For example, if someone asked me to do the fizzbuzz test (http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000781.html), I might think to myself in pseudocode:
Loop from 1-100:
if the current number is a multiple of 3, print "fizz"
if the current number is a multiple of 5, print "buzz"
otherwise, print the number
print newline
Then I might turn that into PHP: <?php
for($i=1;$i<=100;$i++) {
if($i % 3 == 0) {echo("Fizz");}
if($i % 5 == 0) {echo("Buzz");}
if($i % 3 != 0 && $i % 5 != 0) {echo($i);}
echo("<br />");
}
?>