Glossary entry (derived from question below)
Russian term or phrase:
сократить расходы более чем в четыре раза
English translation:
cut the costs by more than 75%
Russian term
сократить расходы более чем в четыре раза
| hoary old question |
Susan Welsh
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Non-PRO (2): PoveyTrans (X), esperantisto
When entering new questions, KudoZ askers are given an opportunity* to classify the difficulty of their questions as 'easy' or 'pro'. If you feel a question marked 'easy' should actually be marked 'pro', and if you have earned more than 20 KudoZ points, you can click the "Vote PRO" button to recommend that change.
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A pro question is anything else... in other words, any question that requires knowledge or skills that are specialized (even slightly).
Another way to think of the difficulty levels is this: an easy question is one that deals with everyday conversation. A pro question is anything else.
When deciding between easy and pro, err on the side of pro. Most questions will be pro.
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Proposed translations
Specialist in Civil Law & Contracts
Native in: English 
Works in: Russian to English, English, Ukrainian to English
cut the costs by more than 75%
Instead it uses percentages or ratios of less than 1, so that "by 75%" could be replaced by three-quarters, and then 10-10x0.75 = 10-7.5=2.5.
Literal translations just cause confusion!
| agree |
Yuri Dubrov
1 min
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| agree |
Zamira B.
4 mins
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| agree |
esperantisto
14 mins
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| agree |
Alexandra Schneeuhr
25 mins
|
| agree |
Yulia Savelieva
1 hr
|
| agree |
Andrii Ishchenko
2 hrs
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| agree |
Susan Welsh
2 hrs
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| agree |
Leigh Mosley
: YES!
2 hrs
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| disagree |
sleyzerzon
: артикль здесь не нужен, так как речь идёт в общем, а не об определённой статье расхода
8 days
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| agree |
cyhul
34 days
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Interp, trans, proof, PR, research, writ
Native in: Russian 
, German
Works in: English to Russian, German to Russian, Russian to German, and 13 more.
cut the costs more than 4 times
| disagree |
David Knowles
: See my answer (and Jack obviously agrees)!
6 mins
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| disagree |
sleyzerzon
: don't think article is needed, we are talking in general
8 days
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United Kingdom
Translator since 1953
Native in: English
Works in: Russian to English, German to English, English
to cut costs by more than three quarters
| agree |
sleyzerzon
: one can say that...
8 days
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Thank you. I've no quarrel with David's answer though.
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Russian Federation
There's No Limit to Perfection
Native in: Russian
Works in: English to Russian, Russian to English, English
to reduce the costs by more than fourfold
In Russian, "в четыре раза" = "вчетверо"
| neutral |
sleyzerzon
: kinda clumsy... oh, and you don't need "by" and "the", so one can say to reduce costs fourfold
7 days
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Thank you for your opinion.
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United States
I live therefore I translate
Native in: Russian
Works in: Russian to English, English to Russian
cut (reduce) costs by more than 400%
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Note added at 8 days (2012-10-25 19:31:15 GMT) Post-grading
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"cut costs fourfold" will do too, the magnitude of it is already implied
Reference comments
United States
Psychology, economics, politics
Native in: English
Works in: Russian to English, German to English, English
hoary old question
| agree |
sleyzerzon
: I absolutely agree it's a pro question, especially if one consider him/herself a pro and still asks a non-pro question, one would knowingly denigrade a potential responder. Either do it yourself, or ask, but respect those who answer.
8 days
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Discussion
One can only say that the value has increased by more than 75%, or by more than three quarters, be it in Europe, England, US, Greenland, or wherever...
Now suppose the final value is higher - let's say 351. In this case, the value has gone up by 151, which again is just over 75% of the initial value, so we say the value has gone up by more than 75%.
The European style seems to be to divide the bigger number by the smaller number, so that we have 200/49, which is more than 4, and the Europeans say the value has decreased more than 4 times. Because it's decreased, you are meant to know that they divided initial by final.
In my second example, they say 351/200 is over 1.75, so they might say that the value has increased by more than one and three-quarters. Because it's increased, you are meant to know they divided final by initial.