Hello,
Thank you all for your messages. So, British English speaker and dictionary editor chiming in. We don't really say spectacles in BE. We say glasses (or occasionally 'specs'). However, we don't consider spectacles to be archaic, just a bit formal. Everyone knows the word, it's just not one you'd use. The thing is, and here's where my dictionary editor hat goes firmly on, spectacles is less ambiguous than glasses. I mean, I don't know what 'frames' would be for drinking glasses, but I have to consider that I might send some poor unsuspecting translator down the wrong path (and with my dictionary translator hat on, I'm sure that must have happened to me more than once. Luckily DearPrudence usually sets me right, and even manages not to laugh too hard, when it does
).
I have to say, I'm really surprised to learn that 'spectacles' is so unheard of in AE that you don't even recognise it. I can find it in AE dictionaries, with no mention that it's even dated. I'm a little reluctant to change it to 'glasses' for the reasons above, and 'eyeglasses' might cause similar problems for BE speakers (that really does sound archaic to me).
I'm wondering about 'eyewear', but that also might not be immediately obvious either to users or translators.
The English sentence is quite natural, although not something I would say myself. I have seen something like it several times on social media though, so it's reasonably common for people to talk about liking someone's frames, but it's still more common for us to say 'I like your new glasses/Your new glasses suit you'. Nonetheless, I'll change it to something less difficult to translate. Would this work: My prescription hasn't changed, but I think I'd like to get new frames anyway. ?
