In daily life, language has an important role in making the communication runs smoothly. Without
language, communication among the people in the society will not run well because the ideas of someone cannot
be transferred to another well. So it can be said that the main function of language is to make the communication
becomes smooth. Another function of language is to develop science and technology. The fact shows that the
books are mostly written in English. To overcome the problem, translation activities are badly needed. The
translators will try to translate well and their translation will be understandable for the readers. This research was
done to know (1) the grammatical problems faced by students in translating English into Indonesian and
Indonesian into English, (2) the solution taken by the students in translating.This research was descriptive
research. The data sources of this research are:1) Documents. The documents in this research is the translated
text by the students of English Department who takes translation class an optional subject. The source text is
determined by the researcher to get the similar text especially in the level of difficulties. The text is taken from
the standardized text. (2) Informants. The informants of this research are 30 students. The result of the research
shows that the students have difficulty, hence the problem, in lexis. The students had a little number of exposure
to culturally-bound word to express specific expressions. Concerning the strategies, the students made use of
various strategies (translation by omission, Translation using a loan word or borrowing, and translating using a
more general word) in solving the translations of the words they are not familiar with. The strategies, however,
do not always match with the context of the sentence. Based on data analysis, in translating English into
Indonesia, the words that became the students’ problems are basically the words that are infrequently used in
English. The students, who represented the high-ability students, also had problems in translating the words they
are not familiar with, including language- and culture-specific items. Based on the findings, it can be inferred
that the students still have difficulty, hence problems, in lexis (Nouns, Verbs, and Adverbs). Their problems
showed that they had a little number of vocabularyy in English. In translating Indonesia into English, the data
revealed two main areas of problems, namely morphology and syntax. In morphology, the students have
difficulty in declination. While in syntax, the problems exist in modification and predication. In modification, the
problem exists in noun phrases, while in predication, the problems occur in tense, aspect, voice and status. From
the students’ translation, it can be inferred that the translation strategies they used are omission, borrowing or
loan word and superordinate.
Keywords: Translation, grammar, synta
