"knutselde" "knutselen"

13:10 Feb 1, 2011 

I just heard someone on the BBC say "He rigged up a shelter...", and I remembered this question. I'm an American and I would also use "rigged up" to mean rather casually and spontaneously assembled or put together.

20:01 Jan 28, 2011 

You know I tried THREE times to enter the accepted term and award the points. The two previous tries failed. I reckon they were vectored off into /dev/null ... go figure. Thanks to everyone for help, you're a great resource and fantastic team to work with.

18:18 Jan 28, 2011 

I don't see any selected answer either, Dave. You probably have to do it again.

11:03 Jan 28, 2011 

I just selected an answer and I do not see any result, so I have no idea if it went through. Can someone confirm? Otherwise it remains outstanding, and I will just have to do it again. Go figure.

15:20 Jan 25, 2011 

Hi Dave, you cannot divide points among people. You will have to make your final choice as to whom you want to award with points, or decline and just tell us 'thank you' and 'found answer elsewhere'. I hope the parents who read the book outloud to their children won't sound like 'gobble together' - my daughter still complains that I read to her that a man had an arrow in his head, instead of in his hat.

14:37 Jan 25, 2011 

We have decided to use the British "cobble together", as it appears to us to convey the same tone as the Dutch original. However, if the American editors balk we will fall back on some suggestions made here (in this order of preference): "rigged together", "piece together" and "put together". Now tell me, ProZ-ers ... how do I divide points up among three different people? Thanks to you all for your help, I really appreciate it !

05:58 Jan 24, 2011 

All points are taken, and thanks everyone for the tips, advice and suggestions. By the way, I happened to be reading an article in the Smithsonian this morning, and noticed in Russ Juskalian's article on the Cambodian bamboo train: "Rural Cambodians cobbled old tank parts and scrap lumber into an ingenious way to get around." Juskalian has an impressive American journalistic portfolio ... so the term "cobbled together" is understood by Americans, and it is not exclusively British. The usage in Juskalian's article matches precisely what Tom is doing in his garden cobbling the trampoline together.

23:33 Jan 23, 2011 

I agree with Kate's remark. Knutselen might have the spunky connotation you are looking for, but that (and others) are 'adult' connotations. For a child 'knutselen' indeed simply means piecing together something using the items she describes.

23:28 Jan 23, 2011 

You have to bear in mind that if the readers are aged about 5 years then they are not very likely to have great knowledge of very colloquial expressions such as cobbling. Keep the readers in mind when deciding on the terminology. Knutselen really means using bits of paper, paper boxes, toilet roll tubes etc, or using beads, paint, glue etc to make things. Think how a child would describe the action to another child. Small children if asked what they have done generally say I built a... or I made a ....

19:00 Jan 23, 2011 

Thanks so far for all the feedback. But I want a word that conveys the same brightness and spunk that is conveyed by the Dutch original or the British ("knock-up", "cobble together"). I do not want flat, adult "terminology". "Rigged together" is getting close. The character Tom is "cobbling" the trampoline from "bits and bobs" so-to-speak. I have really asked around and it is looking like the Brits have the Americans beat on this one ...