THINKING HARD

[anglychanin.livejournal.com]

How do you translate "to think hard", please ?

"The mathematician had to think hard about the solution to the problem."

"Someone wanting to buy property in a foreign country has to think hard about the details of the transaction."

"Thinking hard" means giving your full attention to the subject and using your accumulated logical skills.

Comments

[oryx_and_crake]

хорошЕнько подумать

[barilotti.livejournal.com]

серьезно задуматься/серьезно обдумать

Математику пришлось серьезно задуматься над решением проблемы.

Если вы хотите купить недвижимость в другой стране, вам нужно серьезно обдумать детали транзакции.

Also, "просчитать" is sometimes applicable in this case...

[icamel.livejournal.com]

Problem could be задача in this context.

[pinky-the-cow.livejournal.com]

Nothing flashy, catchy or idiom-like, just like in English. Both words simply translate into the appropriate Russian for them. Minor variations are numerous, but that truth should not be surprising.

Just to add to other users' valid input:
Тщательно обдумать что-нибудь,
старательно продумать что-либо,
как следует поразмыслить над чем-то,
впасть в продолжительные раздумья насчёт чего-то,
усиленно поломать голову над кое-чем.

[pinky-the-cow.livejournal.com]

Пораскинуть мозгами насчёт ещё чего-нибудь.

[surasure.livejournal.com]

i can only add that the tint slightly differs from case to case.. like, in the first example i'd put it as "математику пришлось хорошенько поломать голову" while in the second example i'd say "тем, кто хочет купить недвижимость заграницей, придется серьезно разобраться в особенностях (глубоко изучить особенности) заключения международных сделок.

and quite a third case will be: я еще хорошенько (крепко) подумаю, принимать ли это предложение. this case is the closest to "thinking hard" but in russian, i feel, it will only be used when we speak about weather or not we'll do something. only decisionmaking.

i am saying that "ломать голову" is a great expression but it goes more when you're supposed to look for an answer here and there (and which could be a non-existing one) but not when you got to dive into details which will widen your knowledge in a field, and not in decision making.

i hope that helps!

[surasure.livejournal.com]

whether, blimey!! ))

[seroe-ozero.livejournal.com]

поднапрячся
призадуматься

[malim-praedari.livejournal.com]

I would translate "mathematician had to think hard" as "матемтику пришлсь поломть глову" ("ломть" is imperfective; "поломть" is perfective).

Other commenters gave you a good range of expressions to use for the second example.

Do you realize that there is a slight semantic difference between the "think hard" in the first example and the "think hard" in the second example? That's why one cannot use the same Russian expression to translate both.

[yurka-spb.livejournal.com]

I think that поломать can be either perfective or imperfective depending on context. If it means the same as сломать then it is perfective, if it is used in the sense долго ломать it is imperfective. I believe here is the second case: "математику пришлось долго ломать голову" is an alternative variant and "математику пришлось cломать голову" sounds strange.

Anyway, your translation is quite nice.

[malim-praedari.livejournal.com]

Oy, I didn't want to go into the different meanings that the "по" prefix can confer, so as not to confuse the learners completely. Gramota.ru, however, considers "поломать" in both meanings as a perfective verb: http://tinyurl.com/5mljzu

[catus-ferus.livejournal.com]

Thinking hard = Ломать голову

[quorax.livejournal.com]

Напрячь мозги
:)

[anglychanin.livejournal.com]

Thank you, everyone