Mirela
Pre-translation text analysis, also known as the translation interpretation of the source text, is an important part of any translation work. If happens before you actually translate something, and it’s something that can improve the process significantly. If you’re curious what it can do for you, read on as we discuss its benefits and the steps to getting it done.
The purpose behind pre-translation analysis
Pre-translation analysis is like a diagnostic check. Before you start translating, you thoroughly examine the source text to understand its structure, content, terminology, and potential challenges. These factors shape your translation choices. In addition, this analysis also helps you spot inconsistencies or ambiguities in the source, plan the terminology, and set expectations with clients.
Pre-translation analysis answers an important question: what does this text really need to do? Some texts need precision and consistency, others require persuasive flair and cultural nuance. That’s what it’s all about. While it may initially add a bit of time, the analysis ultimately improves your final output.
In short, pre-translation:
- Saves you time
- Reduces costs
- Optimizes tool effectiveness
- Improves project planning
- Enhances the accuracy of the translation
What you’re looking at
Here’s what you need to review before diving into translation:
- Text complexity and structure. Check for jargon, idioms, cultural references, specialized content, and anything else that might need particular attention.
- Consistency and terminology. Here’s where you need to spot repeated terms, brand names, or industry-specific language that demands uniform translation. These are usually managed via glossaries.
- File format and technical issues. Is the content correctly formatted, encoded (preferably UTF-8), and ready for input into your chosen translation environment without errors?
- Workflow planning. You must also decide on the translation approach, including segmentation, tool usage, quality control processes, and resource allocation.
How to perform pre-translation analysis
In a broader sense, much of the work on this matter converges on the idea that pre-translation analysis should generally involve three main activities: first, looking at the factors surrounding the text beyond its words; second, pinpointing its style and genre; and third, identifying the type of information it’s meant to deliver.
The exact order of the steps above tends to shift depending on who’s laying out the process. Since we’re catering to localization professionals, we will be addressing the topic from our perspective.
Get to know your source text
Read your source text to identify complex terminology, idiomatic expressions, ambiguous or culturally sensitive segments, and technical language. You want to understand the purpose of the content, who your target audience is, and potential challenges.
Define your compass
You can’t do localization without a style guide or a glossary. Try to comb through the text to extract key terms, brand names, product names, and specialized vocabulary. Consistency is king in translation, so you’ll have to create or update your glossary to serve as a reliable guide. It’s the best way to avoid mistranslations and and maintain uniformity across your project.
Technical checks
What’s your source file’s format and encoding? You can bump into problems like corrupted characters or incompatible file types. These can break your CAT tools and cause various translation errors down the line. That’s why you need to verify that text encoding is UTF-8 (especially important for non-Latin scripts), that any embedded tags, placeholders, or code in the source text are correctly formatted, plus the compatibility with your translation environment. Also, assess segment length and structure to anticipate any challenges in fitting translations into UI constraints or print layouts.
Identify quality concerns
Ambiguous phrases, inconsistent terminology, tense shifts, grammatical mistakes — these are the things you need to mark to clarify with the client or prepare translator notes. If you intend to use machine translation, this step overlaps with pre-editing. It means simplifying language and disambiguating meanings, which benefits both machine output and post-editing workload.
Strategize your path
Based on your analysis, you need to craft your strategy. So you need to choose the translators and reviewers that have the expertise needed, consider if you’ll integrate machine translation or translation memory matches, how you will handle repetitive segments or non-translatables, and what quality assurance steps are essential. These are just a few factors that you need to think about when you’re creating your translation strategy.
Automate what you can
Why do only manual work when there’s plenty of things you can automate. Your CAT tools and translation management systems often provide pre-translation capabilities such as auto-filling segments with 100% translation memory matches, applying machine translation with configurable quality thresholds, and pseudo-translation for UI testing.
Wrapping up
At this point, you’ve seen what pre-translation analysis can do for you. If you invest some time upfront to dissect and prepare your source text, you’ll likely avoid fixes later and give your translators and reviewers greater clarity. So next time you’re handed a new localization challenge, don’t just dive in. Pause, analyze, and prepare.