Why don't translations always match up exactly?
I understand when some things are different, like idioms and such. But I just took an online survey a couple days ago and at the end it had stuff in like 15 different languages. In English it said "The survey is closed, thanks for your attempt" but the translation in Spanish was "We're sorry but the survey has closed." Why is this? Does this happen often?
2 Answers
The Bible is a great example of translations that are not word for word. So I would say it happens very often.
I remember a Chinese restaurant in the states that had a sign "No Park Here". That was their Chinese / English translation, you can understand it but it is awkwardly written. That is pretty much how the Bible and other translations would turn out if they were not adjusted to fit the language norms.
"The survey is closed, thanks for your attempt" would literally translate to: "La encuesta está cerrada, gracias por su intento" which wouldn't sound as good as "Lo sentimos, la encuesta se ha cerrado", the translation given to you after finishing such survey must've had some words changed in order to send the same message that was intended for the user to read in english. That's only my opinion but I hope it helped you understand a possible reason.
