So what are these "traps"? This refers to simply picking out a few, such as ignoring the singular and plural nouns, ignoring prepositions, sticking to the original text, and sticking to the translation of the original text too much, which is difficult to read and hinders understanding. In the words of some critics, it is called "not talking at all".
The first two traps are actually examining basic skills. As long as you practice basic skills at home, avoiding traps is not a problem. Sticking to the original text requires long-term translation practice to hone the ability to skip the trap. Now, let's briefly analyze these traps that beginners often encounter.
1. Ignore simple and complex numbers.
English: The mountains began to cast long blue shadows in the valley.
The mountain began to cast a long blue shadow over the valley.
Is there any mistake in the translation above? If you think about it carefully, you will find that the translator actually ignores a very important issue in English-Chinese translation: singular and plural. As we all know, English nouns can be divided into countable nouns and uncountable nouns, and nouns are often used with articles. The most common plural form of countable nouns is to add "s" or "es" after the singular of nouns. In the above example, the mountains and shadows are obviously complex numbers, so when this English complex number is converted into Chinese, can you find the corresponding expression? The answer is of course yes, as long as you put your heart into it, you will find it. For example, here we suggest translating this sentence into "the mountains began to cast long blue shadows on the valley." A word "group" and a word "road" will immediately reproduce the meaning of the original text into the translation.
Then see here and give you an example to see how to translate the following sentence. Dogs are very helpful animals. Many students were smart at this time, and noticed that dogs and animals are plural here, and just now they said that the concept of plural must be reflected in translation, so translate it like this: dogs are very useful animals. I have to admire the translator's intelligence, prudence and quick learning ability. At least I know that in Chinese, the word "person" is used to express the plural concept in most cases. But I have to say that this translation is actually very poor, because does anyone in China talk like this? It's actually quite simple. A dog is a very useful animal. In English, it refers to things that often use plural or singular definite articles to express such things. Dogs are actually a general term here. Although it is a plural form, it expresses the concept of "dog", so it is enough to express it directly in Chinese, which is enough to show that it means "dog" instead of gilding the lily and saying "many dogs" or "dogs" makes people laugh.