Translation and Applied Language Skills
What this domain tests
Translation between English and Karbi, plus applied tasks: précis, paraphrase, dialogue completion, and register-appropriate rewording. Markers reward preserved meaning, natural target-language structure, and correct grammar - not word-for-word correspondence.
Core rules
- Translate clause by clause, then reorder into Karbi SOV. Never carry a whole sentence across word by word.
- English prepositions become Karbi postpositions; English "of" possession becomes the genitive marker on the possessor.
- Tense and aspect rarely map one-to-one. Choose the Karbi aspect marker that matches whether the action is completed, ongoing or habitual.
- Keep proper nouns, numerals and titles; render idioms by sense ("it rained cats and dogs" → "it rained very heavily").
- Comparison: English "-er than" becomes a case-marked standard of comparison placed before the adjective; do not import "than" as a separate word.
- After drafting, back-translate mentally and check that nothing has been added or lost.
Worked example
Source: "She had finished the work before the guests arrived." Reasoning: (1) two events with different time reference - finishing precedes arrival; (2) the dependent clause comes first and its verb takes the anterior form; (3) agreement follows "she"; (4) the object stays before the verb. Draft: "guests arrive-before she work finish-anterior". Back-translate: the order of events survives and no English "before" is left stranded as a preposition.
Traps that cost marks
- Word-for-word rendering that produces English order in Karbi.
- Losing the anterior relation between two past events.
- Translating an idiom literally.
- Leaving an English preposition in front of a Karbi noun.