The places where a close language is harder to translate from than a distant one, and the discipline that keeps a translation from reading as an original in disguise.
I can translate into Belarusian from the sense rather than the structure and check the places where transfer is silent.
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
Я шукаю чалавека, які гаворыць па-беларуску.
I am looking for someone who speaks Belarusian.
Мая сястра ёсць лекаркай у раённай бальніцы.
My sister is a doctor at the district hospital.
Не смейся з яго вымаўлення.
Do not laugh at his pronunciation.
Мы гаворым на роднай мове ўжо гадзіну.
We have been speaking our own language for an hour now.
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
Translating from English, you have to rebuild every sentence, so you translate the sense. Translating from Russian, the structure usually transfers, so you stop thinking - and the places where it should not have transferred slip through. Distance forces attention; closeness removes it.
| Russian pattern | Belarusian |
|---|---|
| present active participle in -ущий | a clause with які |
| является + instrumental | ёсць + instrumental, or a plain dash |
| больше + genitive | большы за + accusative |
| смеяться над + instrumental | смяяцца з + genitive |
| болеть + instrumental | хварэць на + accusative |
| ли after the word | ці at the front |
These are the ones that produce sentences which are entirely grammatical and mean something other than intended - the worst category of error, because nothing flags it.
Three habits do most of the work:
Personal names are adapted, not transliterated: Пётр becomes Пятро, Иван becomes Іван or Ян. Place names take the Belarusian form where one exists, and this is a decision to make deliberately rather than by default.
Apply this grammar in C1 course exercises
Practice ExercisesTypical errors: translating structure instead of sense, and letting a one-to-many split resolve itself by default.
Translating the structure rather than the sense
Close the source before writing the sentence.
Letting a one-to-many split resolve by default
Цяпер or зараз, мова or язык - decide each time.
Carrying the source verb's government across
Check every verb and comparative explicitly.
Transliterating a name instead of adapting it
Пётр gives Пятро.
Я шукаю чалавека, які гаворыць па-беларуску.
I am looking for someone who speaks Belarusian.
The participle becomes a clause with <em>які</em>.
Мая сястра ёсць лекаркай у раённай бальніцы.
My sister is a doctor at the district hospital.
<em>Ёсць</em> with the instrumental, not the officialese copula.
Не смейся з яго вымаўлення.
Do not laugh at his pronunciation.
<em>Смяяцца з</em> plus genitive, where Russian takes над plus instrumental.
Мы гаворым на роднай мове ўжо гадзіну.
We have been speaking our own language for an hour now.
Both splits at once: <em>мова</em> for language, <em>гадзіна</em> for the hour.
Пятро прыехаў з Гародні ў панядзелак.
Piatro arrived from Hrodna on Monday.
The name is adapted and the place name takes its Belarusian form.
Practice in course
Apply this grammar in C1 course exercises