Why Your Translation Sounds Weird (And How to Fix It)

Translation tools sometimes produce awkward, unnatural text that sounds robotic or confusing. Learn why this happens and discover practical methods to get natural, professional translations.

Machine Translation Misses Context

Translation tools translate individual words or short phrases without understanding the bigger picture. This creates several problems:

Word-by-word translation: “I’m feeling under the weather” becomes “I’m feeling under the weather” in Spanish, which makes no sense. The correct translation should be “Me siento mal” (I feel sick).

Missing implied meaning: “Can you pass the salt?” in English is polite. Directly translated to German as “Können Sie das Salz weitergeben?” sounds overly formal. Germans would say “Reichst du mir mal das Salz?” (Can you hand me the salt?).

Wrong register: Translating casual text with formal vocabulary or vice versa makes your content sound off-putting to native speakers.

Cultural References Don’t Transfer

Every language has idioms, cultural references, and social norms that don’t exist in other languages:

Idioms fail completely: “It’s raining cats and dogs” literally translated to any language sounds bizarre. The meaning (heavy rain) gets lost in translation.

Cultural assumptions: American phrases like “Monday morning quarterback” mean nothing to non-Americans. Even perfect translation won’t convey the concept.

Social conventions: In Japanese, you must consider the social hierarchy between speakers. English doesn’t have this complexity, so translations often get the politeness level wrong.

Grammar Rules Create Awkward Sentences

Different languages have different sentence structures and rules:

Word order problems: German puts verbs at the end of sentences. Direct English-to-German translation creates sentences that sound like Yoda speaking.

Gender and article confusion: Romance languages assign gender to objects. “The table” becomes either “la mesa” (feminine) or “el mesa” (wrong) in Spanish. Machine translation sometimes guesses wrong.

Tense mismatches: Some languages have tenses that don’t exist in others. Translating English continuous tenses (“I am eating”) into languages without this concept creates unnatural phrasing.

Technical Terms Get Mistranslated

Specialized vocabulary needs industry knowledge, not just language knowledge:

Medical translations: “Acute pain” doesn’t mean “smart pain” in other languages. It means sudden, severe pain, but translation tools might pick the wrong meaning of “acute.”

Legal terminology: Legal concepts don’t always exist across legal systems. Translating “plea bargain” to countries without this legal concept produces meaningless results.

Business jargon: “Let’s circle back on this” translated literally makes no business sense in most languages.

Fix Weird Translations with These Steps

1. Break complex sentences into simple ones: Instead of “The comprehensive report that was submitted by our team last week needs revision,” write “Our team submitted a report last week. The report needs revision.”

2. Replace idioms and cultural references: Change “It’s a slam dunk” to “It’s guaranteed to succeed” before translating.

3. Use active voice: “The document was reviewed by the manager” becomes “The manager reviewed the document.” Active voice translates more clearly.

4. Specify technical terms: Add brief explanations: “ROI (return on investment)” instead of just “ROI.”

5. Check for common translation errors:

• Numbers and dates (12/01/2025 means different things in different countries)
• Names and titles (don’t translate proper nouns)
• Units of measurement (convert or explain)

6. Have native speakers review important translations: They’ll catch awkward phrasing that technically correct but sounds unnatural.

Get Natural Translations Instantly

For professional results without the manual work, try OpenL Translate. It understands context and cultural nuances, producing natural-sounding translations that don’t require extensive editing.

The key is understanding that good translation isn’t about converting words—it’s about converting meaning, tone, and cultural context into language that feels natural to native speakers.