Skip to content

Translationese and how to avoid it

In an increasingly globalised and borderless world, communicating your global message to local markets is more important than ever. The quality of your translated content — whether in your webpage, marketing collateral or legal documentation — speaks volumes for your own commitment to quality and respect for local cultures. You cannot allow sloppy, unclear or inaccurate communication to undermine your business.

QuickSilver helps companies create or adapt their sales materials and websites to different linguistic areas according to their needs (marketing, technical, journalistic, etc.). We take care of translating, reviewing and writing any type of document, using our pool of highly qualified professional linguists.

An all-too-common translation pitfall is to slip into what we call ‘translationese’. In the case of technical translation, accuracy is of course the most important factor, but in the case of marketing collateral, for example, it is fundamentally important to produce a text which reads as if it were written by a native speaker. ‘Translationese’ is when you sacrifice this clarity in order to reproduce the meaning of the original, and end up with something which is probably grammatically correct, but phrased in a way that a native speaker would never use.

One small example illustrates this principle. In conversation, a native of the USA would always say that something cost ‘one-fifty’, but never that it cost ‘one-dollar-fifty-cents’. Now, the second option is perfectly correct, it is just totally unidiomatic. This is the sort of ‘mistake’ which an inadequate or inexperienced (or non-native) translator won’t notice, but any native speaker will recognise as a translation – classic translationese!

We are also experienced in working with different Content Management Systems (CMS).

We make every effort to understand and respond to our clients’ preferences, objectives and needs. QuickSilver will help you to showcase your professional services and products to new international markets.

Related Posts