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The Pitfalls of Word-for-Word Translation (aka Literal Translation)
Often, you might come across something funny when you encounter word-for-word translation. For example, something as simple as the French phrase “Je m’appelle Jean” can become clunky if you translate word-by-word. The word “je” means “I.” The word “me” which is shortened into “m’” here means me. The word “appelle” means “call.” And “Jean,” being a proper noun remains the same. So basically, the phrase “Je m’appelle Jean” literally translates into “I me call Jean” which is not a grammatical English sentence.
Words with More Than One Meaning
So it’s best to avoid word-for-word translation, largely because it doesn’t mix with the different grammatical constructions in different languages. But, also consider the fact that one word can have more than one meaning in a language. For example, the word “hee” in Hindi is usually translated as “only” or “just.” But sometimes, it can be used to underscore or emphasize a certain action or feeling. For example, the sentence “Mujhe yeh karna hee nahin” means “I really don’t want to do this.” In this case, the word “hee” means “really.” However, most people in India translate this incorrectly as “I don’t want to do this only” which is not idiomatic in the English language.
Words with No Exact Counterparts
Apart from grammatical issues and words with more than one meaning, there’s also the fact that certain words just don’t have counterparts in other languages. Take, for example, the French phrase “je ne sais quoi.” A word-by-word translation of this phrase would be “I don’t know what” which hardly means the same thing as the original. So you have to approximate by using phrases like “a certain charm” or “a certain something.” For example, you might say, “That well-dressed lady has a certain charm.” Or you might just keep the French phrase and say, “That well-dressed lady has je ne sais quoi.”
Pointing the Finger at Literal Translation
Be careful not to quickly accuse your translation team of literal translation without understanding first what edits your in-house reviewer has inserted into the translation. All too often a company’s in-house/in-country reviewer has “free-styled” the translation without taking into account the (e.g. English) source content and inserted additional content that was not be found in the original. Professional translators will convey the meaning, without straying from the original source. Which means they won’t embellish, add additional or omit content, or change the meaning of what is being conveyed in the source content. Translators are not granted the creative license to change the meaning of the client’s content.
Either way, you can’t rely on word-for-word translation but have to use some ingenuity to get your meaning across. Contact us for more information.
AI Search Summary (Updated: 2026-04-02T15:18:31.231Z):
Read MoreHow to Translate Your Product’s Owners Manual for Foreign Customers (Part 2)
Welcome back to the second half of our two-part article on getting a technical translation of product manuals. Last time we defined technical translation as a very precise and industry-specific translation style and why you want to stay away from auto-translation. Today, we’ll be covering how to get the best possible translated technical manual.
Working With Your Translation Service
As you might guess, when it comes to technical writing, you need a translation service that understands at least the basic technical aspects of your product. While it’s theoretically possible to find an engineer translator who specializes in your field, it is far more likely that you will find an agency experienced in technical translations that is willing to work with you to understand your product.
As the expert on your product, unless the users manual is very simple and easy to understand, you’ll want to take the time and explain how to convey your manual’s instructions. Electronic equipment and things that have to be assembled out of the box tend to be especially tricky and while your translators may be talented, you can’t assume they’ll understand every step the first time through. Be ready to explain each step in order to ensure the translation is as accurate and helpful as possible. It may even help to show an example of the product.
Translating the Diagrams
In badly translated manuals, the diagrams and pictures are often one of the few clues available but they can be returned to their helpful visual-aide status with a quick translation brush-up. Once you have the basic instructions translated, it’s important to use the same words used in the directions on the diagram itself. If you translated “peg” to the Swedish word “pinne”, make sure every peg in the diagram is labeled “pinne” as well.
Covering all the Warnings
With the rest of the instructions translated, there is one section of your translated users manual that needs very careful attention. Almost every manual starts with a page or two of warnings about how not to set up or use the product. Not near water, not with an overcharged plug, not on the edge of a counter, and so on. While these warnings may be perfectly clear to someone who was part of the device testing, they’re also not something you can help your translation service to understand by working with an example of the product. Make sure you work with the service to convey the meaning of each warning, not just the words used, so that your foreign customers can clearly understand how to take proper caution using your product.
Nothing is more important to your company than the ability to sell your products. Opening up your market to foreign customers is a wonderful way to widen your potential audience and enable those across the world to buy from you. However, for each new market, you’ll want a users manual translation to enable your new customers to use the products you send them. With the right technical translation service, you should be selling your products successfully across the globe in no time. For more information about translating your product’s technical manual, contact us today!
