I've seen the usage of English phrase for what it's worth many times.
However, I still don't know what the most precise translation of this phrase is in Russian.
No direct translation exists. 'For what it's worth' usually means that whatever is to follow is going to be a subjective opinion, which translates well to
- На мой взгляд (In my opinion),
- Я думаю (I think),
- Я считаю (I figure).
If you want to communicate that a piece of information is potentially unimportant for another reason, you could say something like 'Может, это неважно, но'.
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3Examples are mistranslated: “на мой взгляд” = “in my view” (“in my opinion” = “по моему мнению”), “я считаю” = “I figure” (literally: “to figure” = “to calculate”; “I think” = “я думаю”), “мне кажется” = “(it) seems to me (that)”.– theUgJun 26 '12 at 7:53
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2@theUg if you take the expression literally, then they don't match perfectly, but if you consider their usage, they are spot on. +1 for alternative translations though, they could be useful.– kotekzotJun 26 '12 at 8:02
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There is no reason to fiddle with translation, when direct and literal one is available. Otherwise, it is confusing for everyone.– theUgJun 26 '12 at 8:05
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Another clarification as to why “я считаю” ≠ “I think”. “Cчитать” is closer in the figurative sense to the verb “to opine” (“I opine”) which is more assertive, whereas “I think” is more tentative (“I ponder that…” or “I am not sure, but I think that…”).– theUgJun 26 '12 at 8:10
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4@theUg literal translations don't necessarily carry the intended meaning, "I ponder" is a great example of that. You can ponder something, but you can't say "I ponder" to express an opinion.– kotekzotJun 26 '12 at 8:35
FWIW is roughly synonymous with my two cents, which can in turn be translated as мои пять копеек
UPDATE: Note that мои пять копеек is highly colloquial and can only really be met online.
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6Just my two cents: I've lived in Russia for 20 years, and I can't recall anyone using
просто мои пять копеекin real life, except perhaps a couple of times in tech community where it is common to use loan translation of English phrases, or even no translation at all.– DanJun 13 '12 at 22:53 -
1True, it's loan translation of the English phrase and never used in speech, but it's getting increasingly popular online, even outside of the tech community. The question asked about FWIW, which itself is only used online. Jun 13 '12 at 23:09
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1@PhilipSeyfi I beg to differ, it seems to be fairly popular en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_What_It's_Worth– kotekzotJun 14 '12 at 0:54
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@PhilipSeyfi I bet the guys from Buffalo Springfield in 1966 had no idea about online chatting ;)– VisioNJun 14 '12 at 7:47
It depends on the context. If you just add some information which value you are not sure about, I would translate it as на всякий случай. If you express your opinion, you can add something like я не настаиваю, но or simply я думаю.
Не знаю, на сколько это важно/полезно, но...
Может быть, это и не важно, но...
"За что купил, за то и продаю"?
english-to-russian, but overall, I believe that the question is perfectly appropriate for RL&U.