In an age when English is a lingua franca, intercultural communication seems to be considerably eased, since more and more people can speak this language and use it in verbal interaction and negotiation. Things are not always so easy, because the use of a common language does not automatically ensure viable communication. Whether we consider it a positive or a negative thing, globalisation is still far from being a fact, and cultural identity still makes its presence felt; different identities mean different backgrounds, expectations, different ways of picturing reality and the world, and of framing this reality, specific to the language we are born in. When cross-cultural communication by means of translation is concerned, things are even more complicated. The mediation which implies transfer of content from one language into another is not so straightforward, since the ways each language organises meaning in discourse differ, especially if we conceive meaning beyond the mere sum of word denotations. Each language has specific ways of discourse organisation, by which more subtle things such as attitudes, role relationships, status, and the social situation requiring its production are implied. My paper will focus on the way cultural differences are reflected, when registers are concerned, since register is the one that accounts for the (in)appropriacy of language in a situation. Good translations imply, beyond transfer of linguistic meaning, also rendering the same communicative force and achieving a TT that should ‘sound right’ (i.e. that should be appropriate in the TC situation). The three dimensions of register, which are interdependent (a given level of formality – tenor – influences and is influenced by a particular level of technicality – field – in an appropriate channel of communication – mode) need a careful analysis in view of translation. This is because the text generating activity, the relationship between the participants and the medium of language activity are conventionally expressed in manners which usually differ from one culture to another and cannot just be transferred. Lack of correspondence between two languages and cultures on one or all of the three levels raises translation difficulties and the need for strategies of compensation. My paper will analyse possible problems raised by register variables, when translating from English into Romanian, and will concentrate on possible translation techniques to deal with such problems.