînée, Angéline, ***a bien vingt-six ans*** (= is surely/at least 26 years old, for sure); l'autre, Aurélie, va en avoir vingt-quatre.

Notre jeune contrôleur est pourtant ***bien sympathique***. le droguiste. − = Très sympathique." (= is nice, for sure!)


http://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/bien

Comments by other colleagues on this answer:

80 months ago

   wrote:

Do you prefer "pours out" or "discharges"? Maybe you could also translate "ben(e)" by "roughly". Or are you just on vacation for Easter? :-)

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