ATA lists the explanations of error categories for the certification exam in alphabetical order. Here we have organized it and provided simple explanations with some examples from Spanish, the language we work with at Gaucha Translations.
They are marked SP (spelling), GR (grammar), TR (translation, transferring the message from one language to another), and WR (writing skills).
| GR | Grammar | Estos es mis zapatos. Verb conjugations, for example. |
| La mapa es muy clara. Mapa is a masculine noun. Oops… genders have to match! | ||
| GR | Verb tense | Quiero que jugamos al tenis. No! Quiero que juguemos al tenis. |
| GR | Word form/part of speech | Using an adjective instead of an adverb. |
| Me siento bueno. | ||
| Me siento bien. | ||
| SP | Accents | Papa (potato) is not papá (dad). |
| SP | Capitalization | Spanish text: Spanish caps. English text: English caps. |
| El libro del buen amor | ||
| Note Taking for Consecutive Interpreting | ||
| SP | Punctuation | Spanish punctuation in English? Oops… |
| En sus palabras, es “una exquisitez”. | ||
| The doctor said, “be very careful.” | ||
| SP | Spelling | Careful. Some spelling mistakes can be terminology mistakes: ano (anus) vs año (year). |
| TR | Addition | That is not in the source text. However, using one or two words to give the audience of a different national background the necessary context is OK. |
| For example: | ||
| In the Argentine newspaper: El presidente Macri dijo… | ||
| In English, for the US: Macri, the President of Argentina, said… [added “of Argentina” for clarity] | ||
| TR | Ambiguity | The translation is more vague than the original text. |
| I have a german shepherd. | ||
| Tengo un perro. [a dog] | ||
| TR | Faithfulness / Misunderstanding | The translation does not mean the same thing as the original text. |
| It pursues a different intention. | ||
| Prepositions are a frequent flier here. There are many more prepositions in English than in Spanish! | ||
| TR | False cognate / falso amigo | A guy, after making a stupid mistake: “Me sentí muy embarazado ”. |
| [embarazada: pregnant woman. It is not used in the masculine. He meant to say “I was embarrassed.”] | ||
| TR | Indecision | The reader isn’t supposed to decide what word to use. That is the translator’s job. So… Era la casa/hogar de mi mamá… Make up your mind! |
| TR | Literalness | Word for word for word. Google could have done this. Ugh. |
| TR | Omission | Part of the message of the source text is not in the translation. Watch out, because some words in Spanish have embedded pronouns, which would be separate words in English! |
| WR | Cohesion | Does the text hold together? Consistency in use of terminology, use of connectors… |
| WR | Register | We don’t wear blue jeans to a state dinner at the White House, right? The text has to be dressed up for the occasion it is expected to be used for. |
| WR | Syntax | How is the sentence built? Does it make the meaning clear or not? Even if we could defend the syntax from a theoretical perspective, if the meaning is muddled or the reading is convoluted… let’s write in a way that doesn’t lead people to ask whether we got it right. When in doubt, recast for clarity. |
| WR | Terminology | This is just not the right word. We drink beer in mugs , not cups ! |
| WR | Text type | Did you follow the directions? The instructions say who the translation is for and where it will be published. Write a document that will fit in that context. Also, you may have terminology clues in the instructions. Pay attention to them. The instructions might even give terminology tips! |
| HW | Illegibility | I can’t correct what I can’t read. When in doubt, it is wrong. |
| RIP | Unfinished | Anything you didn’t write down is held against you. This applies when you clearly didn’t finish translating the text. |
These issues matter for every translation we do after passing the ATA exam. Certified translators should continue to provide certified quality.
Related post: Error points in ATA Certification Exams
