Translation Between Persian and the Medium of Instruction
What translation tests
You must transfer meaning, not word order. Persian is verb-final and uses را, ezafe and clitics; English and Assamese have different orders. Translate the sentence as a whole, then check tense, person and register. If you write in Assamese, keep Persian proper nouns in Persian script or standard transliteration.
Procedure
- Underline the main verb and its subject.
- Bracket ezafe chains: کتابِ دوستِ من = 'my friend's book'.
- Decide the function of را: definite direct object, not 'to'.
- Render compound verbs as one verb: تصمیم گرفت = 'decided', not 'took a decision' unless that is idiomatic.
- Check idioms separately: خوشش آمد = 'he liked it'; دلش گرفت = 'he felt sad'.
- Keep names and titles in a consistent transliteration.
Worked example
Persian: «او از این کار خوشش آمد.» Literal trap: 'His hand came from this work.' Reasoning: خوش آمدن is an idiom meaning 'to like or be pleased'. The clitic -ش refers to او. از این کار marks the thing liked. Correct: 'He liked this work' or 'He was pleased with this work.' Do not translate خوش as 'good' here.
Tense and aspect
Persian past simple often maps to English past simple; ماضی نقلی (خواندهام) maps to present perfect or past with present relevance; ماضی استمراری (میخواندم) maps to past continuous or 'used to'. Future with خواهم + past stem maps to 'will'.
Traps
- Translating را literally.
- Rendering چون only as 'because' when it means 'like'.
- Missing the negative prefix نـ.
- Shifting person because the Persian verb ending was ignored.
- Translating an idiom word-for-word.
- Changing formal register into slang.