In a previous post, I wrote about the words that are genuinely difficult to translate. This post is intended as a sort of follow-up: instead of looking at the German words that pose particular difficulties when translating into English, I wanted to catalogue some of the English words I find especially helpful when translating from German (though I expect many of them probably come in handy for other languages for too). They make up a kind of toolkit that I often reach for when translating particularly tricky passages.
The words I'm thinking about here are ones that are quite general in terms of their application or content, but without coming across as excessively vague or unnatural in English. In translations, it is often necessary for a variety of reasons to "add" a term that is not present in the original: for instance, because the differing grammars/vocabularies/styles of the languages necessitate a noun or verb in English that is not required in German (especially when a word in the source text has to be changed from one word type to another: a noun construction to a verbal construction, for example, or a verbal one to an adjectival one); sometimes, a single term is required in English that needs to cover a quite varied scope of objects or actions; sometimes, the source text is unclear or ambiguous and the translator needs a term that can encompass a wide range of possible alternatives. At the same time, of course, the translator doesn't want to add too much to the source text that isn't there to begin with, nor do they want a term that reads like "translatorese" or a cop-out that shirks the translator's responsibility to find a fitting term.
I present my personal list of these words below. They don't work in every context, but they have often helped me to find solutions to tricky translation challenges. The star word on the list is undoubtedly feature, because it serves this function as both a noun and a verb, while the duo apply/application comes a close second.
Do other translators have any favourite words of their own? How about for other languages: do you find these same terms crop up, or are there other ones?
Nouns
Point
Factor
Concept
Feature
Function
Approach
Element
Section
Application
System
Facility
Issue
Item
(Aspect is sometimes also handy, though it is often a poor translation for Aspekt)
Verbs
Implement
Feature
Apply
Represent
Present
Provide (with)
Specify
Comprise
Ensure
Adjectives
These tend to be more specific in meaning so don't quite fit the spirit of the post, but an honourable mention goes to dynamic, which I frequently find particularly helpful as it suggests both movement and liveliness, and so covers a whole swathe of tricky German usages.
Adverbial constructions
Accordingly (can work, depending on context, for entsprechend, daher, hierbei, in diesem Sinne ...)
In a [adjective] manner/fashion (for German adverbs that don't have an adverbial form in English)
In relation to
With regard/respect to
When it comes to
I present my personal list of these words below. They don't work in every context, but they have often helped me to find solutions to tricky translation challenges. The star word on the list is undoubtedly feature, because it serves this function as both a noun and a verb, while the duo apply/application comes a close second.
Do other translators have any favourite words of their own? How about for other languages: do you find these same terms crop up, or are there other ones?
Nouns
Point
Factor
Concept
Feature
Function
Approach
Element
Section
Application
System
Facility
Issue
Item
(Aspect is sometimes also handy, though it is often a poor translation for Aspekt)
Verbs
Implement
Feature
Apply
Represent
Present
Provide (with)
Specify
Comprise
Ensure
Adjectives
These tend to be more specific in meaning so don't quite fit the spirit of the post, but an honourable mention goes to dynamic, which I frequently find particularly helpful as it suggests both movement and liveliness, and so covers a whole swathe of tricky German usages.
Adverbial constructions
Accordingly (can work, depending on context, for entsprechend, daher, hierbei, in diesem Sinne ...)
In a [adjective] manner/fashion (for German adverbs that don't have an adverbial form in English)
In relation to
With regard/respect to
When it comes to
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