When AI translation sounds translated, the problem is rarely wrong word choices. The text follows the source language's word order and pairing habits too literally, and awkward target sentences usually come from three places: copied word order, stiff collocations and sentences that were never split. When you ask for a fix, do not ask for synonym swaps; ask it to split sentences first, rebuild them in the target language's habits, then smooth the collocations. That is how output starts reading like a person wrote it.
Where the translated flavor comes from
First, copied word order. English happily stacks conditions, times and manners at the end and piles modifiers in front, while many languages prefer background first and the main clause early, with long modifiers broken up and moved. A long source sentence carried over as-is forces the reader to parse it twice, and that effort is the main source of the translated feeling.
Second, stiff collocations. Every word is recognizable, but the combinations are off. Fixed source phrases get transplanted word by word, or verb and object pairings that native speakers simply do not use. Machine translation is already accurate at the single-word level; what fails is the idiom of whole phrases and sentences, which is why a word-by-word check finds no errors while a full read feels wrong everywhere.
Third, sentences that are never split. English long sentences chain clauses with connectors and subordination, while languages like Chinese favor flowing short clauses. To stay faithful, AI often preserves the original sentence boundaries, cramming three layers of meaning into one sentence; nothing is lost, but the rhythm collapses. Add literally carried passive voice and pronouns that should have been dropped, and the whole piece floats in translationese.
A three-step fix, tested on the spot
Step one: split. Cut long source sentences into short meaning blocks, one action or one judgment per block. Step two: rebuild. Reorder each block the target way: time and place first, main action next, explanations moved later or given their own sentence. Step three: smooth collocations. Read each verb phrase aloud and ask whether natives actually say it that way; if not, replace it with the idiomatic pairing, even if it sits further from the literal source.
Take a common business line: we will submit a revised proposal next week after all details are confirmed. A stiff carry-over stacks modifiers into one long chain; the repaired version in Chinese reads, in effect: next week we submit the revised proposal, provided all details are confirmed first. Not one fact is lost, and the reading experience is completely different.
How to write the revision instruction
Do not just say make it sound natural; that is too vague to execute. Write requirements as actions: first, do not map sentence by sentence, understand the whole passage and reorganize it; second, long sentences must be split, one sentence one point; third, avoid passive constructions and stiff calqued structures; fourth, keep terminology consistent but let everyday collocations follow target-language habits; fifth, after revising, read it through and fix anything a native would not write. Add who the reader is, a formal document or daily communication, and the tone has an anchor. Where it still will not budge, the source itself is usually tangled; clarify the original meaning first, then worry about how native the target sounds.
