Notes · SpanishUK · A-Levels

Translation

Translation is examined in both directions inside Paper 1: a passage of at least 100 words from Spanish into English for 10 marks, and a passage of at least 100 words from English into Spanish for 10 marks, the latter supported by a text in Spanish that supplies some of the vocabulary and structures needed. Both passages are based on the themes and sub-themes of the specification, and no dictionary is allowed. Twenty marks out of a hundred on the paper that carries half the qualification therefore depend on a skill that can be trained systematically. These notes set out a method for each direction, the grammar decisions that recur, the false friends and structural traps that cost most, and the timing and checking routine that turns a good draft into a full-mark answer.

5 sections~26 min reading time3 competenciesLevel Standard 2 · Advanced 3

T·141414 / 16

Exam profile

AO2 · Understand written Spanish accurately, including complex and abstract contentAO3 · Manipulate the language accurately, using a range of lexis and structureAO1 · Understand and respond in writing to material drawn from a variety of sources

Operators:traduciranalizarjustificarrevisaradaptarcomprobar

basic level

AS Spanish (7691) examines translation in both directions too, but shorter and split across papers: into English in Paper 1 with a passage of at least 70 words for 10 marks, and into Spanish in Paper 2 with a passage of at least 70 words for 15 marks.

higher level

The full A-Level puts both translations in Paper 1, each at least 100 words and each worth 10 marks, and expects the English-into-Spanish passage to be handled with the supporting Spanish text, which supplies some but not all of the vocabulary and structures required.

Depth

Text

Contents · 5 sections

Translation

What the exam actually asks#

StandardAQA 7692 4.4 Paper 1 - TranslationAQA 7692 3.3 Grammar

El método de traducción

Fig. 1The order is not negotiable. Most lost marks come from starting at step four, and the two checks at the end are separate operations answering different questions.

Know the specification exactly, because the two tasks are different in kind and rewarding them differently is how candidates waste marks. Into English: a passage of at least 100 words, drawn from the specification's themes, worth 10 marks. Into Spanish: a passage of at least 100 words, again on the themes, worth 10 marks, and accompanied by a supporting text in Spanish which gives you some of the vocabulary and structures you will need. No dictionary is available for either. Note the structural point behind the design: across AO1 and AO2, no more than ten per cent of the marks for the whole qualification may be earned through responses in English, which is precisely why the Spanish-into-English translation is the only English you will write in the entire A-level.

Translation is not a test of vocabulary, although vocabulary is needed; it is a test of controlled reading followed by controlled writing. That is why the method matters more than the word list. Every good translator does the same four things in the same order: reads the whole passage before writing anything, so that the last sentence can inform the first; segments the passage into units - clauses, not words; decides the grammar of each unit consciously, above all the tense, the mood and the subject; and then re-reads the finished version against the original for meaning and against itself for naturalness. Skipping the first step is the commonest cause of a lost mark, because Spanish and English distribute information differently across a sentence.

Marks are lost in predictable places, and they can be listed. Omission - a whole clause skipped, usually the one that was hardest. Tense error - a preterite where the Spanish had an imperfect, or vice versa. False friends. Literalism, which produces English that no one would write or Spanish that no one would say. Register drift, where a formal passage is rendered colloquially. Accents and agreement in the Spanish direction. And, in both directions, the small function words - prepositions, articles, pronouns - which carry more meaning than their size suggests. Every one of these is preventable by method rather than by knowledge.

One further principle governs both directions: translate the meaning of the unit, not the shape of the words, but do not paraphrase. A translation that says roughly the same thing in a different structure will be credited if the meaning is exact; a translation that adds, omits or softens will not. If you genuinely do not know a word, do not leave a gap: infer from context and write the most plausible option, because a blank scores nothing while an intelligent approximation may well capture the sense. And never leave a sentence in the source language, which some candidates do under pressure; it cannot earn anything at all.

Worked example

Segmenting a passage before translating it

Prepare, but do not yet translate, this passage: «Cuando llegó la crisis, mi hermano llevaba dos años trabajando en una constructora. Lo despidieron en marzo y, aunque buscó empleo durante meses, no lo encontró. Al final se marchó a Alemania, donde sigue viviendo, y dice que no piensa volver mientras las cosas no cambien.»

