英汉两种语言由于表达方式不尽相同，翻译时常常有必要在译文的词量上作适当的增加，使译文既能忠实地传达原文的内容和风格，又能符合译入语的表达习惯。但是增词必须是根据具体情况增加非增加不可的词语。增词一般用于以下三种情况：一是为了语法上的需要；二是为了意义上的需要；三是为了修辞上的需要。
        一、为了语法上的需要
英语中没有量词，汉译时就得根据汉语的表达习惯增加合适的量词。例如：
(1) To the east and the south a faint pink is spreading.
东南方呈现一抹浅红，正在向远处扩展。
(2) The sun rose thinly from the sea.
一轮红日从海边淡淡升起。
(3) A stream was winding its ways through the valley into the river.
一弯溪水蜿蜒流过山谷，汇到江里去了。
(4) I was extremely worried about her, but this was neither the place nor the time for a lecture or an argument.
我真替他万分担忧，但此时此地既不宜教训她一番，也不宜与她争论一通。
(5) It was a nova!
这是一颗新星！
英语动词有时、体的变化、有语气，而汉语动词却没有对等的表现形式，翻译时常常须增加一些表示时体和语气的词才行。例如：
(1) I had imagined it to be merely a gesture of affection, but it seems it is to smell the lamb and make sure that it is her own. 原来我以为这不过是一种亲热的表示，但是现在看来，这是为了闻一闻羊羔的味道，来断定是不是自己生的。
(2) I was, and remain, grateful for the part he played in my release. 我的获释是他成全的，对此我过去很感激，现在仍然很感激。
(3) The old man said, " They say his father was a fisherman. Maybe he was as poor as we are."
老人说："听人说，从前他父亲是个打鱼的。他过去也许跟我们现在一样穷。"
(4) The old man had taught the boy to fish and the boy loved him.
原来老头儿已教会了孩子捕鱼，所以孩子很爱他。
(5) English prose is elaborate rather than simple. It was not always so.
现今英国散文华巧而欠简朴，过去却并非总是如此。
英语的可数名词有单复数之别，汉语则没有。翻译时常常有必要增词以便传达这一含义。例如：
(1) The lion is the king of animals.狮子是百兽之王。
(2) I saw bubbles rising from under the water.我看见一个个水泡从水下升起。
(3) The very earth trembled as with the tramps of horses and murmur of angry men.
连大地都震动了，仿佛万马奔腾，千夫怒吼。
(4) The mountains began to throw their long blue shadows over the valley.
群山已在山谷里开始投下蔚蓝色的长影。
(5) An individual human existence should be like a river-small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past boulders and over waterfalls.
一个人的一生可以比作一条河流：开始身躯很小，两岸之间非常狭窄，水流湍急，冲过砾石，飞下悬瀑。
英语中常用省略句，翻译时要根据汉语的表达习惯，作些适当的增补。例如：
(1) I judge I would saw out and leave that night if pap got drunk enough, and I reckoned he would.
我猜那天晚上爸要是醉得够厉害的，我就可以锯完那个洞钻出去，我算计着他是会醉得够呛的。（增补he would后省略的成分）
(2) She ate little. Food sickened her, and I think much of life too.
她吃得很少；她厌恶食物，我觉得她也厌恶生活。
(3) When I turned around, John was grinning, expectant, studying my face intently to see if he had pleased me. He had.
我转过身，只见约翰正咧着嘴笑，满脸期待的神情；他热切的目光想从我的脸上探明他是否博得了我的欢心。他确实博得了我的欢心。（增补he had后被省略的部分）
(4) Courage in excess becomes foolhardiness, affection weakness, thrift avarice.
勇敢过度，即成蛮勇；疼爱过度，即成溺爱；俭约过度，即成贪婪。（增补被省掉的in excess becomes） 
        二、为了意义上的需要
英译汉有时有必要增加合适的动词、形容词或副词，使译文意思明确，例如：
(1) When I came to I was in the water, swimming automatically, though I was about two thirds drowned.
当我清醒过来时，发觉自己在水里，虽然浸得半死，却本能地浮着。（增补动词）(原文虽然没有"发觉"，但译者根据上下文增补了它，使译文意思更加明确、表达通顺。)
(2) He doubtlessly expected hugs, tablefuls of food, tears, laughter, and conversation followed by more conversation, then hugs and more hugs all over again, without end.
毫无疑问，他以为会有热烈的拥抱，满桌的食物，激动的泪水，欢乐的笑声，一段接一段的谈话，一次又一次的拥抱，没完没了。（译文中增加了三个相应的形容词，形象地描绘出他想象中的欢乐场景，使意思更加明确，表达更加生动。）
(3) In the evening, after the banquets, the concerts and the table tennis exhibitions, he would work on the drafting of the final communique.
