Eight Types of Translation
There are eight types of translation. Each 
type has its features and. These types are: 
1. Word-for-word translation 
2. Literal translation 
3. Faithful translation 
4. Semantic translation 
5. Adaptive translation 
6. Free translation 
7. Idiomatic translation 
8. Communicative translation.
The last type, in particular, transmits the 
meaning from the context, respecting the form 
and structure of the original and is easily 
comprehensible by the readers of the target language 
Dichotomy of Translation Emphasis
Source Language Emphasis
• Word-for-word translation
• Literal Translation
• Faithful Translation
• Semantic Translation
Target Language Emphasis
• Adaptation
• Free Translation
• Idiomatic Translation
• Communicative Translation
The following is a brief survey of each type of translation, with special emphasis on itsmeaning and nature. An explanatory example 
is introduced for each type:
1) Word-for-word translation
• It is an interlinear translation, with the 
TL immediately below the SL words
• The SL word-order is preserved and the 
words translated singly by their most 
common meanings, out of context. 
For example, the Arabic proverb:
اللي فات مات
{The what passed died.}
• The main use of word-for-word 
translation is either to understand the 
mechanics of the SL or to construe a 
difficult text as pre-translation process.
2) Literal translation
• The SL grammatical constructions are 
converted to their nearest TL equivalents
but the lexical words are again translated 
singly, out of context.
For example:
مثل هذه الأشياء عليها إقبال كثير الآن
{The likes of these things have much 
demand now.}
• As a pre-translation process, this 
indicates the problems to be solved.
3) Faithful Translation
• It attempts to reproduce the precise 
contextual meaning of the original within 
the constraints of the TL grammatical structure.
• It attempts to be completely faithful to 
the intentions and the text-realization of 
the SL writer. 
For example,
مثل هذه الأشياء عليها إقبال كثير الآن
{Things like these are in great demand 
now.}
4) Semantic Translation
• It differs from ‘faithful translation’ only 
in taking more account of the aesthetic 
value (that is, the beautiful and natural 
sound) of the SL text.
• Faithful translation is uncompromising 
and dogmatic while Semantic translation 
is more flexible admits the creative 
exception to 100% fidelity and allows the translator’s intuitive empathy with the 
original.
For example,
مثل هذه الأشياء عليها إقبال كثير الآن
{This kind of thing is in great demand at the 
moment.}
5) Adaptation
• This is the ‘freest’ form of translation.
• It is used mainly for plays (comedies), 
poetry stories, where the themes 
characters and plots are usually 
preserved.
• The SL culture converted to the TL 
culture and the Text rewritten.
For example, the adaptation of 
Shakespeare’s play {King Lear} into an "الشيخ الغني الأعمى وأولاده :called Play Arabic
الثلاثة"
6) Free Translation
• It reproduces the matter without the 
manner, or the content without the form 
of the original.
• It is usually a paraphrase much longer 
than the original.
• It is often prolix and pretentious, and not 
a translation at all.
For example,
مثل هذه الأشياء عليها إقبال كثير الآن
{This one's dead trendy}
7) Idiomatic Translation
• By ‘idiom’ we mean affixed figurative 
expression whose meaning cannot be 
deduced from the denotative meanings of 
the words that make it up as in ‘car 
racing is not my cup of tea’. 
• It reproduces the ‘message’ of the 
original but tends to distort nuances of 
meaning by preferring colloquialism and 
idioms where these do not exist in the 
original.
For example,
مثل هذه الأشياء عليها إقبال كثير الآن
{This type’s all the rage.}
• This form of translation is sometimes 
called lively ‘natural translation’.
8) Communicative Translation
• It attempts to render the exact contextual 
meaning of the original in such a way 
that both content and language are 
readily accepted and comprehensible to 
the readership.
• A communicative translation is 
produced, when, in a given situation, the 
ST uses an SL expression standard for 
that situation, and the TL uses a TL 
expression standard for an equivalent 
target culture situation.
For example,
{Let bygones be bygones} is an obvious 
اللي فات مات of translation
{To kill two birds with one stone}is an obvious translation of
ضرب عصفورين بحجر واحد.
