Adaptation: Why English to Spanish is not really Translation
When I first launched this website, my instinct as a writer and former journalist was to be as accurate and exact as I could be with what CPMC offered.
With that in mind, I chose the word “adaptation” instead of the word “translation” to describe the process of changing content from English to Spanish and vice versa.
As I would explain in emails to my clients throughout the years, the thing about Eng/Spa translations is that taking a language with one root and set of rules or customs and making it fit as closely as possible into a language with a different root with a different and at times opposing set of rules takes language skills, cultural experience and insight and a keen awareness of the complexity of the task at hand.
Without getting too complicated, here are four key differences:
1. ORIGIN
English is a Germanic language (its root words and sounds share similarities with German and Dutch) while Spanish is a Latin language (its root words and sounds share similarities with French and Italian). It is a lot easier to find an equivalent word in a language with the same root language than it is to try and find a word that has a different sound with possibly a slighter different meaning and usage.
One word in English can have as many as 20 different word options in Spanish. It takes cultural knowledge, not just language knowledge, to choose the most accurate word to convey the most accurate meaning.
2. TENSE
Forget the simplicity of present, past and future: There are twice as many tenses in Spanish as there are in English - maybe more - and, yes, Spanish speakers use a lot of them, especially the Spaniards.
3. VOICE
This is an interesting reflection of culture and therefore super important when it comes to accuracy. In translation, voice is where we tell the pros from the rest of the bros. If you don’t make this switch when translating, the reader will notice it’s a translation.
In English, unless we are writing a love poem or a romantic song, we tend to use active voice.
Example: The boy kicked the ball.
English is, after all, the language of business worldwide, and being direct and proactive even in language is productive, thrifty and allows you to be clear in asking for what you want (a purchase, something done).
This is the exact opposite of Spanish and when I lived Peru after living in the US for decades, this is what I noticed the most (and what people pointed out about me, followed by the phrase “because she’s American”) when it came to language and culture differences.
In Spanish, the passive voice predominates.
Example: The ball was kicked by the boy.
It’s an interesting thing and I think it comes down to this: It is more polite, more lyrical and, to Hispanics, more loving to not be as direct (or “cold”). Just think about how Latin-root countries like Italy highly value “dolce vita” while Germanic-root USA highly values “the hustle.” Both of these are evident in voice choice.
Latin root languages are also called Romance languages - a reference to their origin in Rome, but, let’s be honest: Phonetically, everything sounds more romantic in French or Portuguese than in German or English. I could insult you in French and, if you didn’t know the language, you’d think I was professing my undying love in a beautiful poem. That’s due to phonetics - and voice choice.
4. ADJECTIVES
Interestingly, adjectives also have this “opposites” structure. In English, adjectives come BEFORE subjects.
Example: The blue sky.
In Spanish, adjectives are places AFTER the subject they modify.
Example: El cielo azul.
There are some exceptions to this rule, such as with size or beauty (a “beautiful flower” is a “bella flor” and not a “flor bella”) but in general, the adjective is flipped to the opposite position as the noun it describes.
I find all of this fascinating because it is very telling of the differences that I have observed in worldview, behavior and more while living in different parts of the world where English and Spanish are spoken.
In the end, I chose to say “translation” instead of “adaptation” in the main areas of the website and that was more of a marketer decision. Public content is about an audience. If I were writing internally to clients or 1-1, I’d say “adaptation” because that is what this is and I’d get a chance to explain why, as I’m doing in this article. But a website is a marketing tool, and an audience - through Google or another search tool - is looking for a popular term it knows and understands. That’s what should be in its main pages.