From my doctoral research, I have identified three areas of quality in translation: Fidelity, Readability and Conformity. When we say that a translation has Readability, we mean that it sounds natural to a native speaker of the other language. This means that the words, expressions and sentence structure used are suitable for that language.
But how do you make sure your translation is readable? From the 9 best practices for translators that I developed during my research, #4, #5 and #6 relate to Readability. Today, we’ll take a quick look at these 3 best practices, and over the next 3 weeks, we will look at each in more detail.
Best Practice #4: Turn off Autopilot
One of the common translation traps is to assume that words that look the same in both languages probably have the same meaning. But the reality is that each language has its own word definitions and nuances. For example, “déception” in French looks like “deception” in English, but it actually means “disappointment”. An important strategy is to always check the dictionary to find out the true meaning of a word as well as any nuances.
Best Practice #5: Respect Context
Another translation myth or trap is that when you look up a word in a bilingual dictionary, you can use the first suggestion in your translation. In reality, the only way to know the full meaning of a word is to look at it in context. There are reference tools and reliable websites that can help translators choose the best word, term or expression for a certain context.
Best Practice #6: Be Idiomatic
A third trap is to follow the same sentence structure in the translation as the original document. The reality is that each language is unique, and readers expect a text to follow the natural flow of that language. The best strategy is to rearrange words and phrases within sentences to make the translation more idiomatic.
We’ll cover each of these 3 Readability Best Practices in the coming weeks; stay tuned!
Have a great day!
Liane 🙂