Translation Problems: Linguistic and 
Cultural
Translation problems can be divided into 
linguistic problems and cultural problems: the 
linguistic problems include grammatical 
differences, lexical ambiguity and meaning 
ambiguity; the cultural problems refer to 
different situational features. This 
classification coincides with that of El Zeini 
when she identified six main problems in 
translating from Arabic to English and vice 
versa; these are lexicon, morphology, syntax, 
textual differences, rhetorical differences, and 
pragmatic factors.
Another level of linguistic difficulty in translation work is attributed to over - translation , under-translation, and 
untranslatability. 
Culture constitutes a major problem that 
faces translators. A bad model of translated 
pieces of literature may give misconceptions 
about the original. For poorly translated texts 
distort the original in its tone and cultural 
references. In this respect researchers in 
literary translation wonder about the possible 
role of the target culture content as a 
motivating variable in enhancing or hindering 
the attainment of linguistic, communicative 
and, more importantly, cultural objectives of 
EFL (English as a Foreign Language) 
education.
Hassan (1997) emphasized this notion 
when he pointed out the importance of paying attention to the translation of irony in the 
source language context. He clarified that this 
will not only transfer the features of the 
language translated but also its cultural 
characteristics. 
Translators, who tackle these problems 
and others, direct our attention to specific 
linguistic and cultural features of the
translated work and the character of its 
translators; how they attack a text so as to 
translate, and the processes they follow to 
arrive at the final product of a well-translated text in the target language.
Cultural Knowledge and Cultural 
Differences
Cultural knowledge and cultural 
differences have long been a major focus of 
translator training and translation theory. The 
main concern has traditionally been with 
words and phrases that are so heavily and 
exclusively grounded in one culture that they 
are almost impossible to translate into the 
terms – verbal or otherwise – of another
culture. Long debates have been held over 
when to paraphrase, when to use the nearest 
local equivalent, when to coin a new word by 
translating literally, and when to transcribe. 
All these “untranslatable” cultural-bound 
words and phrases continued to fascinate translators and translation theorists.
The first theory developed in this field 
was introduced by Mounin in 1963 who 
underlined the importance of the signification 
of a lexical item claiming that only if this 
notion is considered, will the translated item 
fulfill its function correctly? The problem with 
this theory is that all the cultural elements do 
not involve just the items. What a translator 
should do in the case of cultural implications 
which are implied in the background 
knowledge of SL readers? 
The notion of culture is essential to 
considering the implications for translation 
and, despite the differences in opinion as to whether language is part of culture or not, the two notions of culture and language appear totext in the target language
Cultural Knowledge and Cultural 
Differences
Cultural knowledge and cultural 
differences have long been a major focus of 
translator training and translation theory. The 
main concern has traditionally been with 
words and phrases that are so heavily and 
exclusively grounded in one culture that they 
are almost impossible to translate into the 
terms – verbal or otherwise – of another
culture. Long debates have been held over 
when to paraphrase, when to use the nearest 
local equivalent, when to coin a new word by 
translating literally, and when to transcribe. 
All these “untranslatable” cultural-bound 
words and phrases continued to fascinate 
translators and translation theorists.The first theory developed in this field 
was introduced by Mounin in 1963 who 
underlined the importance of the signification 
of a lexical item claiming that only if this 
notion is considered, will the translated item 
fulfill its function correctly? The problem with 
this theory is that all the cultural elements do 
not involve just the items. What a translator 
should do in the case of cultural implications 
which are implied in the background 
knowledge of SL readers? 
The notion of culture is essential to 
considering the implications for translation 
and, despite the differences in opinion as to 
whether language is part of culture or not, the 
two notions of culture and language appear to be inseparable.
Considering the problems of 
correspondence in translation in relation to 
both linguistic and cultural differences 
between the SL and the TL, it is realized that
differences between cultures may cause more 
severe complications for the translator than do 
differences in language structure. For it is 
found that parallels in culture often provide a 
common understanding despite significant 
formal shifts in the translation. Cultural 
implications for translation are thus of 
significant importance as well as lexical 
concerns. 
