Unnatural mistakes in english vietnamese translation difficulties and solutions

Graduation Paper

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY
FACULTY
OF ENGLISH

Code: 21

FACULTY OF ENGLISH

---------------------------------------------------------

GRADUATION THESIS
THESIS
B.A DEGREEGRADUATION
IN ENGLISH
STUDIES
B.A DEGREE IN ENGLISH STUDIES

UNNATURAL MISTAKES IN ENGLISH – VIETNAMESE
TRANSLATION
UNNATURAL MISTAKES
IN ENGLISH – VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION
DIFFICULTIES
ANDAND
SOLUTIONS
DIFFICULTIES
SOLUTION

Supervisor

Supervisor
Thị Vân
Đông,PhD
PhD
: Nguyễn: Nguyễn
Thị Vân
Đông,

Student

Student

Date of birth

Date of birth

: 26/03/1993

Course

: K18 (2011-2015)

Course

Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang
: Nguyễn :Thi
Thu Trang

: 26/03/1993

: K18 (2011-2015)

HANOI, 2015
HANOI, 2015

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DECLARATION
Title: Unnatural Mistakes in English – Vietnamese TranslationDifficulties and Solutions

I certify that no part of the above report has been copied or reproduced
by me from any other’s work without acknowledgement and that the report is
originally written by me under strict guidance of my supervisor.

Hanoi,

June 2015

Student

Supervisor

Signature

Signature

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to all those who
gave me the possibility to complete this thesis. I want to thank the Faculty of
English, Ha Noi Open University for giving me permission to commence this
thesis in the first instance and to do the necessary research work.
I am deeply indebted to my supervisor Mrs. Nguyễn Thị Vân Đông
whose

reference

materials,

support,

stimulating

suggestions

and

encouragement helped me in all stages of this research for and writing of this
thesis.
My classmates from class K18A1 supported me a great deal and I want
to thank them for all their support, cooperation and valuable suggestions. I
would like to express my sincere appreciation to other fellow students of the
Faculty of English for providing me their translation exercises and

assignments to use as references. Especially, I am obliged to my friends who
looked closely at the final version of the thesis for English style and grammar,
correcting both and offering suggestions for improvement.
Finally, I cannot fully express my gratitude to all the people whose direct
and indirect supports helped me complete my thesis in time.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LISTS OF FIGURES AND TABLES
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
PART A .................................................................................................................. 1
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 1
1. Rationale...................................................................................................... 1
2. Aims and Purposes of the study................................................................... 2
3. Scope of the study ........................................................................................ 2
4. Methods of the study ................................................................................... 3
5. Design of the study ...................................................................................... 3
PART B : DEVELOPMENT ................................................................................ 4
CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................... 4
1.1 Translation definition .................................................................................. 4
1.2 Kinds of translation ..................................................................................... 5
1.3 Translation process ..................................................................................... 7
1.4 Naturalness and unnaturalness in translation ............................................. 9
CHAPTER 2 UNNATURAL MISTAKES IN ENGLISH – VIETNAMESE

TRANSLATION.................................................................................................. 12
2.1. Linguistic aspects ...................................................................................... 12
2.1.1. At word level ........................................................................................... 12
2.1.1.1. Loss of connotative meaning ............................................................ 12
2.1.1.3. Word-for-word translation .............................................................. 16
2.1.1.4. Plural form ....................................................................................... 17
2.1.2 At phrase level ......................................................................................... 19
2.1.2.1. Word order ....................................................................................... 19

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2.1.2.2. Noun phrase...................................................................................... 20
2.1.3 At sentence level ...................................................................................... 22
2.1.3.1. Passive voice ..................................................................................... 22
2.1.3.2. Relative clause .................................................................................. 25
2.1.3.3. Past tense:......................................................................................... 28
2.2 Cultural Aspects......................................................................................... 30
2.2.1 Translation of Simile ............................................................................... 31
2.2.2 Translation of Metaphor ......................................................................... 33
2.2.3 Translation of Proverb ............................................................................ 34
CHAPTER 3 CAUSES AND SOLUTIONS OF UNNATURALNESS ............. 36
3.1.1 Subjective reasons ................................................................................. 36
3.1.1.1 Inadequate language competence ................................................... 36
3.1.1.2 Inadequate cultural background .................................................... 36
3.1.2 Objective reasons ................................................................................... 37
3.1.2.1 Linguistic differences between Vietnamese and English ............... 37
3.1.2.2 Cultural differences among nations................................................ 39
3.2 Solutions to avoid unnaturalness.............................................................. 39

