translators convert written or spoken words from one language into another allowing people speak different languages to communicate. a society expresses its culture in its language. this means that even if two societies use the sane language they do not necessarily define all words the same.a good example is the difference between american and british english. the word differences can cause some confusion in communication eve though both societies use english. translation between two completely different languages compounds the difficulty of understanding the meaning. languages reflect cultural differences so people develop different vocabularies to suit their unique identities. herein lies the first problem of translation:it is often difficult to directly translate a word from one language into another language. there is a lack of vocabulary equivalence making a literal or word-by-word translation impossible. if a language has only a general word for purple how could the shades of purple such as maroon lavender lilac burgundy mauve violet and plum be translated? words acquire overtones and nuances in one language which are not associated with the closest corresponding word in another in one language. the translation therefore can suffer form a lack of subtlety or precision. sometimes words are difficult to translate because they refer to objects or experiences that are not common to both cultures. therefore the other language would not have a corresponding word or phrase since a particular culture has no experience with that object. closely related to this is a lack of conceptual equivalence in that abstract ideas do not necessarily have universal meanings. different cultures have disparate meanings for concepts such as human rights freedom and democracy.for instance in the united states human rights are seen as political rights such as the right to a fair trial and the and the right to speak freely however in some countries human rights are considered social rights such as the right to have decent housing or universal health care. the translation of idioms presents another difficulty. an idiom is a phrase that forms a unit whose meaning is different from the literal meaning becomes lost. english uses many idioms such as kick the bucket which means to die. a person who simply kicked a bucket would not end up dead so if each word is literally translated a reader of the translated version unfamiliar with the idiom would lose the meaning. another problem in translation arises from the different grammars and sentence of the two languages involved. in some