Ostvarivati prava in Serbian is often translated as ‘realise your rights’. Ugh. In fact, the word ostvariti/ostvarivati poses a frequent problem for translators, loosely meaning ‘to make real’. All too often we see this word translated ‘realise’, and to be fair the word could be translated that way sometimes – we can leave that for another discussion (e.g. ostvariti ciljeve, ‘realise your goals’, i.e. make them a reality).
But ‘realise your rights’ – just no! That sounds more as though you just became aware of them: ‘I just realised what my rights are!’.
The phrase in Serbian means to (seek to) achieve some rights that you already have, by law for example. For example ostvariti pravo na porodiljsko bolovanje (‘realise your rights’ to maternity leave).
Please do not translate it ‘realise’!
Here at Odista we have over the years arrived at a couple of solutions which are much more in the spirit of the English language: ‘pursue’ or ‘exercise’ your rights.
For example:
Pomogli smo porodici da ostvari pravo na dečji dodatak
We helped the family exercise/pursue their rights to child allowance
So you already have the rights, you just need to exercise them, or pursue them – but NOT ‘realise’ them. Although sometimes “realise” can mean “achieve”, e.g. in the phrase “realise your ambitions”, we don’t use “realise” in that way in English nearly as much as translators would like to think!
Oh, and if you have actually achieved your rights, or successfully exercised them, then we would use a perfect rather than imperfect form in Serbian (ostvarili su) and perhaps say We helped the family secure their rights to child allowance.
Think outside the box – translation into English from Serbian, or any language must be dynamic. If the answer to the question ‘Would any native speaker actually say that?’ is ‘No!’ then we need to try harder!
