Translations
Trustworthy, accurate, authentic, understandable
Here are four differences between German and English, which must be considered when translating into German. The list is far from exhaustive, but should demonstrate some of the areas to be aware of:
Nominalisation
German is much more of a nominative language, whereas English is more of a verbal language. We often see nouns being used in German, where verbs are more natural in English. This is likely due to the grammatical differences between both languages, which render information processing easier.
Order of information
Typically, German is a much more head final language than English, meaning it saves the best until last. Often starting sentences with less important information, or information already known by the reader, and ending the sentence with the new piece of information or main and most important piece of information.
The passive voice
The passive voice is much more common in English than in German. Often, when the passive voice is used in German, additional changes are seen in the sentence, such as the introduction of prepositional phrases. These can lead to significant word order differences between the two languages. Whilst increasing cognitive load and processing effort for the German reader, it allows for a shorter more concise sentence to be formed, which results in an overall more manageable and less ambiguous text.
Accessibility and reader/writer relationship
Various linguistic studies have shown that there is a tendency in English to write with readers in mind – guiding them, as is the case with the passive voice, to facilitate understanding. On the other hand, German writers tend to demonstrate more complexity in their texts. Rather than aiding the reader to understand, they often leave accessibility and comprehension of a text up to the responsibility of the reader.
