減詞是指將原文中需要、而譯文中又不需要的詞語省去。減省的詞語應是那些在譯文中保留下來反而使行文累贅嚕嗦、且不合漢語語言表達習慣的詞語。減詞一般用于以下兩種情況：一是從語法角度進行減省；二是從修飾角度進行減省。

　　一、 從語法角度進行減省

　　英漢兩種語言在語法上差異較大，例如：英語有冠詞，而漢語卻沒有；英語重形合、連接詞較多，漢語重意合、連接詞較少；英語中介詞豐富，多達280多個，漢語中介詞則較少，只有30來個；英語中經常使用代詞，尤其是經常使用人稱代詞、關系代詞等，而漢語中代詞則用得較少；因此，英譯漢時可根據具體情況將冠詞、連接詞、介詞、代詞略去，使譯文練達曉暢。例如：

　　（1） I know my friends from the feel of their faces.
　　我靠觸摸臉龐來辨認朋友。

　　（2） Ice is a solid. If we heat it, it melts and becomes water.
　　冰是固體，如果加熱，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.
　　約翰早晨起床很早，他穿上夾克，就坐在桌旁開始做家庭作業。

　　（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.
　　但此時整條路看起來都挺美，金燦燦的太陽剛落下山，橙紅色的余輝掩蓋了房屋的種種差異。

　　（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.
　　他放在那兒有一個架子，擺著他的波希米亞報紙、煙斗、煙葉，還有大剪刀、針、線，以及裁縫用的頂針。

　　（6） Most of the people who appear most often and most gloriously in the history books are great conquerors and generals and soldiers…
　　史書上最經常出現、最為顯赫的人物，大多是些偉大的征服者、將軍和軍事家。

　　（7） The city has a dense manufacturing population.
　　這個城市有稠密的工業人口。

　　（8）The products should be sampled to check their quality before they leave the factory.
　　產品出廠前應該進行抽樣檢查。

　　（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.
　　母親和大女兒在除壟上的草，把旁人甩在后面……二兒子十二歲，從老遠的地頭把海灘上的沙子裝進魚籃，趕著毛驢馱了回來。他們把黑土摻上了沙子。老四還是個小不點兒，在母親身邊遙遙晃晃轉悠著，慢吞吞地拔起雜草，當禮物送給母親。

　　（10） Come if you like.高興來就來。

　　（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："對不起，我有什么舉止行為冒犯你了嗎？"

　　（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.
　　纖夫拼命拉纖逆流而上時，你就會聽見他們唱著較急促的號子。拉五板木船時，或許五六人就行，但當拉著鼓著橫帆的大船過急灘時，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.
　　滿懷喜悅的人能把陽光帶進他所走進的房間，使別人愿意沐浴在這陽光中.

　　二、從修飾角度進行減省

　　有些詞語在英語里是必不可少的，但在漢語中卻并非如此，如直譯成漢語則往往顯得累贅嚕嗦。為了使譯文簡潔曉暢、"文約而意豐"，這樣的詞語必須省去或是精簡。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.
　　我要去見一個素不相識的陌生人，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來，把我帶到我要去的港口為止──想到這兒，我真有點不好意思了。（這里，如把 "sleep under his roof, eat his food and drink his whisky"直譯為"睡在他的屋頂下、吃他的食物、喝他的威士忌"，會使語言極為繁冗，不夠精練。譯文采用減省譯法處理原文，既準確地傳達了原意，又使行文簡潔，氣韻十足，一氣呵成。）

　　（2） Her dark eyes made little reflected stars. She was looking at him as she was always looking at him when he awakened.
　　她那雙烏黑的眼睛就像亮晶晶的星星在閃爍，他平素醒來的時候，她也是這樣望著他。（此句中有兩個 "she was looking at him"，如不作省略而譯為"她像平常那樣望著她一樣望著他"，漢語就顯得嚕嗦繁復，詰屈聱牙。）

　　（3） University applicants who had worked at a job would receive preference over those who had not.
　　報考大學的人，有工作經驗的優先錄取。

　　（4）There was no snow, the leaves were gone from the trees, the grass was dead.
　　天未下雪，但葉落草枯。

　　（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.
　　船上悄然無聲，四周一片靜謐，死一般沉寂，水面不見輕舟飄動，天空不見小鳥浮云。

　　（6） The problem of alternative fuels of vehicle is one problem we shall approach.
　　車輛的代用燃料是我們將要研究的一個問題。

　　（7） There are some things that I have happily seen of the wondrous way of the spider.
　　蜘蛛的奇異動態，我曾有幸目睹。
　　（譯文省去 "there are some things that"后，文字簡約，表達生動，意思明確。）

　　（8） In actual fact, the United States is pursuing a policy of encouraging the aggressor…
　　實際上，美國在推行一種鼓勵侵略者的政策……

　　（9） He was smooth and agreeable.
　　他待人處事，八面玲瓏。

　　（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，風景優美。

　　（11） To learn is not an easy matter and to apply what one has learned is even harder.
　　學習不容易，使用更加不容易。