Cut the passage into clauses
Nine units: cuando llegó la crisis / mi hermano llevaba dos años trabajando / lo despidieron en marzo / aunque buscó empleo durante meses / no lo encontró / al final se marchó a Alemania / donde sigue viviendo / y dice que / no piensa volver mientras las cosas no cambien.
Mark the tense of every verb
Llegó preterite; llevaba imperfect of duration; despidieron preterite with unstated subject; buscó preterite; encontró preterite; se marchó preterite; sigue present; dice present; piensa present; cambien present subjunctive.
Flag the structures that will not map word for word
Llevaba dos años trabajando needs an English perfect continuous. Lo despidieron has no stated subject and will become a passive. Mientras las cosas no cambien takes a subjunctive that English renders with a plain present.
Flag the vocabulary decisions
Una constructora is a construction company, not a builder. Despedir is to dismiss or to sack, not to say goodbye - which is despedirse. No piensa volver is he does not intend to come back, since pensar plus infinitive means to intend.
Only now write
With the tenses fixed and three structural traps identified, the draft can be written straight through without stopping - which is what protects you from the omissions that occur when translation and analysis happen simultaneously.

Result: Preparation notes complete. Draft: «When the crisis came, my brother had been working for a construction company for two years. He was made redundant in March and, although he looked for work for months, he did not find any. In the end he left for Germany, where he still lives, and he says he does not intend to come back until things change.»

Typical mistakes

Beginning to write at the first word, which produces sentence-by-sentence English that ignores the passage's structure.
Paraphrasing when a word is unknown; the mark scheme rewards the meaning of the unit, and an omitted element is an omitted element.

Active revision

Toma un texto español de 120 palabras sobre uno de los subtemas. Antes de traducir, subraya cada verbo, anota su tiempo y su sujeto, y sólo después empieza a escribir.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level Spanish (7692) specification - scheme of assessment (AQA) · GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languages (Department for Education)

Spanish into English: reading precisely, writing naturally#

AdvancedAQA 7692 4.4 Paper 1 - Translation into EnglishAQA 7692 3.3 Grammar

This direction is a comprehension test disguised as a writing test, and the marks are lost in the reading rather than in the English. Three habits protect you. First, identify the subject of every verb, because Spanish omits subject pronouns and a third-person verb may have a subject two clauses back. Second, watch for the impersonal and passive constructions - se dice, dicen, se ha aprobado, le dijeron - which have no stated agent and usually require an English passive or a vague they. Third, watch the object pronouns, since lo, la, los, las and le can carry the whole referential weight of a sentence: se lo dije must be unpacked into I told him about it or I said so to her, depending on context.

Tense mapping is systematic and can be learnt as a set of defaults, then adjusted. Present maps to present, though the Spanish present can express the near future (mañana salimos, we are leaving tomorrow) and, with desde hace, an English perfect (vivo aquí desde hace tres años, I have lived here for three years). Preterite maps to the simple past. Imperfect maps to used to, would, or was doing, and to a simple past when the sense is stative (tenía veinte años, he was twenty). Perfect maps to the present perfect, though Latin American usage may prefer the preterite where peninsular Spanish uses the perfect. Pluperfect maps to the past perfect. Future and conditional map directly - except in their suppositional use, where serán las tres is it must be about three.

Idiom is where the marks are won, because a literal rendering of a fixed expression is usually wrong. Learn to recognise the type rather than memorise every instance: verbal periphrases (llevar plus gerund, acabar de, volver a, ponerse a, dejar de), impersonal expressions (hay que, da igual, vale la pena, hace falta), and reflexives with a shift of sense (irse, quedarse, ponerse, hacerse). And know the highest-frequency idioms outright: echar de menos, darse cuenta de, tener ganas de, llevarse bien con, dar a alguien igual, salir adelante, estar harto de, no tener más remedio que.

