Pop quiz:
Can you understand the sentence below without translating it in your head?
Esta casa es verde y la otra es blanca.
If yes, consider this: on day one of learning Spanish, that is not something you could have done.
You would have needed to translate it word-for-word.
But now, the meaning was clear right away. No mental translation needed.
How did that happen, and how can you make it happen in the rest of your Spanish?
That’s what we’ll look at today.
So if you…
- Often feel the need to “confirm” your understanding with a translator tool
- Struggle to put together sentences without mentally rehearsing in English first
Then this email is for you.
We’re going to look at:
- Why you might be stuck translating in your head
- What you can do about it
¡Empecemos!
Why you translate in your head
At the start, this is normal and mostly unavoidable.
It’s like how new guitar players have to consciously contort their hands into the proper chord positions before carefully placing them on the strings.
But you might find yourself still relying on translation…even as you progress well beyond those early days.
It’s a common challenge because as sentences get more complex, other issues crop up:
- Speaking requires significant mental effort, and translation can feel like a shortcut
- Fear of making mistakes or misunderstanding can make translation feel safer
- Overemphasis on grammatical rules can lead to consciously constructing sentences like a math problem
- Not getting enough exposure to authentic Spanish near your level makes it hard to develop an intuition for the language (which is ultimately what you need)
To some degree, there will always be moments when you translate something in your head. But those moments become rarer and rarer as you improve.
So what can you do proactively to rely less on mental translation when speaking and listening?
How to stop translating in your head
Let’s look back at the sentence from the start:
Esta casa es verde y la otra es blanca.
How many times do you think you’ve seen each of those words?
In the case of Esta, es, la, and y, the count is probably in the hundreds or thousands.
The others (casa, verde, blanca) have probably appeared at least a couple dozen times.
And how about the grammar of the sentence itself? Similar to English, and not too complex.
So here’s why you’re more likely to understand it without translation:
Frequency. You’ve been exposed to those words enough that they have meaning on their own — they don’t need to go through an English filter.
Familiarity. The sentence is structured just like English:
Esta casa es verde y la otra es blanca
This house is green and the other is white.
As your Spanish improves, more and more sentences will feel familiar to you, like this sentence might.
Here’s how to get there:
Call the IRS
Here are three principles (“IRS”) to bear in mind.
They’ll help you build your intuition, and by doing so, your ability to speak and understand without translating:
Immerse: Above all, focus on flooding your brain with Spanish (ideally, things you enjoy). New words and grammar make more sense once you have seen them in context (many times).
Repeat: Our brains need repetition to remember and understand things. Whatever you’re listening to or reading, consume it more than once.
The first time, you might have to translate it. But the second or third time through a text or audio, you’ll be understanding without translating.
Simplify: The two principles above will be quietly building the Spanish infrastructure in your brain. Knowledge is seeping in without you forcing it.
Your job when speaking is to avoid the urge to concoct and translate fancy English sentences. To do this, focus on speaking simply, with short sentences. Explain your way around unknown words. You’ll be able to express more nuance eventually, but it takes time.
Is translation really bad?
Nope! It can be really useful as a learning tool.
It helps especially when trying to understand conceptual differences (think: “me gusta el pan” vs. “I like bread”).
But when practicing, don’t let translation be the last thing you do. It helps to revisit the text or audio without any dictionary aids and let the Spanish come to you.
When you prioritize exposing yourself to lots of Spanish (and focusing less on the rules), a lot of the “mental translation” challenges take care of themselves in time.
If you’re looking for some good immersion material this weekend, check out Saturday Spanish #95.
That’s all for now. Gracias por leer.
Connor
P.S. I am planning to make a video in Spanish on this same topic. After reading this, do you have other questions about this topic? Anything I can clarify? Let me know and I’ll do my best to include it in the upcoming video.
P.P.S. We’re almost at 200 students inside the Confident Spanish Pronunciation course! It’s been really fun to work with so many of you on improving your pronunciation. Since CSP opened, I’ve added about 10 new video lessons (most recently on the regional “aspirated S”), released a shiny new practice hub with tons of exercises, and will continue to make updates based on student feedback.
With all that said, the price will be increasing soon, so if you’ve been considering joining, now’s a good time 🙂