This creates a tendency to go beyond 
language and focus on the interaction between 
translation and culture, on the way culture 
impacts and constraints translation and on the larger issues of context, history and 
convention. 
Therefore, the move from translation as a 
text to translation as culture and politics is 
what is called a "Cultural Turn" in translation 
studies. In fact, Cultural Turn is the metaphor 
adopted by Culturally-oriented translation 
theories to refer to the analysis of translation 
in its cultural, political, and ideological 
context. 
This Cultural Turn has extended to 
incorporate a whole range of approaches from 
cultural studies and become a true indicator of 
the interdisciplinary nature of contemporary 
translation studies. As the result, cultural 
studies have taken an increasingly key interest in translation.
These cultural approaches have widened 
the horizons of translation studies. But at the 
same time, there has been a strong element of 
conflict and differences in the cultural
manipulation of the SL text. This is inevitable
due to the complicated and dynamic nature of 
the translation act as well as the translator in 
relation to the cultural content of the SL text.
The Advantages and Disadvantages of
Machine Translation
In the past when we had to figure out the 
meaning of a word from another language, 
we made use of a dictionary. Not only was 
this a very time consuming task but it was 
kind of irritating owing to the fact that it was 
difficult to interpret the meanings. Moreover, 
when an entire paragraph or note had to be 
translated, this could be very difficult because 
one word had several meanings. So what to 
do? That's where the machine translator came 
into the picture.
But what exactly is a machine translator?
Since the advent of the 21st century, 
there have been a lot of developments and new technologies have been introduced 
which have made life more convenient and 
simple. A machine translator is such a small 
yet useful device. Machine translation, which 
is also known as Computer Aided 
Translation, is basically the use of software 
programs which have been specifically 
designed to translate both verbal and written 
texts from one language to another. In the 
face of rapid globalization, such services 
have become invaluable for people and you 
just cannot think of any disadvantages of 
machine translation.
Nevertheless, like everything has its 
pros and cons, so has machine translation. 
Let's go over the advantages and disadvantages of machine translation.
Advantages of Machine Translation:
• When time is a crucial factor, machine 
translation can save the day. You don't have 
to spend hours poring over dictionaries to 
translate the words. Instead, the software 
can translate the content quickly and 
provide a quality output to the user in no 
time at all.
• The next benefit of machine translation is 
that it is comparatively cheap. Initially, it 
might look like an unnecessary investment 
but in the long run it is a very small cost 
considering the return it provides. This is 
because if you use the expertise of a 
professional translator, he will charge you 
on a per page basis which is going to be 
extremely costly while this will be cheap.
• Confidentiality is another matter which 
makes machine translation favorable. 
Giving sensitive data to a translator might 
be risky while with machine translation 
your information is protected.
• A machine translator usually translates text 
which is in any language so there is no such 
major concern while a professional 
translator specializes in one particular field.
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Disadvantages of Machine Translation:
• Accuracy is not offered by the machine 
translation on a consistent basis. You can 
get the gist of the draft or documents but 
machine translation only does word to word translation without comprehending the information which might have to be 
corrected manually later on.
• Systematic and formal rules are followed by 
machine translation so it cannot concentrate 
on a context and solve ambiguity and 
neither makes use of experience or mental 
outlook like a human translator can.
These are the primary advantages and
disadvantages of using machine 
translation for a document regardless of 
language. They can be weighed and the right 
decision can be made depending on the 
information and the quality that is required.
Difficulties of Literary Translation
(1) Translating without Changing the 
Original Tones of the Author
While business translation requires high 
accuracy and localization involves changes in 
layout, formats, colors, etc., literary 
translation takes a step further. To have a 
great translated book, translators do not only 
need excellent insights into literature and 
subject-matter expertise to guarantee the 
accuracy of the knowledge writers want to 
share.
The translator also makes sure that the literary 
translation process does not affect the authors’ 
expression and their unique writing styles. 
That means the word choices should not be 
too literal or too exaggerating compared to the original book. They should be “perfect” words 
to evoke the same understanding and feelings 
from the readers as the original. Trust me, it’s 
no easy task.