Finally, register and naturalness. The mark scheme rewards accurate meaning, but a version that no English speaker would write signals imperfect understanding. Two rules produce natural English. First, allow yourself to restructure: Spanish tolerates much longer sentences with subordinate chains, and English often needs two sentences or a different clause order - the meaning must be complete, the shape need not be identical. Second, translate the level of formality: a colloquial testimony should not become bureaucratic English, and a legal or journalistic passage should not become chatty. Ask, at the end, whether the English sounds like something written by an English speaker on the same subject.

Worked example

A full Spanish-into-English translation, clause by clause

Translate into English: «Desde que se aprobó la ley, se han multiplicado las denuncias, aunque los expertos advierten de que eso no significa necesariamente que haya más casos. Hasta entonces, muchas víctimas ni siquiera sabían que lo que les ocurría tenía nombre. Ahora bien, denunciar sigue costando: hace falta valor, y hace falta también que alguien te crea.»

Handle the two impersonal reflexives
Se aprobó la ley is the law was passed - a reflexive passive with no agent. Se han multiplicado las denuncias is reports have multiplied; here the reflexive is not passive but inherent to multiplicarse. Una denuncia is a formal report or complaint, never a denunciation in this context.
Deal with the concessive plus subjunctive
Aunque los expertos advierten de que eso no significa que haya más casos: although experts warn that this does not necessarily mean there are more cases. Haya is subjunctive after a negated verb of meaning, and English simply uses the indicative.
Unpack the second sentence's embedded clause
Muchas víctimas ni siquiera sabían que lo que les ocurría tenía nombre: many victims did not even know that what was happening to them had a name. Note ni siquiera, not even; lo que, the neuter relative; and les ocurría, an indirect object with the imperfect.
Translate seguir plus gerund and costar
Denunciar sigue costando is reporting is still hard, or reporting still takes something out of you. Costar with no object means to be difficult; me cuesta levantarme is I find it hard to get up. Do not render it as costing money.
Handle the two hace falta constructions
Hace falta valor is you need courage, or courage is needed. Hace falta también que alguien te crea takes the subjunctive because a clause follows: and you also need someone to believe you. The parallel repetition should be preserved in English, since it carries the emphasis.

Result: Since the law was passed, the number of reports has risen sharply, although experts warn that this does not necessarily mean that there are more cases. Until then, many victims did not even know that what was happening to them had a name. Even so, reporting is still hard: it takes courage, and it also takes someone who will believe you.

Typical mistakes

Rendering the imperfect as a simple past everywhere, which loses the habitual sense the examiner is testing.
Translating fixed expressions word for word: echar de menos is to miss, not to throw less.

Active revision

Traduce al inglés cinco fragmentos españoles de 40 palabras cada uno, subrayando antes todos los pronombres y anotando a qué se refiere cada uno.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level Spanish (7692) specification - scheme of assessment (AQA)

English into Spanish: every decision justified#

AdvancedAQA 7692 4.4 Paper 1 - Translation into SpanishAQA 7692 3.3 Grammar

This direction is a grammar test, and it is graded by the decisions you make rather than by the words you know. Six decisions recur in almost every passage, and you should make each of them consciously. Ser or estar. Preterite or imperfect. Indicative or subjunctive. Personal a or none. Por or para. And the gender and number agreement of every noun phrase. A candidate who pauses over those six in each sentence will out-score one who writes fluently and checks nothing, because the mark scheme is built precisely on them.

Use the supporting text properly, since AQA provides it deliberately: it is a text in Spanish that supplies some of the vocabulary and structures you will need. Read it before the English passage, not after. Mine it for three things: subject-specific vocabulary you might otherwise approximate; fixed collocations, since knowing that Spanish says poner en marcha una campaña saves you inventing lanzar una campaña; and structures, because if the supporting text contains a subjunctive after para que or a pasiva refleja, the examiner has almost certainly built the English passage to require one. What the supporting text will not do is translate the passage for you - it overlaps, it does not correspond.

Several English structures have no direct Spanish equivalent and must be transformed rather than translated. The -ing form as a subject becomes an infinitive: reporting is hard becomes denunciar es difícil, never denunciando. After a preposition, Spanish uses the infinitive: after finishing becomes después de terminar. English continuous tenses usually become simple ones: I am living in Madrid is vivo en Madrid unless the stay is explicitly temporary. There is and there are are both hay. People as a generic subject is la gente with a singular verb, or better an impersonal se. And English possessives with body parts and clothing become articles plus an indirect object: he broke his arm is se rompió el brazo, and she washed her hands is se lavó las manos.

