This introduction covers Técnica de traducción — Translation Technique within Translation into English (Foundation 35 words / Higher 50 words) for GCSE Spanish. Revise Translation into English (Foundation 35 words / Higher 50 words) in Reading + Translation (ES→EN) for GCSE Spanish with 16 exam-style questions and 12 flashcards. Use this page as part of a wider topic revision path rather than treating it as an isolated fact. It is section 4 of 4 in this topic. Use this introduction to connect the idea to the wider topic before moving on to questions and flashcards.
🎯 Técnica de traducción — Translation Technique
Read the whole passage first for meaning. Then translate sentence by sentence, checking tense and idiom as you go.
- Read for gist: understand the overall meaning before translating any individual sentence
- Identify tenses: underline verb endings — is this preterite, imperfect, or conditional?
- Spot idioms: hacer (weather), tener (age/hunger/cold), hay que, gustar (reverse subject)
- Write naturally: read your translation aloud — does it sound like English?
- If unsure: attempt the sentence and move on — never leave blank
Practice questions for Translation into English (Foundation 35 words / Higher 50 words)
Translate this sentence into English: **Me gusta mucho la música porque es muy relajante.**
Quick recall flashcards
AQA translation ES→EN — what is being tested?
AO3: Showing understanding of Spanish by rendering it accurately in natural English. Foundation: ~35 words. Higher: ~50 words (part of the reading paper).
How is the AQA translation marked?
"Key messages" mark (gist) + quality mark (accuracy). Missing a key message loses marks. Unnatural English can lose quality marks.