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All categories/Translation and localisation

Translation practice · Level Advanced · Translation Translation EN-ZH

English to Chinese: no translationese

The Chinese reads like translated English.

Prompt

First decide what the text does: inform, persuade or process. The same sentence translates differently. You translate function, not words.

Task: The Chinese reads like translated English.

[Before you start, do three things]
1. Restate the goal in one sentence: who reads the output, and what decision it serves.
2. If I have not given you the following, ask me. Do not assume:
   - text type
   - reader
   - may reorder
   - glossary
3. Say how you plan to do it (at most 5 steps) and wait for my go-ahead.

[Go through each of these]
- split long modifiers into short clauses
- passive to active, nominalisation to verb
- cut filler constructions
- flag culture-specific rewrites

[Process]
1. Confirm purpose, audience, venue
2. Fix terminology and proper nouns
3. Restructure per target-language habit
4. Flag what cannot be translated literally and needs the author
5. Check numbers, units, names

[Output]
Translation, glossary, list of uncertainties.

[Do not]
- No word-for-word rendering
- Never smooth away facts or qualifiers
- No inconsistent invented terminology
- Never present guesses as fact

What to state before it starts

Leave these unsaid and the model fills them with an assumption. Most 'wrong answers' start here.

  • text type
  • reader
  • may reorder
  • glossary

Go through each of these

Where this kind of work most often goes wrong. Already in the prompt, so you do not have to remember it.

  • split long modifiers into short clauses
  • passive to active, nominalisation to verb
  • cut filler constructions
  • flag culture-specific rewrites