Two further habits raise a competent version to a full-mark one. First, respect Spanish word order rather than importing English: the subject frequently follows the verb (ha llegado el profesor, me gustan las patatas), adjectives normally follow the noun, and adverbs are not wedged between subject and verb. Second, check the accents, which carry meaning and which examiners notice: the preterite forms hablé and habló, the difference between si and sí, between el and él, between mas and más, between que and qué, and between esta, está and ésta. A written accent is not decoration in Spanish; it is grammatical information.

Worked example

A full English-into-Spanish translation with every choice explained

Translate into Spanish: Last year the council launched a campaign so that young people would report racist incidents. Although many said that they were afraid, the number of complaints rose. The mayor, who was born in Morocco, explained that the city needed a service that could support the victims.

Fix the time frame and the collocation
Last year is el año pasado; launched a campaign is puso en marcha una campaña, in the preterite because it is a bounded event: el año pasado el ayuntamiento puso en marcha una campaña.
Purpose clause with a past main verb
So that young people would report requires para que plus the imperfect subjunctive, because the main verb is in the preterite: para que los jóvenes denunciaran los incidentes racistas. The sequence of tenses is on AQA's list, and using the present subjunctive here would be a clear error.
Concession, reported speech and estar
Although many said that they were afraid: aunque muchos dijeron que tenían miedo. Note tener miedo, not estar asustado, for the general state; and the indicative after decir que, since it reports an assertion. Aunque takes the indicative because the fact is accepted.
Non-defining relative and the passive of birth
The mayor, who was born in Morocco: el alcalde, que nació en Marruecos - Spanish uses the active nacer, never fue nacido. Commas mark the non-defining clause exactly as in English.
Relative clause with an unrealised antecedent
A service that could support the victims describes something that does not yet exist, so the relative clause takes the subjunctive: un servicio que pudiera atender a las víctimas. This is the A-level use of the subjunctive in relative clauses, and note the personal a before las víctimas.

Result: El año pasado el ayuntamiento puso en marcha una campaña para que los jóvenes denunciaran los incidentes racistas. Aunque muchos dijeron que tenían miedo, el número de denuncias aumentó. El alcalde, que nació en Marruecos, explicó que la ciudad necesitaba un servicio que pudiera atender a las víctimas.

Typical mistakes

Translating the -ing form literally: estudiando es importante instead of estudiar es importante.
Using a possessive with parts of the body: lavó sus manos instead of se lavó las manos.

Active revision

Traduce al español un texto inglés de 120 palabras y anota al margen, para cada frase, cuál de las seis decisiones has tomado y por qué.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level Spanish (7692) specification - grammar (AQA)

The traps: false friends, calques and structural mismatches#

AdvancedAQA 7692 4.4 Paper 1 - TranslationAQA 7692 3.3 Grammar

Falsos amigos de alto coste

Fig. 2These are the items that produce a coherent but wrong sentence, so re-reading will not catch them. They have to be known in advance.

False friends are the highest-yield revision in the whole of translation, because each one is a discrete, memorisable item that appears in real passages. The most expensive are those where a plausible wrong answer produces a coherent but false sentence, since you will never notice the error on re-reading: actualmente meaning currently rather than actually; realizar meaning to carry out rather than to realise, which is darse cuenta de; sensible meaning sensitive, where sensible in English is sensato; embarazada meaning pregnant; soportar meaning to put up with, where to support is apoyar; asistir a meaning to attend; éxito meaning success, not exit; carrera meaning degree course; librería meaning bookshop, where a library is una biblioteca; and largo meaning long, not large.

Calques are the mirror image: English structures imported into Spanish, or Spanish structures imported into English, which are grammatical but wrong. Into Spanish, the frequent ones are the -ing subject, the -ing after a preposition, the possessive with body parts, the double subject pronoun where Spanish drops it, the English adverb position, and the overuse of estar plus gerund. Into English, they are the retention of Spanish sentence length, the literal rendering of an impersonal se, and the preservation of Spanish word order in questions and after adverbs. The cure for both is the same: after drafting, read your version as if it were an original text in the target language and ask whether anything sounds translated.