3.2.1 Linguistic problems ............................................................................... 39
3.2.1.1 Choose the right words.................................................................... 39
3.2.1.2 Choose the right structure .............................................................. 40
3.2.2 Cultural problems ................................................................................. 40
PART C ................................................................................................................ 42
CONCLUSION .................................................................................................... 42
REFERENCES .................................................................................................... 43

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LISTS OF FIGURES AND TABLES
Figure 1.1. Nida’s Translation Process.
Figure 1.2. Larson’s Translation Process
Table 2.1. Words with same denotation but different connotations.
Table 2.2. Translations with vocabulary errors
Table 2.3 . Different translations of “output”
Table 2.4. Word-for-word translation errors.
Table 2.5. Plural errors
Table 2.6. Errors with passive voice
Table 2.7. Errors with passive voice (1)
Table 2.8. Students’ Translation of sentences with Relative clauses.
Table 2.9. “đã” in past tense translations
Table 2.10. Differences between English and Vietnamese similes
Table 2.11. Coincidences in English and Vietnamese similes
Table 2.12. English and Vietnamese metaphors
Table 2.13. English proverbs and Vietnamese equivalence
Table 3.1. The difference about nuance of expression.

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
SL: Source Language
TL: Target Language

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PART A
INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
Human beings, throughout history, have made an effort to take
advantage of various methods of communication with the intention of
utilizing the knowledge of other nations and endeavoring to preserve this
knowledge for the coming generations. As the most effective methods of
communication, language has been employed to satisfy the very need of
communication. The predicament that may emerge as an obstacle in the way
of communication seems to be the fact of dissimilarity of languages
throughout the world. In today's world, communication between different
nations with different languages is feasible through translation.
Throughout the past years and up till now, translation theorists and
language researchers have been doing their best to define translation; to draw
up its limits as to put forward its foundations to figure out the accurate way
for carrying out an effective translation.
Certainly, almost no translation is perfect even when the general
message is conveyed. This is due to the many linguistic and cultural

differences between one language and another. Perfecting the practice of
translation has been a great desire of generations of translators all over the
world. There have been several senior translators devoting their life to finding
ways to overcome difficulties in their work. In other words, they have tried to
figure out and resolve common pitfalls that make a translation unnatural and
sometimes even incomprehensible.

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2. Aims and Purposes of the study
The primary aim of the report is to give students of English, the wouldbe translators, an overview of the frequently seen type of mistakes in EnglishVietnamese translation that may take their translations unnatural and
incomprehensible so that they are fully aware of and able to avoid them. The
report also aims at finding causes of translation unnaturalness and then
suggesting some possible strategies to overcome the problems. The targeted
subjects of this report are mainly student; nevertheless, all people who are
interested in translation work cab consider of a useful reference helping
improve their translating skill. In addition, the report touches upon a field of
study that is still rather insufficient in Vietnam for further discussion by other
researches.
3. Scope of the study
The transferring of written texts from one language into another requires
high accuracy and smoothness. This is because translation tasks allow
considerable time for translators to find the best substitutions while
interpreters hardly have time to consider the wording and structure carefully.
Inaccuracy and unnaturalness in translation, therefore, need to be studied
more cautiously than those in interpretation..

Moreover, the thesis concentrates on analyzing in details the English Vietnamese translation, which is much more popular in Vietnam today than
Vietnamese - English translation. It touches upon translations of this kind by
students of English as well as translators for Vietnamese magazines,
newspapers and publishers. This is due to the fact that not only translations by
students but, worryingly, those by some contemporary professional translators

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in Vietnam can be dubbed unnatural. This is a mistake we need to eliminate
or at least reduce to the minimum level with a view to purifying our mother
tongue and providing readers with the best possible sources of knowledge and
enjoyment. This is of importance to the development of Vietnamese culture
and society in the future. The thesis may mention the theoretical base in each
of its parts, but it concentrates largely on dealing with translation in practice.
In Vietnam, there have been quite little research work like this and most of
the publications are for internal circulation in universities only. For that
reason, this thesis is mostly based on the combination and analysis of minute
details picked from these publications and available materials acquired from
personal sources and surveys from juniors at Faculty of English, Hanoi Open
University.
4. Methods of the study
In order to achieve the above aims, this report has been carried out with
the following approaches: basing on the theory and principles of translation,
major characteristics of a good translation, the results of the interviews, and
the survey to collect information from students.
5. Design of the study

This study is organized in three parts: Part A is the introduction, which
includes the brief information about the study. Next part is the development,
which consists of Literature Review indicating some information about
translation along with analysis of students’ mistakes and solutions to these
errors. Additionally, the entire thesis will be summarized in the ConclusionPart C. Finally, part D is the references of this study.

