Hindi Translation

Converting text or speech from Hindi to English and vice versa has its own set of challenges, and if you’re not careful, something might get lost in translation.

Below are a few tips to help you achieve maximum accuracy on your Hindi Translation journey.

Tip 1: Make Sure You Fully Understand the Text in Question

The first thing you need to do when you come across a Hindi text that you want to translate is read it again and again. Ensure that you grasp the meaning behind the piece as a whole to be more confident when translating sentence by sentence.

Also, make sure you get the purpose of what you’re about to convert to English. The more familiar you are with the ideas and themes of the text, the more confident you’ll be in putting them into your own words for your readers to understand.

Plus, this ensures you don’t miss any subtle points that could, in turn, make a huge difference to the translated text.

Tip 2: Avoid Automatic Translation Software and Apps

While translation apps can be of great help, they may bring more harm than good in the case of Hindi translations. See, Hindi isn’t as straightforward as some other languages like Spanish or French.

For example, it lacks definite articles, not to mention that it has many idiosyncrasies. Among other factors, these two things lead to inaccurate translations with automatic software.

If you’re stuck with a certain phrase and are unsure about its meaning, the better idea is to consult a professional translator or contact a translation agency.

Tip 3: Don’t Be Tricked by Similarities

In the case of languages that share some roots with English, like Spanish or Italian, you’re likely to come across a multitude of words that sound similar to their English cousins. A good example of this is telephone, teléfono, and telefono.

However, it’s unlikely you’ll stumble upon the same scenario when translating to and from Hindi. This is because English and Hindi have nothing in common linguistically.

During the translation process, you may find words like kat, which means “cut,” and assume it means “cat.” For this reason, you must double-check the meaning of similar words so as not to end up changing the entire meaning of a sentence or paragraph.

Tip 4: Determine Whether the Text Is Formal or Informal

In Hindi, there’s a distinctive gap between pronouns, words, and phrases people use in formal and informal situations. Having these mixed up will make your translated text sound strange, awkward, or even disrespectful.

Therefore, it’s of utmost importance to ensure you’re using the correct words based on the setting you’re dealing with. This makes Tip 1 a do-not-miss part of your translation process, as it can make or break your use of formal and informal expressions.

Tip 5: Don’t Translate Colloquial Expressions Literally

Another thing to keep in mind when translating from English to Hindi is that most colloquial expressions don’t make sense in Hindi. For example, if you translate “hard to swallow” or “head over heels in love” literally, chances are no one will understand what you’re trying to write or say.

A good rule of thumb here is to just write the general meaning behind the expression to avoid confusion.

The same applies to when you’re translating colloquial expressions from Hindi to English. You may already be familiar with some, but there are likely others that might have skipped your attention.

Thankfully, it’s easy to detect such expressions and search for their meanings individually. If you try to translate one literally, it’ll make less sense to you or sound funny. In that case, you can research their meaning in depth or get in touch with an experienced translator or native speaker.

Tip 6: Know That the Punctuation Could Be Different

The last thing you should be careful of when translating to and from the Hindi language is that it borrows most of its punctuation marks from English. Such marks include the semi-colon, colon, and comma.

However, the issue here is that, because these marks aren’t inherently Hindi, they’re used loosely. In other words, they’re often not used in the same positions as we write them within English text.

Again, a surefire way to get over these differences is to ask the opinion of an expert in the Hindi language. Also, you can always refer to the context to build a solid base for your translation.

FAQ

Does the length of the text remain the same after translating it from English to Hindi?

In many cases, the length of a translated piece doesn’t stay constant when translating from English to Hindi and vice versa. Oftentimes, a certain English word will require several Hindi words to explain its meaning perfectly.

As a result, you can expect the text to end up being longer in Hindi to accommodate many instances of such words. This point is crucial to take into account when translating content in books or websites, as the whole layout may need some slight adjustments.

Is Google Translate accurate for Hindi translations?

While research has proven that Google Translate preserves the overall meaning across most languages for 82.5% of the translations, we can’t say the same for Hindi. 

This is because the accuracy between different languages spans 55% to 94%, and because it’s such a complicated language, it’s likely that Hindi isn’t high up on that spectrum.

So, again, despite Google Translate’s good reputation, it’s best to steer clear of it as well as other automatic translators when trying to decipher Hindi text.

To Wrap It Up

Hindi translation is surely daunting, even if you’ve been practicing the language for years, as it’s one of the most difficult languages to learn for English speakers.

Hopefully, after reading our guide on how to limit inaccuracies in your Hindi translation, you’ll know the key points to look out for to eliminate errors and get the meaning right every time!