晚上在参加宴会、出席音乐会、观看乒乓球表演之后，他还得起草最后公报。
(4) These soon told her,… how easy it was and how little it interfered with life's affairs to go and see one's grave.
这些人不久便告诉她…去看自己亲人的坟墓是多么容易，几乎一点儿也不妨碍日常生活。
(5) The sky is clear blue now the sun has flung diamonds down on meadow and bank and wood.
此时已是万里蓝天，太阳把颗颗光彩夺目的钻石洒向草原，洒向河岸，洒向树林。
有时为了意思明确还必须增加合适的名词或是重复同一名词，例如：
(1) These early cars were slow, clumsy, and inefficient.
这些早期的汽车速度缓慢，行动笨拙，效率不高。（译文中在形容词前分别加上了三个名词，既使译文意思明确，又使它形成四字词组，匀称整齐。）
英语中有一些由动词或形容词派生来的抽象名词，翻译时也可根据上下文在其后增加适当的名词，使译文意思明确、符合汉语的表达习惯。例如：
darkness 漆黑一团
madness 疯狂行为
complacency 自满情绪
backwardness 落后状态
(1) After all preparations were made, the planes were flown across the U.S. to San Francisco.
一切准备工作就绪以后，飞机就飞越美国去旧金山。
(2) Recourse to arms is not the best solution to a quarrel between countries.
国与国之间的争端诉诸武力，并不是最好的解决方法。
有时也有必要增加适当的连词，例如：
(3)Without a sense of your fault, how can repentance and amendment be expected？如果对自己的错误都不认识，怎么能悔恨和改正呢？（增补"如果"使得原含蓄条件句中的隐性含义明白无误。） 
        三、为了修辞上的需要
为了使译文优美自如、活泼生动或是得到强调，有时有必要重复某些词语或是增加适当的描述词、语气助词、重叠词、承上启下的词、概括词。例如：
(1) Poor little tender heart! And so it goes on hoping and beating, and longing and trusting.
可怜这温柔的小姑娘，一颗心抖簌簌的跳个不停，她左盼右盼，一直想念情人，对他深信不疑。（译文并没有将"hoping and beating"简单地译为"盼望着、跳动着"，而是增加了一些描述性的词语来描写少女思念情人的心情，使人如见其人、如听其声，产生了一种可触可摸的立体感觉。）
(2) Their host carved, poured, served, cut bread, talked, laughed, proposed healths.
他们的主人,（又是）割啊，（又是）倒啊，（又是）上菜啊，（又是）切面包啊，（又是）说啊，（又是）笑啊，（又是）敬酒啊，忙个不停。（增加语气助词和概括词语）
(3) Only very slight and very scattering ripples of half-hearted hand-clapping greeted him.
欢迎他的只有几下轻轻地、零零落落、冷冷淡淡的掌声。（叠词）
(4) And her thoughtfulness! If the night was anyway cold or wet or windy there was sure to be a little tumbler of punch ready for him.
她多体贴啊！要是哪天夜里较阴冷、潮湿、或是刮风，她必定要斟好一杯混合甜饮料，等着他来畅饮。(原文And her thoughtfulness!是个感叹句，翻译时增加了副词"多"、语气助词"啊"，准确地传达了原文的句式和语气。) 

        翻译技巧--减词
减词是指将原文中需要、而译文中又不需要的词语省去。减省的词语应是那些在译文中保留下来反而使行文累赘噜嗦、且不合汉语语言表达习惯的词语。减词一般用于以下两种情况：一是从语法角度进行减省；二是从修饰角度进行减省。
一、 从语法角度进行减省
英汉两种语言在语法上差异较大，例如：英语有冠词，而汉语却没有；英语重形合、连接词较多，汉语重意合、连接词较少；英语中介词丰富，多达280多个，汉语中介词则较少，只有30来个；英语中经常使用代词，尤其是经常使用人称代词、关系代词等，而汉语中代词则用得较少；因此，英译汉时可根据具体情况将冠词、连接词、介词、代词略去，使译文练达晓畅。例如：
(1) I know my friends from the feel of their faces.
我靠触摸脸庞来辨认朋友。
(2) Ice is a solid. If we heat it, it melts and becomes water.
冰是固体，如果加热，就融化成水。
(3) John got up very early in the morning. He put on his jacket, sat down at his desk and began to do his homework.
约翰早晨起床很早，他穿上夹克，就坐在桌旁开始做家庭作业。
(4) But at the present moment the whole road looked rather pretty, for the sun had just set in splendor, and the equalities of rent were drowned in a saffron afterglow.
但此时整条路看起来都挺美，金灿灿的太阳刚落下山，橙红色的余辉掩盖了房屋的种种差异。
(5) He had a shelf there, where he kept his Bohemian papers and his pipes and tobacco, and his shears and needles and thread and tailor's thimble.
