What are types of challenges do you encounter when translating from Italian to English or English to Italian? We’ve identified a few challenges and a few solutions.
Famous Italian inventions include the thermometer, the typewriter, and ice cream. The Italian language is spoken by 85 million worldwide. It has official status in four countries – Italy, San Marino, Switzerland, and Vatican City. Italian is also one of the official languages of the European Union.
As a provider of Italian translation services, LinguaLinx is here to help with a few Italian translation tips and facts! Italian Translation Tips When translating from English to Italian, the text expands significantly.
3 Tips for Translating from English to Italian
1. It’s all about space
In your layout design, leave room for white space. eCommerce has grown in Italy at a rate of 19% in 2015 compared to 2014, according to this report. Is your website localized to reach native Italian speakers?
“Can’t Read, Won’t Buy” refers to research by Common Sense Advisory that found “more local – language content throughout the customer experience leads to a greater likelihood of purchase.”
2. Focus on Localization
Standard Italian was adopted by the Italian state after the unification of Italy in the 19th century. As a result, a lot of regional dialects, known as Regional Italian, exist.
Keep this in mind with localization. Paying attention to these regional dialects is important if you really want to reach specific regions of Italy (especially in a marketing sense).
Italian is a gendered language, English is not
This means words have different suffixes that indicate male or female. This includes animals or even inanimate objects. (In English, we call these things “it.” In Italian, they are given gender.) Because nouns are masculine and feminine, adjectives will also need to agree with them.
Italian, like English, uses the Latin Alphabet. However, they do not use the letters j, k, w, x, and y unless they refer to some Latin expressions or foreign words. Italian language and culture have a great influence on our English vocabulary, especially when it comes to music, food, architecture and design.
Just think about it – piano, pizza, a capella! (These are just a few examples.) We hope to collaborate with you soon on your future Italian translation projects.
LinguaLinx Can Help Translate Your Documents
If you have a need to translate any documents from English to Italian, LinguaLinx can help.
With LinguaLinx, you won't ever have to worry about your message getting across. You know you're in good hands with our ISO 17100 compliance, twenty years of professional translation experience, and the organizations whose trust we've earned.
To chat with us about your language translation needs, click on the link below.
