you can translate sentences well by not translating word for word and by not using 'chinglish' (although i find it hilarious). other things you can do is play with sentence variation. the thing with english is that there are MANY ways to say the same thing. going back to favorite colors, here's an example. my favorite color is green. i am fond of green. green is my favorite color. green is a color i like. i like green. green is a color that pleases me. green is pleasing to me. get the drift? you can do that with a lot of sentences.