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PART B : DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1
LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1 Translation definition
Translation is a science, an art, and a skill. It is a science in the sense
that it necessitates complete knowledge of the structure and make-up of the
two languages concerned. It is an art since it requires artistic talent to
reconstruct the original text in the form of a product that is presentable to the
reader who is not supposed to be familiar with the original. It is also a skill
because it entails the ability to smooth over any difficulty in the translation,
and the ability to provide the translation of something that has no equal in the
target language.
Translation is, in Enani's (1997) view, a modern science at the interface
of philosophy, linguistics, psychology, and sociology. Literary translation in
particular is relevant to all these sciences, audio-visual arts, as well as cultural
and intellectual study.
Translation is, in Chabban's words (1984:5), "a finicky job," as it has not
yet been reduced to strict scientific rules, and it allows for the differences that

are known to exist between different personalities. Translation is a heavily
subjective art, especially when it deals with matters outside the realm of
science where precisely defined concepts are more often expressed by certain
generally accepted terms. Translation may be defined as follows: the
replacement of textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent textual
material in another language (TL). (Catford 1965:20)

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Unlike such vivid sayings of famous figures, Bùi Tiến Bảo and Đặng
Xuân dThu in their “Interpreting and Translation Course Book”(1997) point
out another interesting way for the definition ‘‘Translation is rendering a
written text into another language in the way that the author intended the
text”.
As can be seen, translation has been variously defined and ideas on
translation are diversified and contradictory. To some people, the concept of
translation is so complex that “No simple theory or set of rules can ever
suffice to provide meaningful answers to what has [been] described as
‘probably the most complex type of event yet produced in the evolution of the
cosmos”. (Brislin 1976:79)
1.2 Kinds of translation
According to Larson (1984: 15) translation is classified into two main
types, namely form-based translation and meaning-based translation. Formsbased translation attempts to follow the form of the source language (SL) and
it is known as literal translation, while meaning-based translation makes every
effort to communicate the meaning of the SL text in the natural forms of the
receptor language. Such translation is called idiomatic translation. A literal

translation sounds like nonsense and has little communication value (Larson,
1984: 15). The literal translation can be understood if the general grammatical
form of the two languages is similar. Larson (1984: 16) says that idiomatic
translations use the natural forms of the receptor language both in the
grammatical constructions and in the choices of lexical items. A truly
idiomatic translation does not sound like translation. It sounds like it was
written originally in the receptor language. Therefore, a good translator will
try to translate idiomatically. This is his/her goal.

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Catford (1978: 21) divides the three aspects of translation differently,
those are: extent, level, and ranks.
Based on the extent, the types of translation are:
- Full translation, it is a type of translation in which the entire SL text is
reproduced by the TL text materials.
- Partial translation, there are only some parts of the SL text to be
translated into the TL text.
In terms of level, the types of translation are:
-Total translation, the TL material replaces all levels of the SL text.
- Restricted translation, it is the replacement of SL textual material with
equivalent TL material at only one level; whether at the phonological level,
graphological level, or at the level of grammar and lexis.
In terms of rank, translation is divided into:
- Rank-bound translation, it means that the selection of TL text
equivalent is limited at only one rank, such as word-for-word equivalence,

morpheme-for-morpheme equivalence, etc.
- Unbounded translation, it can move freely up and down the rank-scale.
In his famous essay, On Linguistic Aspect of Translation, Jacobson in
Leonardi (2000) identifies three kinds of translation: intralingua translation
(monolingual translation), Interlingua translation (bilingual or multilingual
translation), and intersemiotic translation (verbal sign into non-verbal sign).
Intralingua translation refers to a translation in which verbal signs are
interpreted by means of other signs of the same language. It happens within

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the same language (monolingual). Interlingua translation is the one, which
refers to different languages whether it is bilingual or multilingual. Intersemiotic translation refers to an interpretation of verbal signs by means of
other signs of non-verbal sign systems.
1.3 Translation process
The process of translation can be defined as the activity of translation.
The translation process usually is used by a translator as a guide in translating
text from the source language into the target language.
Nida and Taber explained simple and generally about the process of
translation. Nida and Taber (1974: 33) introduce three stages in the process of
translation. This process begins by analyzing SL into grammatical and
semantic structure of the TL, transferring the meaning and at last by
reconstructing the grammatical and semantic structure into the appropriate TL
forms in order to create an equivalent TT.

