Translating English to Nepali is considered much trickier than translating English to Spanish or French, especially if you don’t have full command of either language.. Nepali is considered at category 4 language, meaning it’s equally difficult to translate words, phrases, and sentences from English to Nepali as it is English to Greek or English to Russian. But with the right tools and tips, you can improve the accuracy of your translations and become much more confident in your work. In this guide, we’ll explore different ways to effectively translate English to Nepali.
The good news is that it’s easier to translate English to Nepali than it is English to Chinese or Arabic.
Know the Context in Mind
Whenever you’re translating, it’s important to keep the context in mind and understand who your audience is. The English phrases you use may mean something different from their Nepali counterparts–or there could be multiple interpretations for the same sentence. By understanding the nuances of both languages, you can provide a more accurate translation that does justice to the original message.
Familiarize Yourself with Common English and Nepali Phrases and Terms
To achieve a more confident, fluent translation, it’s essential to be familiar with common phrases and terms in both English and Nepali. In some cases, the same phrase may have multiple meanings depending on its context. Taking the time to become familiar with such nuances of grammar and style will ensure that your translations are accurate, precise, and nuanced.
Respect the Cultural Preference in Localization
Localization is an important step for projects involving the translation of English to Nepali. For instance, when translating from English to Nepali, you must pay special attention to understanding the culture and its people in terms of their expectations and language preferences. That means taking into account intrinsic and extrinsic cultural factors like customs, traditions, beliefs and the local accent- and using this knowledge to ensure that your translations are received positively in the target market.
Nepali Language
The Nepali language is spoken throughout Nepal and is most locals’ first language. There are also 129 other languages spoken in the country, the majority are derived from the Indo-Aryan and Sino-Tibetan languages.
While Nepali is the official language of Nepal, the other first languages in the country are also recognized as ‘first languages’ as well. It’s the most widely-spoken language in Nepal, as nearly half of residents speak it; Maithili is the second-most spoken language (though only a little more than 10% of locals speak it). Most of the languages in the country are in danger of dying out, as most languages aren’t spoken widely throughout the country.
Nepali was once called Khas-Kura and Gorkhali.
English to Nepali Translation
Translating English to Nepali is trickier than with some other languages. The major dialects of Nepali include:
- Acchami
- Baitadeli
- Bajhangi
- Bajurali
- Bheri
- Dadeldhuri
- Dailekhi
- Darchulali
- Darchuli
- Doteli
- Gandakeli
- Humli
- Purbeli
- Soradi
English and Nepali share a few words — just over 100 in fact! If you are familiar with the Nepali alphabet and pronunciations, learning these words is easier than some others.
Trying to learn Nepali online? We recommend using machine translation software that has a Nepali translation tool and can easily translate text to speech, such as the Vocre app, available on Google Play for Android or the Apple Store for iOS.
Software such as Google Translate or Microsoft’s language learning app doesn’t offer the same English translation accuracy as paid apps.
Nepali Dictionary
The Nepali dictionary contains more than 150,000 words. The letters are written in Devanagari script, derived from Brahmi script, and based on Sanskrit. Native English readers will be happy to learn that Nepali is read from left to right (like English). Capital letters are written the same as lower-case letters.
Nepali Translators
English Nepali translators and translation services often charge nearly $50 an hour. If you’re trying to translate simple texts, we recommend inputting the text into a language translation software program or app.
Check out our online translation tool that can help you learn basic words and phrases, such as hello in other languages.
More Online Translation
We offer more online translation in the following languages:
- Albanian
- Android
- Arabic
- Bengali
- Burmese
- Czech
- Danish
- Dutch
- Gujarati
- Hindi
- Korean
- Malayalam
- Marathi
- Polish
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- Tamil
- Telugu
- Punjabi
- Urdu
