Useful translation technique
  • Sakura September 2012
    We all know that Japanese and English are very different! So, often times, word-by-word translation between these two languages results in something awkward or something that doesn't make sense at all.  By the way, that's why you don't want to rely on machine translations; you usually get gibberish!

    In order to speak natural Japanese, you need to see and learn a lot of sentence examples. In other words, you need to see individual words used in contexts. If you only learn a list of words, you will end up like a machine translation and that's ugly! 

    One of the great things about Living Language Japanese is that it provides you with a lot of sentence examples - not just a list of words. If you're an ambitious learner of Japanese, try memorizing those sentence examples and dialogues on top of the vocabulary lists. It will greatly help you become a fluent Japanese speaker. 

    Here's one particular translation tip I want to share with you. This is not found in the books, so it's a bonus!

    In English, we have an expression:

    • Some X are Y; others are Z.

    How would you say that in Japanese? Would you look up "some" and "others" in the dictionary? If you do that, you end up saying something like the following:

    • いくつかのＸはＹです。ほかはＺです。

    This absolutely sounds like a machine translation, or very "Englishy". 

    Well, here comes the tip. The natural Japanese translation is the following:

    • Ｙの Ｘも あります。Ｚの Ｘも あります。(When Y and Z are nouns)
    • Ｙ Ｘも あります。Ｚ Ｘも あります。(when Y and Z are i-adjective)
    • Ｙな Ｘも あります。Ｚな Ｘも あります。(when Y and Z are na-adjective)

    Note 1: if X refers to people or animals, replace あります with います.
    Note 2: if Y or Z is negative, use the plain form, and do not use の or な; basically, this is the relative clause grammar. 

    Let's look at translation examples:

    • Some stores are expensive; others are cheap.
    たかいみせもあります。やすいみせもあります。

    • Some people are students; others are not.
    がくせいのひともいます。がくせいじゃないひともいます。

    You can also translate sentences with action verbs like the following:

    • Some people eat at home; others eat at restaurants.
    うちでたべるひともいます。レストランでたべるひともいます。

    Make sure that you use the plain form when you use an action verb.
     

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