Which one sounds more natural? About placement of adv.

[oldman2]

We directly translate Chinese to English.
We translate Chinese to English directly.

I'd go for the second one, if any native out there agrees, can you tell me why? Like I wonder sometimes about where to put "only" in sentences like:

He can only play the piano.
He can play the piano only.

If there's a difference, it must be a subtle one, isn't it?

[Evaney]

I think that the first one for "We directly translate Chinese to English." sounds better. I think it may be because we native speakers often don't entirely pay attention to adjectives. So, putting it before the noun makes us pay more attention to it. :)

And for the last example I'd go for "He can only play the piano." for the same reason. It just makes me pay more attention to that one little detail more. But, since that detail is important and not having it there changes the sentence completely, its better that I actually pay more attention to its meaning.

[Casiopea]

We directly translate Chinese to English.
We translate Chinese to English directly.

The adverb modifies the word it's closest to, so with the first example "directly" modifies the verb "translate", and with the second example it modifies the entire verb phrase "translate Chinese to English". Why not try?

We translate Chinese directly into English.

[oldman2]

Thanks a lot for both of you. Very interesting (and informative) when I consider this grammar again in light of both of your views.