translate
v.v. to change words from one language into another so people can understand them. You can also use it when one thing results in or leads to another.
v. to express the sense of words or text in another language; to convert from one form or medium into another. Transitive in most senses, though it can function intransitively when describing the quality of a text's conversion.
She needs to translate this document into Spanish by tomorrow.
The software can translate spoken phrases in real time, allowing travelers to communicate more easily in foreign countries.
While the poet's imagery is vivid in the original Italian, critics argue that the subtle emotional nuances do not always translate effectively into English prose.
From Middle English translaten (“to transport, translate, transform”), from Anglo-Norman translater, from Latin trānslātus, perfect passive participle of trānsferō (“to transport, carry across, translate”). See also -ate (verb-forming suffix). Distant doublet of transfer, see collate and confer, delate and defer, as well as prelate and prefer among others. In this sense, displaced Old English wendan (“to translate,” also the word for “to turn” and “to change”).
The verb is transitive and typically takes the preposition 'into' for the target language.
translate to Englishtranslate into EnglishWhile 'to' is increasingly common in casual speech, 'into' is the standard preposition for the target language in formal and academic writing.