I've been looking at many of our members' sentences in the grammar library, and while a lot of them are good, a lot of them have some weird sounding English translations.
When you are translating from Japanese to English, re-read the English sentence you just typed. Does it sound natural? Would you speak like that?
You do not have to translate word for word. Rather, it is best that you [b]don't[/b] translate word for word. Japanese word order and sentence structure is very different from that of English's. When you translate from Japanese to English, maintain the same meaning in the English sentence, but manipulate the word order to make it sound like natural English.
I find that most people have no problem translating simple sentences, but when you have linked sentences (usually ones that show cause or reason), people tend to translate a little weirdly. For example,
[i]Japanese:[/i] 教室が臭いので、窓は開けてあります。
[i]English:[/i] Since the classroom stinks, the window is open.
While this is grammatically correct, it doesn't sound natural; it sounds like someone is reading a sentence out of an ESL textbook. If, however, you manipulate the word order a little bit, it sounds much better, more natural and still has the same meaning.
[i]Revised English:[/i] The window's open because the classroom stinks.
This is a rather simple sentence and might not completely convey what I'm trying to say, but as I find better examples, I'll post them here to further illustrate my point.
Keep up the good work ^^
