Navigating The Challenges Of English To German Translation
Approximately, 130 million people around the world speak the German language. These people are spread over 42 countries. Moreover, It is also one of the important languages of the European Union. Additionally, it is the official language of four countries, Germany, Luxembourg, Austria, and Belgium. Many people from around the world migrate to Germany because of its strong economic welfare system.
To reside in Germany and to adapt to its culture, many immigrants take assistance from German translation services.
Germany is the biggest country and economy in the European Union. It ranks 4th among the top 25 world economies. This has raised the demand for German translation, especially for English-speaking companies targeting German audiences. The demand is also growing for other language combinations like Spanish to German and French to German translation.
English and German Language Overlap Each Other
English and German originated from the same branch of the Indo-European language family. The West-Germanic branch emerged in central Europe, including present-day Germany, during the time of the Roman Empire. Because of this, they have some shared words, with about half of their vocabulary being similar. For example, "man" in English becomes "Mann" in German, "photo" becomes "Foto," and so on. They also use some common terms like "wanderlust," "poltergeist," and "kindergarten."However, despite these similarities, there are still significant differences between the two languages that make the English to German translation challenging.
Challenges in Translating Content from English to German
Translating the content from English to German is not so easy. This is because English and German have a common root language. Both English and German fall under the Germanic family of languages, which makes them different from romance languages such as Spanish, Italian, and French which have their origins in Latin.
Let's dive into the difficulties in translating the content from English to German.
Additional Letters in the German Language
Although the German language contains the same alphabet as English but it also contains some additional letters such as A, O, U, and ẞ. These letters are not included in the official alphabet but they have a great influence on spoken German. For instance, these additional letters produce sharper sounds in the plural form. These alphabets are used in some words. Therefore, they don't have any impact on German translation services. Typically, before any important translations for a corporation, a specific process is followed. In this process, the back-end code of the website is developed to handle different languages, including various accents and characters. It is essential to ensure that the website functions smoothly and effectively in diverse linguistic situations.
Complex Grammar
German grammar is more complex because of different factors. The first factor is that translators must know the different agreements and tenses for different genders like masculine, feminine, and neuter. Contrary to this, in the English language genders are not associated with nouns.
The second factor is that the German language is more formal in addressing others. For example, you need to use different forms.
For instance, "Du" is used for singular and informal settings, while "Sie" is employed for singular and formal situations. Moreover, "Ihr" is used for addressing multiple people informally, and "Sie" is used for addressing multiple people formally. Furthermore, one of the trickiest aspects for English speakers is the word "the." German presents 16 different ways to say "the" (der, die, das) based on gender, plurality, and case.
Text Expansion
German is known as one of the longest languages, and when translated into English, it can significantly expand the text. This isn't necessarily because German is more expressive, like French. The average German word has more than six letters, while the average English word only has five.
For translators, German can be quite challenging because of the 35% expansion in text, leading to extra lines of copy. This can disrupt carefully crafted, mobile-friendly email or website interfaces and make it difficult to work within character limits for projects like PDFs and presentations.
The longest word in a German dictionary is Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) After translation into the German language, it becomes"Aufmerksamkeitsdefizit-Hyperaktivitätsstörung," which is 44 letters long.
German is Highly Reserved
German is often considered highly reserved as compared to English. This is because English is a more enthusiastic and expressive language. Therefore, in German translation services, you have to come across repeated phrases and words which are more bold and expressive.
If you want to translate a medical website for English speakers then you must have to go for localization services. It will depict that the website is written locally. Moreover, you are able to achieve your marketing objectives by converting website browsers to customers. They have a team of professional translators that are not only proficient in German but they are also subject-matter experts in the medical field. They know how to keep a balance between the medical objectives and provide you with professional medical translation services while keeping in view the challenges in German translation.
German Needs More Specificity
To get impeccable German translation services, you must provide the translators with the type of content, layout, design, and goals of the web page. This is very important because you can easily lose credibility in your target market if you provide an inaccurate German translation because of its challenges.
Wrapping Up
Impeccable translation services are required in every field. Whether it is your website related to medicine or any field, you must spend money on hiring a reliable and professional translation agency. They understand the challenges of translation in different languages and provide you with seamless translation services.