(2) Culturally-Specific Expression
Sometimes, the name of a famous person or 
character in novels or poems is used as a 
personality adjective. Don Juan, for instance, 
is an infamous fictional character in a play by 
Tirso de Molina in 1630. Don Juan is a 
wealthy libertine who devotes his life to 
seducing women. As the popularity of the 
character grows, Don Juan becomes a generic expression for a womanizer.
The question is when performing a literary 
translation referring to this character, should 
translators keep the name as the original and 
add a footnote. Or should they find an 
equivalent fictional character in the target 
language’s culture?
(3) Play-on-words and Tongue Twisters
Wordplay or tongue twisters are no doubt a 
real headache for any translators while 
working on a literary translation task. It 
requires more time to translate more than 
anything else. “She sells seashells by the 
seashore” or, “You know New York, you need 
New York, you know you need unique New 
York” to name a few. The translators do not 
stop at finding an equivalent expression for 
the sentences, but they also find words that carry the same pronunciation challenges for 
the readers.
(4) Dialects and Slang
The use of Slang or Dialects in novels or 
poems is no stranger to readers, but it’s also a 
challenge for translators when dealing with a 
literary translation project. How can they 
translate these words into a new language 
while retaining the characters’ unique talking 
styles? Gone with the wind by Margaret 
Mitchell is a representative of this case. Most 
black people in the novel speak in a different 
dialect. Let’s see how linguists handle with the dialect.
The Original:
“Is de gempmum gone? Huccome you din’ ast 
dem ter stay fer supper, Miss Scarlett? Ah 
done tole Poke ter lay two extry plates fer 
dem. Whar’s yo’ manners?” – Mamma in 
Chapter.
The Vietnamese Translation:
“Mấy cậu về ‘ồi sao? Sao không mời người ta 
ở lại dùng bữa? Tôi đã bảo Pok’ dọn thêm hai 
bộ dĩa cho họ. Đó là lối xã giao nào vậy?”
Refer to the original and the intention of the 
author, the translator illustrates this dialect in 
Vietnamese by cutting out some syllabus 
like ‘ồi instead of rồi, or Pok’ instead of Poke.
Literary Translation Process
An excellent literary translation requires the 
involvement of many experienced linguists 
who must put a great amount of time as well 
as effort into the translation. A clear working 
process will be a great and indispensable 
assistant to guarantee the quality of the book 
and meet the deadlines of the publisher. The 
process may vary upon the working styles of 
translators, yet it stills include the following 
basic steps:
(1) Read the Original Book
This step can be considered as the cornerstone 
of the whole translation project. Why? If the 
translators do not understand the ins and outs 
of the book themselves, how can they convey 
the exact message of the book to the readers?
At this step, the translators should read the 
original book (over and over again) to get the 
idea, message, and writing tone of the author. 
But reading the original book is just the first 
preparation. The translators may use the next 
few days to read the previous books of the 
author (to fully understand the author’s 
literary style), do research on relevant topics 
or cultural references referred to in the book, 
and discuss with the native about unclear 
points of the book if necessary. Only when the 
translators know the book inside out should 
they start translating it.
(2) Translate and Self-Review the 
Translation
To avoid conflicts in literary styles, only one 
translator should work on translating the book. The translator then keeps self-review the first 
translation a couple of times until he or she is 
satisfied with the outcome.
(3) Edit the Translated Version
A second native linguist will review the whole 
translated book again to correct possible 
mistakes. The editors make changes in 
wording or language-use mistakes, sentence 
structures, inconsistencies, and misuse 
terminology.
(4) Proofread
Unlike the editor who reads and compares the 
target to the source text, the third linguist only 
reads the final translated version to guarantee 
the smoothness and visuals of the book. The 
proofread focuses on spelling and punctuality,grammar mistakes, typing errors, consistent 
language, and the overall format of the 
translation.
(5) Desktop Publishing (DTP)
After the TEP process, the book is laid out and 
indexed in a proper template. It is reviewed 
again (in-context review) before being printed and published