他放在那儿有一个架子，摆着他的波希米亚报纸、烟斗、烟叶，还有大剪刀、针、线，以及裁缝用的顶针。
(6) Most of the people who appear most often and most gloriously in the history books are great conquerors and generals and soldiers…
史书上最经常出现、最为显赫的人物，大多是些伟大的征服者、将军和军事家。
(7) The city has a dense manufacturing population.这个城市有稠密的工业人口。
(8)The products should be sampled to check their quality before they leave the factory.
产品出厂前应该进行抽样检查。
(9) The mother and the eldest daughter weeded the ridges, passing before the others…A younger son, of twelve years, brought sea sand in a donkey's creels from a far corner of the field. They mixed the sand with the black clay. The fourth child, still almost an infant, staggered about near his mother, plucking weeds slowly and offering them to his mother as gifts.
母亲和大女儿在除垄上的草，把旁人甩在后面……二儿子十二岁，从老远的地头把海滩上的沙子装进鱼篮，赶着毛驴驮了回来。他们把黑土掺上了沙子。老四还是个小不点儿，在母亲身边遥遥晃晃转悠着，慢吞吞地拔起杂草，当礼物送给母亲。
(10) Come if you like.高兴来就来。
(11) As it is late, let us go to bed.不早啦，睡吧！
(12) I framed the words in my mind: "Pardon me, but have I done something to offend you?"
我心里在嘀咕："对不起，我有什么举止行为冒犯你了吗？"
(13). You hear it from the trackers, a more breathless chant, as they pull desperately against the current, half a dozen of them perhaps if they are, taking up a wupan, a couple of hundred if they are hauling a splendid junk, its square sail set, over a rapid.
纤夫拼命拉纤逆流而上时，你就会听见他们唱着较急促的号子。拉五板木船时，或许五六人就行，但当拉着鼓着横帆的大船过急滩时，那就得要二三百人。
(14). If you are a twinkler, you have the ability to walk into a room and bring the sunshine with you, making everyone else want to bask in it.
满怀喜悦的人能把阳光带进他所走进的房间，使别人愿意沐浴在这阳光中.
二、从修饰角度进行减省
有些词语在英语里是必不可少的，但在汉语中却并非如此，如直译成汉语则往往显得累赘噜嗦。为了使译文简洁晓畅、"文约而意丰"，这样的词语必须省去或是精简。例如：
(1) I felt a trifle shy at the thought of presenting myself to a total stranger with the announcement that I was going to sleep under his roof, eat his food and drink his whisky, till another boat came in to take me to the port for which I was bound.
我要去见一个素不相识的陌生人，向他宣布我得住在他家、吃他的、喝他的，一直等到下一班船到来，把我带到我要去的港口为止──想到这儿，我真有点不好意思了。(这里，如把 "sleep under his roof, eat his food and drink his whisky"直译为"睡在他的屋顶下、吃他的食物、喝他的威士忌"，会使语言极为繁冗，不够精练。译文采用减省译法处理原文，既准确地传达了原意，又使行文简洁，气韵十足，一气呵成。)
(2) Her dark eyes made little reflected stars. She was looking at him as she was always looking at him when he awakened.
她那双乌黑的眼睛就像亮晶晶的星星在闪烁，他平素醒来的时候，她也是这样望着他。(此句中有两个 "she was looking at him"，如不作省略而译为"她像平常那样望着她一样望着他"，汉语就显得噜嗦繁复，诘屈聱牙。)
(3) University applicants who had worked at a job would receive preference over those who had not.
报考大学的人，有工作经验的优先录取。
(4)There was no snow, the leaves were gone from the trees, the grass was dead.
天未下雪，但叶落草枯。
(5) There was not a sound in her---and around us nothing moved, nothing lived, not a canoe on the water, not a bird in the air, not a cloud in the sky.
船上悄然无声，四周一片静谧，死一般沉寂，水面不见轻舟飘动，天空不见小鸟浮云。
(6) The problem of alternative fuels of vehicle is one problem we shall approach.
车辆的代用燃料是我们将要研究的一个问题。
(7) There are some things that I have happily seen of the wondrous way of the spider.
蜘蛛的奇异动态，我曾有幸目睹。
(译文省去 "there are some things that"后，文字简约，表达生动，意思明确。)
(8) In actual fact, the United States is pursuing a policy of encouraging the aggressor…
实际上，美国在推行一种鼓励侵略者的政策……
(9) He was smooth and agreeable.
他待人处事，八面玲珑。
(10) Standing as it does on a high hill, the church commands a new view.
教堂建在高山上，向下眺望，风景优美。
(11) To learn is not an easy matter and to apply what one has learned is even harder.
学习不容易，使用更加不容易。