Translate is the  action and effect of translating  (expressing in one  language  something that has been previously expressed or that is written in a different language). The term can refer both to the interpretation given to a  text  or  speech  and to the material work of the translator.

This concept has its etymological origin in Latin. Specifically, we can determine that it comes from the word  tradition , which can be defined as the action of guiding from one place to another. And it is made up of three different parts: the prefix  trans -, which is synonymous with  “from one side to the other” ; the verb  ducere , which means  “to guide” ; and the suffix – cion , which is equivalent to  “action” .

For example:  “The Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges made translations of works by Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, George Bernard Shaw and other great authors” ,  “The translation of this film is very bad” ,  “The speaker speaks too fast, I think that the translate is not including all its concepts . ”

Types of translate

The types of translate are various. Direct translation is   carried out from a foreign language to the language of the translator (such as the case of Borges translating a text by Poe). Reverse translation ,  on the other hand, takes the form of the translator’s language into a foreign language.

However, we cannot ignore that there is another classification of translation. In this case, within it we find categories such as  judicial translation , which is that which takes place in front of a court.

On the other hand, there is  literary translation  which, as its name indicates, is the one whose object is literary works of various kinds, be they stories, poems, theater or novels. All of this without forgetting what is known as  informative translation,  which is responsible for doing the same with all types of texts and documents that aim to make known a matter in question.

The difficulties that students who begin their translation courses have when they first face the task of producing a TT from a TO are varied, but in general terms they are related to an exaggerated concentration on linguistic aspects and a lack of of attention to the discursive or communicative aspects of the situation of enunciation, origin and end of the translation.

It is the teacher’s task, as  Gile  (1995: 21) points out, to emphasize from the beginning the fact that translation has a communicative function and that only with this in mind is it possible to successfully approach the learning of  translation techniques .