I'm translating a tourist guide book from Czech to English and it turns out I have yet to grasp some of the grammatical structures possible.
I want the English translation to be quite simple and clear because I'm sure that it will be read by more non-native speakers of English rather than native ones. My problem is that I would like to specify many proper nouns. The reason for this is that even if a person from Czech isn't familiar with a proper noun, he or she can usually tell whether it's a person or a thing or a city etc., but this doesn't work for foreigners. When specifying, I can think of multiple structures but I'm not sure how good/off they sound. Thank you for taking the time to consider these (made-up) examples! I'm aware that some of them do sound strange/are incorrect, but listing them all should help me get a grip of this. Thanks!
(1) We visited the city of Ostrava, the town of Frýdek-Místek and the village of Morávka.
(2) We visited the city Ostrava, the town Frýdek-Místek and the village Morávka.
(3) We visited Ostrava City, Frýdek-Místek Town and Morávka Village.
(4) We visited the Ostrava City, the Frýdek-Místek Town and the Morávka Village.
(1) Here you can find out how the sweet Marlenka honeycake is made.
(2) Here you can find out how the sweet Marlenka Honeycake is made.
(3) Here you can find out how the sweet honeycake Marlenka is made.
(1) On the way back, make sure to stop at the U Břízy pub.
(2) On the way back, make sure to stop at the pub U Břízy.
(3) On the way back, make sure to stop at the pub 'U Břízy'.
EDIT:
Thank you all for your answers. What do you think of this 'generalization'?
@Mitch says, "When 'pub' comes before, the name of the pub is sort of an explanation," and I think that this exactly is what I'm after. So it seems that this 'helping' noun works fine before the proper noun as in
(A1) I like the computer game Borůvka.
(A2) This place is ruled by the pagan god Vlasta.
(A3) You can try the local beer Rozmar.
since we talk about general (?) things, but it gets more complicated when talking about geographical places, maybe because e.g. towns never take articles (So one needs an idiomatic way around it, such as "the town of X" etc.). How about other names of places?
(B1) You can try swimming in the reservoir Plešno.
(B2) You can try swimming in the Plešno reservoir.
(B3) You can try swimming in Plešno reservoir.
(C1) Visit the Beskydy Mountains.
(C2) Visit the mountains Beskydy.
(D1) The highest peak is the Lysá Mountain.
(D2) The highest peak is Lysá Mountain.
(D3) The highest peak is the mountain Lysá.
And some miscellaneous words?
(E1) Accommodation is provided in the mountain hut Pepa.
(E2) Accommodation is provided in the Pepa mountain hut.
(F1) Climb the Petřín observation tower.
(F2) Climb the observation tower Petřín.
Answer
These are three separate but related questions, one for each set cities, honeycake and pub.
- For the cities, the most idiomatic (I use that idiomatically meaning most natural) sentence is #1:
We visited the city of Ostrava, the town of Frýdek-Místek and the village of Morávka
Numbers 2 and 4 are ungrammatical; 'the city Ostrava' and 'the Ostrava city' are just wrong. Number 3 could work as a translation but only if the city is usually referred to using the word 'city'. For example, Carson City in Nevada can't be called Carson because that would be another city.
For the cake, all are OK; it depends on what you say in Czech. Do you always say 'Marlenka Cake'? In English one always says 'tiramisu' not 'tiramisu cake' but 'bundt cake' not 'bundt'. To me number 3 sounds best (assuming one says in the original Czech does not usually say 'Marlenka honeycake'. If it does, then either 1 or 2 is fine depending on how it is written in Czech.
For the pub, again all are OK. Quotes, without, pub before or after. When 'pub' comes before, the name of the pub is sort of an explanation. When after, the name of the pub is like an adjective. In Czech it may be the name of a pub but literally is 'at the birch trees' which is not at all a proper name; of course this irrelevant to what it sounds like in English.
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