Translation (Khasi–English / English–Khasi)
What the translation section tests
Translation questions test meaning, not word matching. You must carry across the sense, tone, tense, number, and relationship of the original. Khasi and English differ in articles, tense marking, classifiers, and idiom, so a good translation often changes the grammar while preserving the message.
Core rules
- Translate the sentence, not the word: read the whole unit first and identify its main verb and subject.
- Articles: English the and a/an are not automatic equivalents of u or ka. In Khasi, the article also carries gender and number; choose according to the noun.
- Tense and aspect: English tense forms may need Khasi particles such as la, yn, and dang. Do not leave out time marking.
- Number: use ki for plural where Khasi requires it; do not add an English plural ending to a Khasi noun.
- Kinship and honorifics: English ‘brother’ or ‘sister’ may need a more specific Khasi term for elder or younger sibling.
- Idioms: translate the meaning, not the picture. A literal rendering of an English idiom often sounds absurd in Khasi.
Worked example
Translate ‘He went to Shillong yesterday.’ A safe Khasi version is U la leit sha Shillong mynhynnin. Reasoning: u is the third-person masculine pronoun; la marks past; leit is go; sha marks direction to; mynhynnin is yesterday. A word-for-word version that omits la would lose the past meaning, and inserting an English-style auxiliary would be unnecessary.
Traps that cost marks
Do not translate every the as u or ka without checking the noun. Do not drop la or yn. Do not render an idiom literally. Do not confuse singular and plural kinship terms. Do not leave an English word in the Khasi sentence when a common Khasi equivalent exists, unless it is a proper noun.
Exam habit
After translating, read your version back without looking at the original. If it sounds unnatural in the target language, revise the structure rather than forcing the source word order.