The most interesting things about the English language

The importance of the island's language Foggy Albion in the international arena is certainly undeniable: since our school years, we have been told about the universality and undeniable status of internationality, as well as the importance of learning the English language for greater communication with the world. And it's not just about freelance English translators. However, not everyone considers the knowledge of the foreign language vital, and those who speak it often perceive the language as a kind of tool, an inanimate artifact, necessary simply to satisfy some practical needs. But the language of the British has a very deep and, of course, ancient history, its surprises and peculiarities, secrets and mysteries, some of which we will now introduce you to. Let's get started!

1. First of all, it is worth noting that, without a doubt, the English language is still relevant and popular. Around one billion people around the world speak this language. And these are not only native speakers for whom English is native, but also those who study it as a second, so-called native language.
2. Moreover, we all know that English has an international status. The UN has included it in its own list, along with French, Spanish and other languages, in which English occupies the very first place.
3. English is the official language in more than 70 countries around the world.

You have just familiarized yourself only with interesting general facts about the English language. Then consider grammatical, lexical and stylistic features and highlights that are of particular interest to many.

Amazing facts about English words and their meaning.

1. The English vocabulary in total has about one million words, which makes it the richest language in terms of number of words and phrases in the world.
2. There are English words that translated into Spanish can have more than 100 meanings and can be adjectives, verbs and nouns. These are run and sit.
3. The word “drunk”, which means “drunk”/drunk person, has the most synonyms in the language. Its number reaches 2,241 synonyms. This interesting fact was even recorded in the Guinness Book of Records.

1. A common misconception is that English sentences cannot end with prepositions. This is not so, because - they can!
2. The shortest sentence in this language, composed according to the rules of grammar, is “Go!”.
3. The most popular letters of the English alphabet are “T” and “E”. The most unpopular and rarely used are “Q” and “Z”.

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

In addition, you can familiarize yourself directly with the features of translation into this international language. This information is often used by our specialists when performing translation activities.

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:

• Subscript. It is a word-for-word reproduction of the text, maintaining the original sentence structure. It is used in commentaries, phraseological units and also as the first step in the translator's work on the material.
• Literal. A more complete presentation of the text, with a meaningful use of the linguistic units of speech and taking into account the context. The context is conveyed through the use of equivalent words, analogues and descriptive translation. If the sentence structure allows for an adequate translation of the text into English without further artistic processing, such a presentation may be sufficient. Although very often literal translation goes beyond the syntactic rules of the language and needs further improvement.
• Literary. It not only accurately reproduces words in another language, but also fully conveys the semantic component of the text. The result is a translation of the text into English, which 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, and 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 observed in their entirety. If reservations, clarifications can be allowed in oral speech, then to write a word or phrase, you must choose one, the most appropriate option.

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

The most prominent features:

• Various syntax. The internal interaction of different parts of speech in English and Russian sentences is fundamentally different. It is almost impossible to repeat the original without changing the sentence structure. The euphony of the language requires the adaptation of sentences to each other.
• Tense system. In English there are twelve, in Russian there are only three. To correctly determine the tense to be used when translating into English, you should be well aware of their differences.
• Choice of lexical correspondence. Polysemy of words is present in both languages. Proper selection of a variant depends on a clear understanding of the context and the translator's vocabulary.
• Verb phrases. There are no endings in English. To convey the relationship between parts of speech, service words are used, e.g., prepositions, postpositions, articles. 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 on the basis of syntax: different parts of speech occupy their specific position in an English sentence. To correctly translate the text into English, one must clearly understand and observe the sentence structure.

Translation into a language by a native English speaker is a component that involves some complications:

• It is also not always possible to involve “language carriers” in the translation due to the high price of their services. It is not that they are all expensive, but the price is usually high (unless they are committed to the translation agency).
• A translation done, even by a professional, by a native speaker needs to be proofread just like a translation done by a non-native speaker. We believe it goes without saying that the quality of the translation does not depend only on how well the translator speaks his/her mother tongue. Otherwise, anyone who knows, for example, Spanish, would be able to translate perfectly into his or her language. However, this is not the case for a professional English translation at all.
• In some subjects 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 source language. For example, because of the colorfulness of the dialect.

Let's finish the story with stylistic recommendations. It will help to make the text beautiful and readable.
Break long sentences into short sentences in English.

Combine statements into one sentence, if appropriate.

The answer to this question is of fundamental importance. It is important not only to clarify the place and role in the life of society. - The importance of this fundamental question goes beyond the aim of elucidating the place and role of the trade unions in the public life.

Reducing the number of subordinate clauses and attributive participle constructions, replacing them with infinitive constructions.

Straight lines were then drawn between these points to show the nature of the trends in the data. - The lines were drawn between these points to show trends in the data.

Verb nouns and abstract nouns should be replaced with verbs to avoid frequent use of the and of.

Es recomendable crear instalaciones experimentales, dominar la tecnología industrial para la producción de instalaciones solares... - It is desirable to develop experimental facilities, to master commercial technology for producing solar installations...

In the list, each component must be expressed with 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 the text originally written in English.

So you are familiar with the main features of English translations.