German Translation Strategies - Taking the Fear Factor Out of Long, Complicated German Sentences

Do you have to pass a German translation exam? And are you intimidated by those long German sentences? Read on to find out how to cut them down to size.

If you're learning how to translate from German into English, you're bound to come across a lot of really long sentences. And they're not just long, but also seriously complicated. But the fact is, it's not nearly hard as it looks to make them much more manageable.

Basically, what you need to do is realize that no matter how long the sentence is, it can be analyzed and turned into smaller sentences.

There are two major techniques that result in big sentences, and they require slightly different approaches when it comes to turning them into sentences of a more manageable size:

1) Sentences that have a lot of modifiers

and

2) Sentences that have a variety of separate sentences strung together with conjunctions

Of course, to make things more interesting, they often appear in combination.

Nonetheless, all it takes to handle them is this: You need to learn how to recognize each of the two techniques, and then you need to figure out (and practice) the strategies needed to unravel the sentences containing them. Once you can do that, you'll be able to "deconstruct" such sentences fairly easily.

So let's look at the two complex sentence types separately:

1) Sentences that have a lot of modifiers.

This means that for example noun phrases have a variety of modifiers that describe them in more detail.

Example:

Das Buch war interessant.

(the book was interesting).

Das von dem bisher relativ unbekannten und erst kuerzlich aus dem unter grosser politischen Instabilitaet leidenden Afghanistan eingewanderten Ali Khan geschriebenen Buch war interessant.

(The book written by the relatively unknown Ali Khan, who immigrated only recently from Afghanistan, which is plagued by a lot of political unrest, is interesting.)

(Or, better: the book by the relatively unknown Ali Khan is interesting. Khan immigrated only recently from Afghanistan, a country plagued by a lot of political unrest.)

Notice how I inserted a whole bunch of stuff between "Das" and "Buch war interessant."

When you try to translate a sentence of that sort, simply draw parentheses around such modifiers and ignore them for the first round.

Later, you can unravel that modifier (and yes, this is one of the famous extended adjective constructions, the bane of every German would-be translator).

Why Adjective? Because it describes the book.

2) Multiple sentences that are combined by coordinating or subordinating conjunctions

Those can be easier to unravel because you can just divide them as you come to those conjunctions. Just be sure you understand the role of the connectors, and how they logically connect the sentences.

Then, find the main clause (or main clauses) and figure out how the rest of the sentences logically connect to them.

Still nervous about your German test? Or maybe you just want to practice your German. Either way, if you want more of Elisabeth Kuhn's tips, please feel free to sign up for her new FREE German Translation Tips at http://www.GermanTranslationCoach.com

And if you're stressed about the test, you can get her stress-busting strategies report and take steps to reclaim your inner calm, even while taking tests.

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