Continued from: My glossary of translation terms for clients
MTPE: Machine translation post-editing. This is when a machine translation engine (like DeepL, ModernMT or Google Translate) is used to automatically translate a text and the output is edited by a professional translator. Post-editing (for short) can be “light” with minimal changes or “full” to achieve the quality of professional human translation.
Native language/mother tongue/first language: This is generally the first language a person learned in childhood. It might not, however, be their strongest language if they only use it at home or if they haven’t used it regularly for many years.
OCR: Optical character recognition. When software is used to automatically convert text in a non-editable format to an editable format by recognizing the letters. The clearer the document and the more sophisticated the software used, the higher the quality of the OCR output.
PEMT: Post-editing machine translation. See MTPE. It’s the same thing…
Plain English: Writing clearly using shorter sentences, less jargon and more active verbs. Writing in plain English doesn’t mean dumbing down a text. It means writing so your target audience can take on and understand your message quickly and easily.
Proofreading: Checking a final text for minor errors like typos, extra or missing spaces and incorrect numbering. Each editor or translator will define proofreading differently, so check with them what they mean when they use it.
Revision: Checking the translation against the source text for accuracy. Revision can include improving the translation to make it more appropriate to the target audience, to make it sound more natural or to improve the style. Like proofreading, what’s included in revision varies by translator, so confirm what they will actually check when revising.
Source language: The original language of the text that will be translated.
Source text: The text that will be translated.
Sworn translator: In some jurisdictions, translators must be approved by the courts to carry out official translations. They are then called sworn translators. You can usually find a list of sworn translators by contacting your local court, consulate or embassy.
Target audience: The people who will read a document (or at least the people who the writer wants to read it).
Target language: The language into which the document will be translated. The language of the translation.
Target text: The translation. The document in the target language. The result of the translation process.
Source text in the source language >> TRANSLATION >> Target text in the target language (aka translation)
Term base: Similar to a glossary, a term base is a list of words commonly used in a field plus their translations. It is different from a glossary because it is bilingual and doesn’t always include definitions. It is different from a dictionary because it only includes key words and phrases. A term base could be recorded in a simple spreadsheet or using more sophisticated software.
Translation: Put very simply, the act of converting a text from one language into another or the result of this process.
Translation memory: A special type of file that contains old translation segments. Translators can search a translation memory to make sure they are using consistent terminology. These files usually have the file extension .tmx.
Word count: The number of words in a document.
Let me know if you can think of anything to add or if you want to chat about how translation can help you get more from your international partnerships.
