Some interesting facts about the Chinese language
1. Chinese is the oldest written language in the world, stretching dating back to around 6000 years ago and has largely remained mostly the same since it was standardised in the third century BC.
2. Chinese has no cases, genders, tenses or plurals.
3. There are over 80,000 Chinese characters, although only around 2000 – 4000 of those are in regular everyday use.
4. Chinese is a tonal language meaning that a word’s pitch can drastically affect its meaning.
5. Simplified Chinese was created by the Chinese government in the 1950s to encourage literacy.
Native translators and high-quality translations you can trust
Surrey Translation Bureau is an award-winning and ISO-certified translation agency that employs many experienced English to Chinese translators specialising in an extensive range of translation areas and subjects.
We assess each project on an individual basis, so that we can provide a translator who is an expert within this language combination and specialises in your text type and subject area.
A few things to watch out for when translating into Chinese
1. Perhaps the most obvious difference between English and Chinese is that Chinese uses characters instead of letters. Chinese does not have an alphabet. Instead, words and phrases are made up of many characters.
2. Chinese does not have singular or plural forms when it comes to nouns, so it is essential for a translator to look at the full text to ascertain whether a plural or singular word is being described.
3. China is a very large vast country with an enormous and rich linguistic and cultural heritage/history. For this reason, there are many variants of the Chinese language. and There are also two very different distinct written forms of Chinese: that need close attention paid to them are Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese.
Identifying these nuances and differences requires an expert approach when translating from one language to another. Ensuring your project or proposal can be understood down to the very last detail allows any communication barriers to be broken down, building up your organisation’s presence, prospects and potential on both a local and global scale, in the short and long term.
Why use Surrey Translation Bureau for English to Chinese translation?
Here at Surrey Translation Bureau (STB), we think beyond simply translating the text. We also offer a variety of language services to increase the functionality and outreach of your text. Our desktop publishing service is highly recommended for languages such as like Chinese that use non-Latin alphabets. We insert the text manually into our client’s required format, ensuring that important considerations such as font and type size have been are carefully reproduced and appropriately reproduced; or, alternatively, we can check the final document if they have the client has done the formatting themselves.
No matter your individual or business requirements, the format or purpose of your text, STB’s dedicated and highly skilled team of English to Chinese translators can deliver the perfect text to fit your brief, enabling you to address your target audience effectively and successfully.
Contact a member of our knowledgeable team at STB to find out more about our English to Chinese translation service.
