“Translation” simply means identifying the corresponding word(s) in one language to their meaningful equivalent in another language (as you will find is the case with most of the posts on this site).

“Transliteration,” on the other hand, essentially means converting word(s) in one language to word(s) in another language by means of their close approximation in sound.  This is usually done because:

1. it’s more intuitive or easier
2. meaningful corresponding word(s) simply do not exist in the target language (as is oftentimes the case with names and places)

A well-known example of transliteration from Chinese to English is the following.

…  which, when transliterated is (bei3) (jing1) or “Beijing” (using Hanyu Pinyin).

Going the other direction, when converting from English to Chinese, you will find words in English that simply don’t exist in meaning in Chinese.

Prime examples are names such as “Steve” or “Dana”…  where oftentimes those names are simply transliterated by selecting Chinese characters that match, as closely as possible, the sounds of each English syllable.

Make sense?…  dynoMIIITE, jive turkey, right on-right on-right on (sorry, felt the urge to go into 70’s lingo…  did I just date myself?  Yipes!).

Want to see these characters embroidered on a women’s or unisex t-shirt?  Or on a women’s or unisex tank top?  Click the appropriate preceding link.  Got a translation request of your own?  Contact me!