Translation Both Ways: Spanish and English

Translation both ways

Translation asks you to carry a message from one language into another so that it means the same thing. In your Spanish course you translate short sentences both ways: from Spanish into English, and from English into Spanish. The goal is never to swap one word for the next and hope for the best. It is to understand the whole sentence, then say the same idea naturally in the other language. For example, the Spanish sentence me gusta el cine means I like the cinema, and a word-for-word version would sound wrong. Along the way you watch what differs between the two languages, such as the order of words, the tense and person of the verb, and the way Spanish nouns carry gender. This module teaches how to translate accurately in both directions and how to check your work.

Words for translation

Learn these terms before the translation checks are matched up. They name what you look at when you translate.

Match each translation check to what it catches

Word-for-word against idea-for-idea

The biggest choice in translation is whether to swap each word one by one or to carry the whole idea across. Idea-for-idea wins almost every time. For example, in Spanish the describing word usually follows the noun, so es una casa grande means it is a big house, not it is a house big.

Which is the better translation?

You must translate the English the big house into Spanish. Remembering that the describing word usually follows the noun, which is better?

• la casa grande, which places the describing word after the noun
• a word-for-word version that keeps the English order
• leaving out the describing word to be safe
• guessing an English-looking word

Watch the Spanish verb ending

In Spanish the ending of a verb does a lot of work, and a translation that ignores it loses easy marks. The ending changes to show who is doing the action and when, so the same verb can look quite different from one sentence to the next. Take tengo dos hermanos, which means I have two brothers, and hay tres libros, which means there are three books: the little verb at the start carries the sense. Before you finish, check that the person matches, that I, you, he or they is the right one, and that the tense matches the past, present or future the English asks for. It is one of the most common places to slip, and one of the easiest to fix once you are looking for it.

Pick what to check in a translation

Select everything worth checking before you call a Spanish translation finished.

• The order of the words
• The tense and person of the verb
• The gender and agreement of the words
• The colour of your pen
• How fast you wrote it

Order how to translate a sentence

Put the steps of translating a sentence well into a sensible order.

• Read the whole sentence first
• Work out what it really means
• Choose the right words for the idea
• Fix the order, the verb and the agreement
• Read your translation back to check it

Complete the translation facts

A good translation carries the _____ across, not just the words one by one. In Spanish you must match the _____ of a noun, so the adjective takes the right masculine or feminine ending. Spanish and English do not always use the same word _____, so you may need to rearrange. Always read your translation _____ to check it makes sense.

Tap the two good translation habits

Read these four things a student might do. Tap the TWO that are good translation habits.

• reading the whole sentence before starting
• reading the finished translation back
• swapping each word one by one
• guessing at any word that looks familiar

Carrying goods across a river

Think of translating as carrying goods across a river by ferry. You do not hurl each crate over the water one at a time and hope it lands; you load the whole cargo, carry it across together, and unload it so it arrives whole and undamaged. A word-by-word swap is like throwing crates: some land, some sink, and the load turns up broken. A skilled translator carries the whole message across, repacking it to suit the far bank, so that a reader on the other side receives exactly what was sent. The goods matter more than the crates they came in.

The translation run

Answer each one correctly to keep your lives. Choose the best answer.

Make the right translation choice

Read each situation and choose the best answer.

• You meet a Spanish word you do not know in a sentence. What is the best move?
• You see the Spanish word libreria and want to translate it. What should you remember?
• You have translated an English sentence into Spanish. What should you do before finishing?

Build a translation point

Choose the word for each gap to complete one point about translating well.

Explain how to translate well

A classmate finds translation hard and asks how to do it well in both directions. Using what you have learned, explain how to translate accurately between Spanish and English.

• Explain why translating for meaning beats word-for-word
• Explain what to check about word order
• Explain why gender and agreement matter in Spanish
• Explain how to handle a word you do not know, including false friends
• Explain why reading your translation back is worth the time