كل معلومة يمكن أن تحدث فرقاً

English translation: Can/Could

13:28 Jan 31, 2020
Arabic to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Linguistics
Arabic term or phrase: كل معلومة يمكن أن تحدث فرقاً
Hello everyone,

I have this part of a video that I have to translate and subtitle it for my Media Translation course as a translation student.
The video is the following: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7yWsUX5TLY , where it's about a question that will save your life, and how we should tell the doctors everything we know from allergies to what medicines we are taking and stuff like that.

so I have this two sentences that i translated them as:

- Every piece of information could make a difference, كل معلومة يمكن أن تحدث فرقاً،

- Every piece of information could save a life, كل معلومة يمكن أن تنقذ حياة

so here if we used could we can interpret it as it may save our life, but it’s not 100% a fact that should happen; as we know our lives is between Allah’s hands, from that side I was convinced to use Could instead of Can.

But then when I asked my colleagues and other sources, they encouraged using Can instead, since it’s more general and suits the tense of the sentence.

What do you think is the best way of translating it? should I use Can or Could?

Thank you so much for your time!
Reem Hazi
Qatar
English translation:Can/Could
Explanation:
Can: express what the speaker believes is a general truth or known fact, or a strong possibility.
Could: does not express a general truth. The speaker is only expressing a weak possibility.


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Note added at 7 hrs (2020-01-31 21:00:40 GMT)
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Every piece of information can make a difference and every very piece of information can save a life.
A general truth or known fact.
Selected response from:

djalal
Greece
Local time: 17:50
Grading comment
Thank you so much for your answer, it enlightened me!

4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4Can/Could
djalal


  

Answers


7 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
Can/Could


Explanation:
Can: express what the speaker believes is a general truth or known fact, or a strong possibility.
Could: does not express a general truth. The speaker is only expressing a weak possibility.


--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 7 hrs (2020-01-31 21:00:40 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Every piece of information can make a difference and every very piece of information can save a life.
A general truth or known fact.

Example sentence(s):
  • It can be dangerous to cycle in the city.
  • It could be dangerous to cycle in the city.

    https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/can-could-or-may
djalal
Greece
Local time: 17:50
Native speaker of: Native in ArabicArabic, Native in KabyleKabyle
PRO pts in category: 4
Grading comment
Thank you so much for your answer, it enlightened me!
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