When your communication goes beyond your comfort zone of the English language, it can require translating. While it may seem simple at first to throw your thoughts into an online translator, many of the times, it will come out sounding jumbled to your recipient. To do your best to ensure that your recipient will be able to read your communication with ease, here are some necessary tips that you should employ.

Keep Sentences Brief

One of the best strategies that you can employ that will have the biggest difference in the quality of your translations is utilizing brief sentences. The longer you try to make a sentence, the more confusing it can get for your recipient. This is due to the fact that short sentences typically only contain one main thought that consists of one action and one subject.

Stick To A Standard Vocabulary

When translating your work with services like Magma Translation, it’s best to prep your work using one standard vocabulary. It’s very common in the English language to use a variety of vocabulary approaches, such as referring to dogs as puppies, Fido, or pups. However, this can be extremely confusing when you’re translating your thoughts into another language. Not all languages use a variety of vocabulary setup as the English language does. It’s best to simply pick a standard vocabulary approach for all of your words to keep things easy for your recipient to understand.

Keep Jokes And Sarcasm To A Minimum

One big problem that you will likely run into when translating your work is getting the same emotional outcome with jokes and sarcasm. Many times, jokes end up coming out sounding offensive to the reader instead of funny. It’s best to err on the side of safety and eliminate any jokes or sarcasm from your work.

Pay Attention To Cultural Differences

When you’re translating your work out of the English vocabulary and into a foreign one, it’s crucial to realize that your recipient lives in a different culture. You need to be mindful of those cultural differences and respect them. For example, some words in the English language mean other things when translated to a different language.

Always Aim For An Active Voice

One great rule of thumb that you should follow when translating your work to and from English is to always have an active tone. An active voice speaks of a person doing something right now. Conversely, a passive voice refers to something that has happened in the past. When translating words between languages, it can change the meaning of a word when the word is in a passive format.

Always Double Check Your Dates

Dates are a big problem when translating to and from the English language. In English, we utilize the date format of MM-DD-YY. However, this format is not utilized by many other countries and languages. Rather, they utilize the format DD-MM-YY. After reading this, it becomes fairly clear just how confusing it can be when you’re talking about a date between different languages.

Be Clear With Gender

Many languages are very specific with gender when it comes to describing what is happening. In fact, many actionable verbs have two different spellings depending on whether there is a male or female performing the action. When translating your work from English, it’s essential to specify whether the action is being done by a male or female. Instead of using they or them, utilize he or she.

Shy Away From Ambiguity

There are many different words in the English language that can mean multiple things. To help readers from other cultures understand what you’re talking about, be specific. Avoid ambiguity by using words that only have one meaning. For example, use the term movie instead of film. Film can be utilized to describe different verbs and nouns.

Leave Out Non-Basic Punctuation

The English language has a lot of different punctuation marks. Many other languages don’t use as many, and their presence can be confusing for your recipients. It’s best to leave out all non-basic punctuation when translating your work. This includes punctuation marks like hyphens and parentheses.

Always Spell Check First

Before you attempt to put your work into any sort of translation device, it’s imperative that your spelling is spot-on. You should never have any misspelled words as it could lead to an incorrect translation and confusion among your recipient.

While translating your work may seem very simple at first, you’ll soon find out by your intended recipient that it’s not. You should be employing the strategies that we went over above to ensure that your translations are as accurate as possible.

 

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