The most interesting things about the English language

Not everyone considers knowledge of a foreign language to be vital, and those who speak it often perceive the language as a kind of inanimate tool.

A couple of details about the English language

The importance of the language of the island Foggy Albion in the international arena is undeniably evident: since our school years, we have been told about its universality and unquestionable international status, as well as the importance of learning English for better communication with the world. And it’s not only about freelance English translators. However, not everyone considers knowledge of a foreign language to be essential, and those who speak it often perceive it as some kind of tool, an inanimate artifact, necessary simply to meet some practical needs. But the language of the British has a very deep and, of course, ancient history — with its surprises, peculiarities, secrets, and mysteries, some of which we will now present to you. Let’s begin!

First of all, it is worth noting that, without a doubt, the English language remains relevant and popular. Around one billion people worldwide speak this language. And these are not only native speakers for whom English is their mother tongue, but also those who study it as a second language.
Furthermore, we all know that English has international status. The UN has included it in its own list, along with French, Spanish, and other languages, in which English holds the top position.
English is the official language in more than 70 countries around the world.

You have just become familiar with some general interesting facts about the English language. Next, let’s look at grammatical, lexical, and stylistic features and highlights that are of particular interest to many.

Amazing facts about English words and their meanings

The English vocabulary contains around one million words in total, making it the richest language in the world in terms of the number of words and phrases.
There are English words that, when translated into Spanish, can have more than 100 meanings and can be adjectives, verbs, and nouns. These include “run” and “sit”.
The word “drunk”, meaning “intoxicated”/”a drunk person”, has the most synonyms in the language. Their number reaches 2,241 synonyms. This interesting fact was even recorded in the Guinness Book of Records.

Curiosities about the English language

A common mistake is to think that English sentences cannot end with prepositions. That’s not true — they can!
The shortest sentence in this language, composed according to grammar rules, is “Go!”.
The most commonly used letters in the English alphabet are “T” and “E”. The least used and rarest ones are “Q” and “Z”.

We hope you have discovered something new for yourself and learned some interesting facts about the English language.

In addition, you can become familiar with the specific features of translation into this international language. This information is often used by our specialists when performing translation work.

Features and specifics of translation into English

Translation activity is a diverse creative process. Its goal is to convey the content of the original text to a foreign reader as completely and accurately as possible.

There are 3 types of written translations:

Word-for-word. It is a literal reproduction of the text, maintaining the original sentence structure. It is used in commentary, idioms, and also as the first stage of the translator’s work on the material.
Literal. A more complete presentation of the text, making significant use of the language units of speech and taking into account the context. The context is conveyed through equivalent words, analogues, and descriptive translation. If the sentence structure allows for an adequate translation into English without further artistic adjustment, such a rendering may be sufficient. However, literal translation often goes beyond the syntactic norms of the language and needs further refinement.
Literary. It not only accurately reproduces words in another language but fully conveys the semantic component of the text. The result is a translation into English that creates the necessary associations for the reader and the correct emotional perception.

This type of translation is used when working with material of any specialized professional orientation, especially in fiction and poetry.

Written translation is subject to stricter requirements than oral translation. All spelling, grammatical, and stylistic rules of the language must be fully observed. While reservations or clarifications can be made in spoken speech, when writing a word or phrase, one must choose a single, most appropriate option.

English, despite its relative ease of learning, differs significantly from Russian. These differences give rise to many nuances that accompany translation into English.

The most prominent features:

Different syntax. The internal interaction of various parts of speech in English and Russian sentences is fundamentally different. It is almost impossible to reproduce the original without changing the sentence structure. The euphony of the language demands adaptation of phrases to one another.
Tense system. English has twelve tenses, while Russian has only three. To determine the correct tense to use when translating into English, one must be well aware of their differences.
Choice of lexical equivalents. Polysemy exists in both languages. The correct selection of a variant depends on a clear understanding of context and the translator’s vocabulary.
Phrasal verbs. There are no endings in English. To convey the relationship between parts of speech, service words such as prepositions, postpositions, and articles are used. The lack of endings creates another difficulty: often, the noun, verb, and adjective have the same spelling. They can be distinguished only in context or by syntax, as different parts of speech occupy their specific positions in an English sentence. To translate text correctly into English, one must clearly understand and observe the sentence structure.

The subtleties of translation into English by native speakers

Translation into a language by a native English speaker involves some challenges:

It is not always possible to involve “native speakers” in translation due to the high cost of their services. It’s not that they are all expensive, but the price is usually high (unless they are affiliated with a translation agency).
A translation done by a professional, even if they are a native speaker, still needs to be reviewed — just like one done by a non-native speaker. It should be clear that translation quality does not depend solely on how well the translator speaks their native language. Otherwise, anyone who knows, for example, Spanish could translate perfectly into their language. However, this is not the case in professional English translation at all.
In some fields, it is extremely difficult to find a native translator.
And finally, translation by a native speaker is sometimes impossible or very difficult due to the peculiarities of the original language — for example, because of the colorfulness of its dialect.

Stylistic recommendations

Let’s conclude with stylistic recommendations. They will help make the text beautiful and readable.
Break long sentences into shorter ones in English.

Combine statements into one sentence if appropriate.

The answer to this question is of fundamental importance. It is important not only for clarifying the place and role in social life. – The importance of this fundamental question goes beyond the aim of elucidating the place and role of the trade unions in public life.

Reduce the number of subordinate clauses and participial constructions, replacing them with infinitive phrases.

Then, straight lines were drawn between these points, showing the nature of the trends in the data. – The lines were drawn between these points to show trends in the data.

Verbal nouns and abstract nouns should be replaced with verbs to avoid the frequent use of “the” and “of”.

It is advisable to create experimental facilities, to master industrial technology for the production of solar installations… – It is desirable to develop experimental facilities, to master commercial technology for producing solar installations…

In a list, each component should be expressed in the same grammatical form: noun, infinitive, or gerund.

The recommendations include: building a proper database, improving environmental management, increasing monitoring and compliance efforts…

Keep these features in mind when translating into English, and your translation will be indistinguishable from a text originally written in English.

Thus, you have become familiar with the main features of translations into English.