Translation services

Deviously similar

The writing system for both English and Spanish stems from Latin. However, this similarity makes  from one language to another more onerous. For example, “exito” might be mistranslated to exit; when it refers to success in Spanish. Similarly, “pie” doesn’t refer to a sweet dessert in Spanish. It refers to your feet and Spanish people don’t recommend eating it. 

There is a running joke in Spanish – An English guy goes to a Spanish jam shop and asks for a preservative (condom). The anecdote might be lousy but does a good job of highlighting the issue during translation of Spanish to English.

Semantics

Semantics offers a peculiar difficulty during translation. For example, only a Spanish person will realize how terribly non-Spanish speakers would translate “Vergüenza ajena”. Semantics is a way of articulating sentiments, and implication. Effective translation can serve to deliver an effective message. 

Colloquial expressions

Another point of worry for a beginner interpreter can come from colloquial jargon. Spanish specific jargon like “Estrenar” or “Querencia” might confuse translators. Colloquial expressions and jargons require memorization and experience; however, things have been made easier with the internet. 

Grammar

The different origin of English and French language leads to differences in grammatical structure. As such a translator always should pay careful attention to some of the following:

1. Syntax: Both English and Spanish use subject-verb-object in a syntactical sense. However, Spanish provides numerous leniencies in this rule. 

2. Gender: In Spanish nouns can either be masculine or feminine (two gendered), not so in English. 

3. Adjectives: Spanish adjectives alter with gender while English adjectives do not change. Also, Spanish adjectives are placed after the noun while in English it is placed after. 

4. Verbs: In English, there are 3 forms of a verb, however, in Spanish there are 6 main forms. Spanish people say “Yo canto, tú cantas, Ella canta, Nosotros cantamos” which translates to “I sing, you sing, she sings, we sing (masculine)”.