Figure 1.1. Nida’s Translation Process.

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From Nida and Taber explanation it can be concluded that translation has
process, a translator must have knowledge about the elements of two
languages. Such as, grammatical and semantic structure, process of translation
is done for finding the equivalence meaning from source language (SL) to
target language (TL).
Larson described about the process or steps of translation in her book
entitled Meaning-Based translation; and here is the overview of the translation
task:

Figure 1.2. Larson’s Translation Process
Based on the diagram, it can be found that there are three major steps in
the process of translation. Firstly, a translator needs to discover the meaning
of the message in the source language (there is a text to be translated). After
the translator gets the meaning, the process of determining the meaning that
related to the communicated is needed. Finally, a translator needs to reexplain or re-express the meaning (the message) in target language using the
translation equivalent.

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1.4 Naturalness and unnaturalness in translation
Nida and Taber (1969) consider a translation a good one when it does
not show to be translation. Venuti explain the same concept by the term
‘invisibility’. However, followers of fidelity theory, such as Gutt (1991),
reject both scholars. Beekman and Callow (1983) have offered another
criterion for assigning the naturalness of translation. Their definition is based
on the term ‘ease’. They say there is correlation between ease of
understanding the meaning of a text and the level of naturalness, which it has.
In his preface to Tianyanlun, Yan Fu (1853 – 1921), a Chinese scholar
famous for introducing Western thoughts into China during the late 19th
century, explained the three problems in achieving an ideal translation: the
“faithfulness to the original text (xin), communication of the ideas (da), and
literary elegance (ya)” (Wright, 2001, p. 4).
Both Benjamin and Yan Fu, though belonging to two different cultures,
agree that the translator should have the ability to not only thoroughly
understand the source language text and convey the same understanding in
the target language but also make his “re-creation” sound natural and pure
enough to be accepted by readers of the target language. However, for some
reasons, the translator may fail to fulfill his tasks and the outcome turns out to
be a rough combination of words.
In his article “Principles of Correspondence”, Eugene Nida discusses
translation from the perspective of equivalence, formal and dynamic. While
formal equivalence means the closest possible match of form and content
between source-text and target-text, dynamic equivalence stands for the

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closest natural equivalent to the source-language message, thus the
equivalence of effect on reader of target-text.
Another key to a truly natural translation for Nida is “what it avoids than
what it actually states”. If the translator avoids severe anomalies, then the
reader feels at home with the context.
Another factor that enhances the naturalness of translation, for Nida, is
the level of experience and the capacity for decoding on the target audience’s
part. In that aspect, although this idea somewhat bears resemblance to
Schleiermacher’s view of an educated reader, it’s obvious that the reason
behind it is not of romantic purposes like creating an “ideal” reader platform
but of appropriateness of the message, such as the texts intended for
audience’s belonging to scientific world or the ones for more general
audiences. This brings us to the conclusion that the level of appropriateness
may vary in accordance with not only the prospective readers’ capacity and
ability of decoding but also their potential interest.
- Newmark (1988) asserts that the process of translation operates in four
levels Source text level: the source text itself and its immediate impression on
the translator.
- Referential level: the level of content of the text (technically the level of
the conceptual representation) .
- Cohesive level: the leve where you aim at making a cohesive target text
(and analyze the cohesion of the source text).
- Level of naturalness: the level of constructing a natural target text in an
appropriate language.

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Level of naturalness is target text oriented, focusing exclusively on the
construction of the target text. Random, unpredictable things that just seem
unnatural in the target language makes things more complicated as
naturalness often depends on the situation, such that something might seem
natural in one context but unnatural in another. Perhaps, the only way, to
ensure naturalness is to read through your translation and spot unnaturally
sounding parts and change them into something that sounds more natural.
This is something that most people skip when they do translations.
Naturalness can be described as “a set of requirements for the target
language used” (Shei, 2002) which makes the translation read naturally and fit
the context. Unnatural translation does not gravely spoil the general meaning
of the text; nonetheless, to some extent, it distorts the writer’s intention,
disappoints readers for not meeting that set of requirements.
In short, unnaturalness in translation can be understood as the failure to
recreate a text “according to the writer's intention, the reader's expectation,
and the appropriate norms of the target language”, making the translation
imperfect and not literarily elegant (Newmark, 1988). This may be considered
a definition of translation unnaturalness, on which the following detailed
analysis is based to judge the translations taken out from different sources.

