Spanish–Marathi translation: one real false friend, one fake one, and a dropped clause
A Marathi-medium student is attempting the Translation section. The source sentence, from a magazine article about Andalusia:
«Actualmente, en muchos pueblos de Andalucía, la sobremesa puede durar hasta las once de la noche: los vecinos echan una mano con las sillas y no hace falta invitación para sentarse a charlar.»
Marking: 3 marks accuracy, 2 marks natural Marathi, no omissions. His draft renders actualmente as 'वर्तमान में', once as 'एकदा' (once, one time), sobremesa as 'टेबल', and echar una mano as 'हात फेकणे'. The sentence ends at 'खुर्च्या' - the clause about the invitation is missing. He explains that once and actualmente are 'both false friends', so he handled them the same way.
1. Is his reasoning about the two words correct? Fix what needs fixing and leave what does not.
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No. Once is a genuine false friend: it means eleven, not 'once / one time' (which is una vez). Here it is clock time, las once de la noche = 11 p.m., so the Marathi must say eleven.
Actualmente means currently, at present, from actual = 'current'. The trap runs the other way: English 'actually' (= in fact) must never be rendered actualmente. His 'वर्तमान में' is correct and should be left alone.
So one word needed repair, the other was already right. That distinction matters in the exam: 'fixing' correct output burns time under pressure and can damage a good sentence. The discipline is to test each suspect word against the sentence - las once de la noche cannot mean 'once', because a clock time follows an article.
2. How should *la sobremesa* and *echar una mano* be handled in Marathi? Give the principle, not just a word.
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Sobremesa is culture-bound: the time spent chatting at the table after a meal. There is no single Marathi noun, so paraphrase - 'जेवणानंतर टेबलावर बसून गप्पा मारण्याची वेळ'. A bare 'टेबल' loses the meaning and is marked wrong. Principle: when no equivalent exists, translate the function, not the form, and keep it short enough not to unbalance the sentence.
Echar una mano means 'to help, to give a hand'. Marathi: 'मदत करणे', or better the idiomatic 'हातभार लावणे'. 'हात फेकणे' translates the image word for word and means nothing.
Rule to state: idioms move as whole units - translate the phrase, never its parts, and check that the Marathi reads as something a person would actually say.
3. The invitation clause is missing. What does the examiner deduct, and what checking routine prevents this?
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Accuracy loses a mark, and naturalness can too, because that clause carries the sentence's point - the gathering is open to everyone. Nothing else in the draft implies it, so there is no compensation.
Routine: before writing, count the source's finite verbs or clauses - durar, echar una mano, hacer falta = three - and tick each off in the draft. Then check negation and quantity words separately: no hace falta must stay negative ('आमंत्रणाची गरज नाही'), because a dropped no reverses the meaning while leaving a fluent sentence, and that is the error students never catch on re-reading.
Last step: read the Marathi alone, without the Spanish in view. If a reader would not learn that no invitation is needed, the clause is missing.