Translation into English
A Gujarati passage into natural English, keeping every tense, person and negative.
Learn
Translation into English, explained point by point
Everything the GCSE specification expects you to be able to do, and how to actually do it - the same lesson a signed-in student studies from.
Know where the translation sits
Section C of the reading paper is one short Gujarati passage to translate into English, with its instructions in English. It is the last thing on the paper, so leave time for it: about ten minutes at Foundation and fifteen at Higher is sensible.
Carry over every detail
Each tense, person, number, negative and time word matters. ગઈકાલે અમે બજારમાં ગયા is yesterday we went to the market: the time word, the we and the past all need to be there.
Rearrange into natural English order
Gujarati puts the verb last and the postposition after the noun. હું દર રવિવારે મારા દાદા સાથે મંદિરે જાઉં છું becomes I go to the temple with my grandfather every Sunday.
Watch the words with two meanings
કાલે is yesterday or tomorrow, as the tense shows. પણ is but at the start of a clause and also after a word. કેમ is why, except in કેમ છો?, how are you?
Translate the meaning, not word by word
મને ભૂખ લાગી છે is I am hungry, not to me hunger has struck. મારી પાસે સાઇકલ છે is I have a bike. Write what an English speaker would say.
Check before you move on
Read your English back against the Gujarati: is anything missing or added? A missing નથી or a changed tense alters the meaning, and so costs marks.
Translation into English key terms
The words the specification and the mark schemes use, each defined the way an examiner wants it.
- Translation
- Carrying the full meaning of a text into another language.
- Word order
- The order of words in a sentence. Gujarati puts the verb last; English puts it after the subject.
- Idiom
- A phrase whose meaning is not the sum of its words: મજા આવી I enjoyed it.
- Omission
- A word or detail left out of a translation.
- Tense
- Past, present or future, which a translation must keep.
Common mistakes in Translation into English
The slips that cost marks year after year, and what to do instead.
Keeping Gujarati word order, as in I every Sunday to the temple go.
Reorder into English: I go to the temple every Sunday.
Leaving out a small word such as પણ, હજી or નથી.
Small words change meaning: also, still, not. Tick off every word as you translate it.
Translating મજા આવી as fun came.
Translate the idea: it was fun, or I enjoyed it.