Some mismatches are structural rather than lexical, and they recur constantly. English there is and there are collapse into hay, which is invariable. English people takes a plural verb; Spanish la gente takes a singular. English uses the passive freely; Spanish prefers the reflexive passive or an unstated plural subject. English distinguishes for with duration from since with a starting point; Spanish uses desde hace, hace... que and llevar plus gerund. English says to be twenty, to be hungry, to be cold, to be right, to be afraid; Spanish says tener veinte años, tener hambre, tener frío, tener razón, tener miedo. And English one-word verbs frequently correspond to Spanish verb plus preposition: to look for is buscar with no preposition, while to enter is entrar en, to marry is casarse con, and to depend is depender de.

Finally, two categories of item that cannot be worked out and must simply be known. Currency and units, which are written differently: Spanish uses a comma for the decimal separator and a full stop or a space for thousands, so 1.500 euros is one thousand five hundred euros, and mistaking that in a translation into English is a serious meaning error. And numbers in words: mil is a thousand with no un, so a thousand people is mil personas; cien is a hundred but ciento uno is a hundred and one; and the hundreds agree, so cuatrocientas chicas, an example AQA gives explicitly in its grammar annex.

Worked example

Finding the traps in a deceptively easy passage

Translate into English, identifying every trap first: «Actualmente asisto a un curso en la universidad. Realicé un trabajo sobre la biblioteca del barrio, que en realidad es una librería con sala de lectura. El profesor, muy sensible al tema, me apoyó desde el principio, aunque al final no tuve mucho éxito.»

Spot the two adverbs
Actualmente is currently, not actually; en realidad is actually, not in reality - though in reality would also be acceptable English here. Both appear in the same short passage, which is exactly how examiners test them.
Spot the two verbs
Asisto a un curso is I am attending a course, not I assist. Realicé un trabajo is I did or carried out a piece of work, not I realised. Un trabajo here is an assignment or essay, not a job.
Spot the two nouns
La biblioteca is the library and una librería is a bookshop - and the sentence deliberately contains both, so a candidate who has learnt only one of them will produce nonsense. No tuve mucho éxito is I was not very successful, since éxito is success.
Spot the adjective and the verb of support
Muy sensible al tema is very sensitive to the subject, not sensible. Me apoyó is he supported me - apoyar for support, while soportar would mean he put up with me, which is a different and rather unkind sentence.
Assemble and check the register
The passage is a plain, slightly formal first-person account, so the English should be the same: no contractions in the written register, no colloquialisms, and the sequence of tenses preserved - present for the course, preterite for the completed assignment.

Result: I am currently attending a course at the university. I did a piece of work on the neighbourhood library, which is actually a bookshop with a reading room. The lecturer, who was very sensitive to the subject, supported me from the outset, although in the end I was not very successful.

Typical mistakes

Reading 1.500 as one point five; the Spanish decimal separator is the comma, so this is one thousand five hundred.
Writing un mil personas; mil takes no article in this sense - mil personas.

Active revision

Elabora tu propia lista de veinte falsos amigos con una frase de ejemplo para cada uno, y pídele a alguien que te examine en ambas direcciones.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level Spanish (7692) specification - grammar (AQA)

En el examen: timing, order of work and the checking routine#

StandardAQA 7692 4.4 Paper 1 - Listening, reading and writingAQA 7692 3.3 Grammar

Paper 1 lasts two hours thirty minutes and carries a hundred marks: thirty for listening, fifty for reading, and ten for each translation. A proportionate allocation gives roughly fifteen minutes to each translation, which is enough for a considered version but not for two full drafts. Plan the whole paper before you begin: candidates who leave the translations until last routinely arrive at them with eight minutes and lose marks they had the ability to earn. Note also that listening is under your own control, which means you decide how long to spend replaying - and that decision is part of managing the whole paper.

