How to translate idioms
And that brings us nicely onto the crux of the matter: how do you translate idioms? If it is
impossible to work out the meaning of the phrase just by looking at it, conventional translation
practises aren’t going to work. You are going to have to dig a little deeper.
But do not worry, help is at hand. Below I have detailed the three simple steps that you need to
follow to translate an idiom.
Step 1: Identify the idiom
Well this sounds fairly obvious, but it isn’t always that easy. If you don’t know the idiom in
question, then it can be hard to spot. As a general rule of thumb, if you read a sentence in the
source language and part of it doesn’t make any sense at all, then you are probably dealing with
an idiom. They usually consist of random metaphors that bear no relation to the topic at hand.
Thus, in an article about a sporting event, the winning athlete could be described as being
“over the moon” with their success, despite the discipline in question being firmly rooted on
this earth. When booking accommodation, you may be warned “don’t judge a book by its
cover”, even though you are looking at hotels, not books. And, when talking about how excited
you are about your team winning the cup, someone might reply with “don’t count your chickens”,
and, if you are not a native English speaker, you may find yourself wondering what on earth
chickens have to do with anything!
Of course, these are all examples of idioms, and thus they make no sense whatsoever
unless you are already familiar with the idiom.
And that brings us nicely onto the crux of the matter: how do you translate idioms? If it is
impossible to work out the meaning of the phrase just by looking at it, conventional translation
practises aren’t going to work. You are going to have to dig a little deeper.
But do not worry, help is at hand. Below I have detailed the three simple steps that you need to
follow to translate an idiom.
Step 1: Identify the idiom
Well this sounds fairly obvious, but it isn’t always that easy. If you don’t know the idiom in
question, then it can be hard to spot. As a general rule of thumb, if you read a sentence in the
source language and part of it doesn’t make any sense at all, then you are probably dealing with
an idiom. They usually consist of random metaphors that bear no relation to the topic at hand.
Thus, in an article about a sporting event, the winning athlete could be described as being
“over the moon” with their success, despite the discipline in question being firmly rooted on
this earth. When booking accommodation, you may be warned “don’t judge a book by its
cover”, even though you are looking at hotels, not books. And, when talking about how excited
you are about your team winning the cup, someone might reply with “don’t count your chickens”,
and, if you are not a native English speaker, you may find yourself wondering what on earth
chickens have to do with anything!
Of course, these are all examples of idioms, and thus they make no sense whatsoever
unless you are already familiar with the idiom.