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CHAPTER 2
UNNATURAL MISTAKES IN ENGLISH – VIETNAMESE

TRANSLATION.

To translate well and accurately, a translator must understand clearly and
intensively the Source language and Target language and the cultural
characteristics of both languages before deciding the suitable way to translate
the Target language. However, sometimes translators may commit some
errors, which make the work inaccurate or unnatural compared to the original.
Unnaturalness can be analyzed from the linguistic angle with aspects of word,
phrase and sentences. Besides, unnaturalness term could be also criticized for
using strange cultural background, which is foreign to target language readers
(Vietnamese). From the above factors, we can systematize unnatural English Vietnamese translations on two grounds, the linguistic and the cultural
aspects.
2.1. Linguistic aspects
2.1.1. At word level
2.1.1.1. Loss of connotative meaning
When you look up a word in the dictionary, you will find its literal
(denotative) meaning. However, the emotions and associations connected to a
word are known as connotative meaning.
Understanding a word's literal (denotative) and suggestive (connotative)
meanings is important for every writer. Depending on the context, the
connotation of a word can change the meaning of a sentence considerably.

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To understand better this concept, see the following table of denotation and
connotation of meanings of some words with the same denotation.

Equivalent

No

Word

Denotation

Connotation

1

Limp

To walk

Slowly and difficultly

Khập khiễng

2

Stagger

To walk

Unsteadily

Loạng choạng

3

Amble

To walk

Slowly in a relaxed way

Đi nước kiệu

4

Wander

To walk

5

Stump

To walk

6

Shuffle

To walk

7

Sneak

To walk

Quietly and secretly

Lén lút

8

Pace

To walk

Walk with regular steps

Bước

9

Toddle

To walk

Shortly and unsteadily

Chập chững

To walk

Proudly and confidently

Ngênh ngang

10 Swagger

Slowly around a fixed
purpose or destination
Heavily and stiffly
Slowly without lifting
feet completely

Vietnamese meaning

Thơ thẩn
Nặng nề
Lê chân

Table 2.1 Words with same denotation but different connotations.
It is much simpler for translators to remember denotative meanings than
complicated connotative ones. As a result, in a rush situation without full
researching, especially for students in an exam, when approaching a strange
English word, inexperienced translators might immediately find the
equivalent words that they have known so far without considering whether
they are suitable with the context or not. Thus, the inappropriate equivalence
could affect writer’s intention or style badly.

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2.1.1.2. Inappropriate word choice
The choice of word, just as its name implies, is the choice and use of
word, which is the first t o be affected in translation. No matter in English or
in Vietnamese, polysemy is quite common to see. Moreover, English and
Vietnamese languages have great differences in cultural backgrounds, words
may have opposite connotation, and social customs varies according to many
aspects. Translators must think about the meaning carefully, and find the
corresponding expression in target language.
Almost people instinctively have in mind a set of words they believe is
of proper use in certain situations. However, in some circumstances, some
inexperienced translators, especially students, when translating foreign
language into mother tongue language may fail to realize the importance of
finding the proper words that could confuse readers and change the intention
and style of writer.
This phenomenon is frequently seen in students’ translations. The
following table shows some examples of inappropriate word choices in thirdyear students’ translations:
Equivalent
English

No

Student’s translation

suggested
translation

1

extensive Những đường thủy lớn Đường thủy rộng lớn

These

have đã giúp hình thành sự đã giúp định hướng

waterways
helped
country’s

shape

the phát triển cho nền kinh cho nền kinh tế Mỹ

economic tế Mỹ và giúp ràng buộc phát

triển

trong

growth over the years 50 bang của Mỹ lại với những năm qua và

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and

bind nhau.

helped

America’s

50

individual

states

giúp liên kết 50
bang của Mỹ lại với
nhau.

together. (p.96)
2

Americans are

Người dân Mỹ bị ném Những

bombarded with

bom với những quảng hàng hóa trên vô

television

cáo trên Tivi, báo trí, tuyến, trên báo trí,

commercials,

trực tiếp qua thư từ và trực tiếp qua thư từ

newspaper ads, direct

qua điện thoại.

quảng

cáo

và qua điện thoại cứ

mail and sale calls.

liên tục đập vào tai

(p.79)

vào mắt người tiêu
dùng Mỹ.

