There are 7,151 living languages spoken in the world today. In the English language, alone, there are 171,476 words in current use, and close to a million words in total. Most English speakers will use between 20,000 and 30,000 regularly. You would think that with that many, we would have a word for everything. But that’s not true. In our last blog, we discussed words and phrases that have no direct translation into English. (There are quite a number!) In this article, we’ll follow up with more about those words, and touch some more on loan words.

f you’ve learned a foreign language (or several), or just taken high school Spanish, French or German, you’ve come across words that just don’t have an exact translation.

Professionals like those at TrueLanguage are adept at creating precise translations for legal documents, e-learning materials, business documentation, or websites. They know that there are words and phrases for which no exact translation exists, and their job is to know the appropriate words or phrases that can convey the original intent. That skill takes deep knowledge and experience.