The first Best Practice in the Readability area of translation quality is to Turn off Autopilot. This means that we must debunk the myth that words that look the same in both languages probably have the same meaning. The reality is that each language has its own unique word definitions and nuances.
The best strategy for turning off autopilot when you are translating is to always check the dictionary to find out the real meaning of a word. Watch out for false cognates, or “false friends” as some languages call them. The Spanish word “librería” and the French word “librairie” both look like they would mean “library” in English. But they actually mean a “bookstore”. This is just one example among thousands of false cognates.
Sometimes the fact that we are bilingual causes language interference in our translations. We don’t notice a poor word choice, or a phrase that has the words in the wrong order… why? Because our brain subconsciously recognizes that we could say it that way in the other language.
Avoiding translating on autopilot affects more than just words: we also need to be conscious of spelling, fixed expressions and sentence structure that vary from language to language. It also has an impact on punctuation, prepositions and word order.
So on your next translation project, pay special attention to making sure you are not working on autopilot. Be aware of the uniqueness of each language so that your translation will be “readable”. Next week, we will talk about another best practice: Respect Context.
Have a great day!
Liane 🙂