3

Otherwise, there are Trái lại, có rất ít người ở Trái lại, nơi đất có
few people and there đây và ít chuyển động.

rất ít người qua lại.

is little movement.
(p.26)
Table 2.2: Translations with vocabulary errors.
In the example 1, obviously, “shape” and “bind” mean “hình thành” and
“ràng buộc”. However, those translations are not suitable in the text on the
term of Economy. Similarly, in the example 2, “ném bom” seems to be more
suitable to the War or Fight topic than the Marketing one. In this sentence, the
writer implies the frequency of advertisements; however, the student
misunderstands his/her intention and uses the literal meaning. For the last
example, when talking about “few people and little movement”, its
implication is “it người qua lại.” in Vietnamese.

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The following table is another example about word choice. I gave 120
students a sentence: “The US economy also maintains a very high level of
output” (p.90). Among different translations of “output”, there are 6 popular
ones.
Translations
Percentage
(%)

Năng

Hiệu

Sản

Sản

Sản

Đầu

suất

suất

xuất

lượng

phẩm

ra

35

23

15

12

9

4

Other

2

Table 2.3 : Different translations of “output”
As can be seen from the table, each student has their own definition of
“output” in a certain concept. That indicates the confusing situation when
choosing the proper word of almost students.
2.1.1.3. Word-for-word translation
Most translators, even unskilled ones or translation learners, know that they
should avoid the word-for-word translation. Nevertheless, this is not a simple
task especially when you are not very flexible in the use of words and parts of
speech.
Some sentences were given to students. A part of them does not provide
satisfactory translations.

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No

English

Vietnemese

Equivalent suggested
translation

The man with the red Người đàn ông với Anh họ tớ là người đàn
1

hat on his head is my chiếc mũ đỏ trên đầu ông đội mũ đỏ.
cousin.

là anh họ tớ.

The smartest robot is Con
2

in Japan.

robot

thông Con robot thông minh

minh nhất ở Nhật nhất đến từ Nhật Bản.
Bản.
Table 2.4. Word-for-word translation errors.

With the sentence:” The man with the red hat on his head is my cousin.”.
35% of students keep the initial meaning of the word “with” – “với” without
careful consideration about speech act. The rest has relative similar results

which are acceptable such as : “đội, mang..”.
In the second example, because the translator does not change the part of
speech, he/she should use the word “đến từ” instead of keeping “ở” (in) to
avoid misunderstanding. With a little change, the suggested one is much more
Vietnamese.
The purity of Vietnamese is fading because of unnatural translations
such as ““Những chiếc lá trên một cành cây đang tỏ ra rung rinh trước những
cơn gió” and “Đội tuyển bóng đá Việt Nam đã bị thua trước đội Mianma 30”.
(Dịch sai đang phá hỏng Tiếng Việt, Bùi Việt Bắc, 2005, p1)
2.1.1.4. Plural form
Another un-Vietnamese

translation occurs

when

the translator

encounters plural nouns in the English text. English nouns are inflected for

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Graduation Paper
grammatical number, meaning that if they are of the countable type, they
generally have different forms for singular and plural.
In theory, Vietnamese quantifiers ( “các” and “những”…. )are “used as
plural noun markers to convey the notion of plurality” (Frank Trinh, 2002).

However, using them automatically is unnatural to Vietnamese people.
Students tend to be affected by the knowledge of their mother tongue
when learning the target language. Hence, due to differences in between
English and Vietnamese noun plurality forms, it is easy for students to make
mistakes when translating from English to Vietnamese.
The following table shows some sentences:
English

No

Suggested Vietnamese version

Inhabitants of nearby Chinese Người dân ở các thị xã Trung Quốc
1

town are permitted to cross into gần đó được phép vượt qua biên giới
Vietnam for the day to shop. sang Việt Nam để mua bán trong
(p.30)

2

3

ngày.

Men use their eyebrows more Nam giới nhíu mày nhiều hơn nữ
than women do. (p.55)

giới.

It contains extracts of fish Nó bao gồm chiết xuất từ sụn cá.
cartilage. (p.70)
Table 2.5: Plural errors
Somehow, a part of students are still inside the “prison” of the source

language that they apply the principles of English plural form into

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