Within each translation, use a fixed sequence: two minutes reading and marking, ten minutes writing, three minutes checking. In the Spanish-into-English task, the marking phase means underlining every verb and identifying its subject and tense. In the English-into-Spanish task, it means reading the supporting Spanish text first, then marking on the English passage the points at which one of the six decisions will be needed. Writing should then be continuous; stopping to agonise over a single word mid-flow is how whole clauses get skipped.

The checking routine is where marks are recovered, and it must be two separate passes rather than one anxious read-through. Pass one, meaning: compare your version against the source clause by clause and confirm that nothing has been added, omitted or softened. Numbers, dates, names and negatives deserve particular attention, because a dropped no reverses a sentence. Pass two, form: in the English direction, read for naturalness alone; in the Spanish direction, check verb endings, ser and estar, agreement of adjectives and participles, the personal a, and accents. Do them in that order, because a beautiful sentence that says the wrong thing is worth less than an awkward one that is accurate.

Finally, three rules for pressure. Never leave a blank: an approximation may earn credit, a gap cannot. Never translate a whole sentence twice and leave both versions on the page for the examiner to choose from; decide, and cross out the rejected one clearly. And do not lift phrases from the supporting text that do not fit the English you are translating; the supporting text is a resource, not a template, and importing an unmodified sentence from it usually produces a mismatch that is more visible than an honest approximation would have been.

Worked example

The two checking passes in action

A candidate has drafted: «El año pasado el gobierno aprueba una ley para proteger a los inquilinos, pero muchos propietarios no la aplicaron y los alquileres subieron un 5%.» The English source read: Last year the government passed a law to protect tenants, but many landlords ignored it and rents rose by five per cent. Run both checking passes.

Pass one: meaning, clause by clause
Last year the government passed - aprueba is a present tense where the English is a past: it must be aprobó. Ignored it is not no la aplicaron, which means did not apply it; ignore in this sense is hacer caso omiso de or desentenderse de, so la ignoraron or hicieron caso omiso de ella.
Pass one: check the numbers
Rose by five per cent is subieron un cinco por ciento. Writing 5% is acceptable in Spanish, but the safest exam practice is to write the number in words, because it also demonstrates that you know cinco por ciento takes un before it.
Pass two: form, agreement and accents
Los inquilinos and los propietarios are correct, and la refers to la ley, so the feminine pronoun is right. Check that aprobó carries its accent - without it, aprobo is not a Spanish word - and that subieron is spelt with a single b.
Pass two: naturalness
Para proteger a los inquilinos is correct with the personal a. Consider whether the register is right: aprobar una ley is the exact collocation, better than pasar una ley, which is an anglicism.
Rewrite the corrected version
Every correction traced to a specific check. Note that pass one caught a meaning error the candidate would never have seen on a single read-through, because the sentence was perfectly grammatical Spanish.

Result: El año pasado el gobierno aprobó una ley para proteger a los inquilinos, pero muchos propietarios hicieron caso omiso de ella y los alquileres subieron un cinco por ciento.

Typical mistakes

Leaving both a first and a second version on the page; the examiner marks what is there, and a contradictory pair helps nobody.
Copying a sentence wholesale from the supporting text because it looks relevant, producing a version that does not match the English.

Active revision

Cronométrate: quince minutos por traducción, con dos minutos de lectura, diez de redacción y tres de revisión en dos pasadas. Repítelo cinco veces y anota qué tipo de error corrige cada pasada.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level Spanish (7692) specification - scheme of assessment (AQA)

References & sources

Sources

AQA

Department for Education

GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languages

Translation

5 sections~26 min reading time3 competenciesLevel Standard 2 · Advanced 3

Translation

Key points

Segmenting a passage before translating it

Key points

A full Spanish-into-English translation, clause by clause

Key points

A full English-into-Spanish translation with every choice explained

Key points

Finding the traps in a deceptively easy passage

Key points

The two checking passes in action

Sources

Translation

Key points

Segmenting a passage before translating it

Key points

A full Spanish-into-English translation, clause by clause

Key points

A full English-into-Spanish translation with every choice explained

Key points

Finding the traps in a deceptively easy passage

Key points

The two checking passes in action

Sources