Certified Translators - Buyers Guide

Certified Translators Terminology

In order to help you better understand when speaking with certified translators, here is a glossary of some commonly used terms.

Apostille: The stamp saying that a document has been approved for legal use in countries that are signatories to the Hague Convention.

CAT: Computer Assisted Translation tool commonly used to help streamline translation process.

Certified translation: A translation that has been vouched for by the translator as being an accurate translation.

Copywriting: The writing of content for documents, ads, brochures, marketing materials, websites – basically anything that needs written content.

Desktop publishing ("DTP"): Used by translators for accessing different language fonts and for typesetting documents or creating imagine files when necessary.

Draft Translation: The first copy of a translation that is sometimes requested by a client before the final version is approved.

Editing and proofreading: The process of correcting the grammar and typos after the translation is done to ensure top-notch quality.

Free translation: Generally machine generated and not known for its accuracy.

Globalization: Adapting a text for an international audience.

Glossary: A dictionary used by translators when working with texts that use specific terms. Clients oftentimes provide these glossaries to ensure the translations are accurate.

Hard copy: Printed versions of the final document.

Machine translation: Also known as “free translation”.

Legalization: Some documents need to be legalized by the placing of an apostille, which is a formal stamp of verification.

Literal translation: A translation that merely translates a text verbatim, including wording and sentence structure.

Localization: Adapting a text for a particular locale or setting.

Native language: The language spoken from early childhood by the translator – generally they will be best at translating from other languages to their native language or “mother tongue.”

Proofreading: Rereading a document to make sure that the editing has been properly done and that the translations are accurate.

SEO copywriting: Search Engine Optimization. Writing in order to boost traffic to a website. It includes the use of keywords in the articles strategically inserted throughout the text to have the document includes in search engine feeds.

Source language: The original language of the documents that need translating. If your documents are being translated from English to French, then the source language would be English.

Source materials: Refers to the original documents that need to be translated – they can be hardcopies, computer files, brochures, websites – regardless of their forms, they become the source material.

Sworn translation: A translation that must be sworn before a notary public as the correct and most accurate translation of a source document. The notary must validate the identity of the person swearing the translation.

Standard page: Generally assumed to be 300 words in English in 10 / 12 point font size. However, not a very accurate measure of a document.

Target language: The language into which you must translate the source material.

Technical translation: Translations requiring specialists in the field in which the translation must be done since it requires an expertise or knowledge not held by just anyone.

Translation: The art of taking a document in one language and converting it into another language without losing the exact meaning of the original.

Translator: A person specialized in accurately converting text from one language into another language.

Word count: The number of words in a document. Important if translator charging by the word. The word count applies to original document.

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