General points about translation

You can write entire books about translation. But I'll try and be more concise than that.

The ultimate purpose

This is really where translation can go wrong badly. Always bear in mind that you are not just replacing English words with words in your languages. You're trying to communicate a message in a way that other people can understand. Of course there are only so many ways one can say Close or Edit but when the strings (=sentences and phrases) are longer, there are more questions about how to translate. I will give you just two examples from my own language.

Please close this window

Perfectly ok English phrase. But before you start typing, just consider this - does your language use please naturally? Because Gaelic doesn't. Yes, there is a phrase for please (mas e do thoil e - if it is your pleasure) but that's a horrible phrase based on English usage which nobody really says unless they're trying to be funny.

Instead, to be polite, we use other ways of showing that. So a good translation here would be

Nach dùin thu an uinneag (Won't you close the window?)

because in Gaelic to be polite, you don't just blurt our 'do this' and then add please - you use an indirect question.

Second example:

This file has been corrupted

Again, it's a perfectly good English phrase. Now your language may or may not have a passive but the general principle applies. In Gaelic, there IS a passive but we use it less than English does. So the normal way we would say this would be

Tha am faidhle seo coirbte (This file is corrupt)

So the message here is, when you're translating, don't start inventing a translation but at the same time, try and translate in a way that works well in your language. There is no need to stick to English idiom like mud to a blanket.