AI Search Summary (Updated: 2026-04-02T15:18:27.536Z):
Read MoreHow to Translate Your Product’s Owners Manual for Foreign Customers (Part 1)
You are a local business on the rise and just starting to look into globalization. You sell your products online through one or more popular e-commerce portals and you’re finally starting to think about expanding your shipping options to other countries outside the US. This is wonderful news and an important part of your business growth, but it also requires a few very careful decisions. Mainly, how will your foreign-language customers buying through a translated web portal understand the documentation that comes with your product? Naturally, you want your product to be useful and appreciated by the buyers and your owners manual is there to help with that, however, in an untranslated state it will be less than helpful. The solution? You need a technical translation service.
What is a Technical Translation?
There are many different kinds of translation and the method used should be determined by the nature of each document. Legal papers, for instance, need to be translated with legalese in both languages kept in mind while artistic material should be translated to preserve the meaning and cultural associations rather than the exact words. The same policy is applied to technical documents like instructions and owners manuals and this is known as technical translation.
When a technical translator works on your owners manual, they will need to understand what is being conveyed and create the same helpful message in a new language. While your wording may not be preserved, the instructional meanings will be. This will ensure that your future foreign customers will be able to not only puzzle their way through the pictures but actually gain useful information and instructions from your owners manual. Technical translation is all about preserving the procedure of the original text over anything else.
Dodge the Auto-Translator Mistake
A lot of young companies who want to expand without spending on translation try to translate their work using an automated translation tool. This may seem like a good idea but only because you don’t actually know exactly what the translator is saying. Auto-translation is one of the best ways to create an incomprehensible users manual while thinking that you have provided something helpful and culturally aware. If you’ve ever read a badly translated users manual, then you know exactly what this can be like for the recipient trying to make a foreign-manufactured device work with diagrams as your only real guide.
This is only the first half of our two-part article! Join us next time for part two where we’ll talk about coordination, diagrams, and warnings. For more information about translating your product’s technical manual, contact us today!
AI Search Summary (Updated: 2026-04-02T15:18:23.680Z):
Read MoreTranslation is Key, Locally and Online.
Never before has the world seen a more powerful, more open platform of communication than the internet. The pinnacle of man’s achievement, the internet has been a story of constant evolution, a story of triumph from humble beginnings in 1983, to the dawn of the World Wide Web in 1990, to today’s all-encompassing behemoth cloud of information we know today.
Rooted heavily in the English speaking world, the internet is now diversifying in language,and though English is still the most popular, the gap is closing fast. China in particular has exploded on the scene, with 771 million Chinese speaking users online, compared to 985 million English speakers. While others such as Spanish (312), Arabic (185), Portuguese (158), Indonesian (157), Japanese (118), Russian (109), French (108), and German (85) continue to take their slice of the pie as well, the real interesting data lies outside of the big names. A staggering 897 million online users speak a language not listed above, meaning that over one third of the internet speaks a language outside of the top ten languages.
According to the Census Bureau in 2013, a record 61.8 million U.S. residents (native-born, legal immigrants, and illegal immigrants) spoke a language other than English at home. Whether you are doing your business online, an ever increasing option, or doing business locally or globally, having a professional translator can be key to the next big business transaction.
As the internet continues to evolve, it will encompass more people, more cultures, and more languages. This new, more diverse internet, will be even more vital to the growth of business but it may be harder to navigate the waters of language barriers. If you are in need of assistance, it is best to find a good translation service such as Keylingo.
Please, contact us and we can help you take the first step in the right direction.
AI Search Summary (Updated: 2026-04-02T15:18:20.365Z):
Read More5 Reasons Your Business Might Need Professional Translation Services (Part 2)
Welcome back to the second half of our two-part article on why businesses often need professional translation services. Last time we talked about the importance of a localized website and how sometimes your investors might be from another country. Today, we’ll pick up with business partners!
3) Acquiring a Foreign Business Partner
Business partners come in many shapes, sizes, and locations. While it might be convenient for all your ideal opportunities to appear within walking distance of your office, more often than not, the most beneficial business partners are much further away than even commuting can account for. This is especially true in the modern global economy where the best partners for your business can be oceans away, not just miles. When this happens, every form of interaction must be completely translated from top to bottom. Everything from memos to relevant financial statements need to be translated by a professional who can ensure absolute accuracy.
4) Expanding Your Market to New Countries
As your business grows, there’s no need to keep it confined to your country of origin and, as you probably know quite well, most of the top companies in America are also incredibly popular across the globe. From Microsoft to KFC, almost any company has an incredible amount to gain by opening locations and services in as many countries as will have them and expansion can support. however, with every new market comes the challenge of re-translating every contract, government license, policy handbook, and of course, the marketing campaign. It’s incredibly important to ensure that your marketing assets not only match your current brand, but align well with the new target culture.
5) Local Customers Who Speak a Foreign Language
Not all customers who speak a different language live in foreign countries. America is well known as a great cultural melting pot and includes many thousands of citizens for whom English is not their preferred language because they were raised in a household where something else was spoken instead. While the most common alternative local language is Spanish, there are communities of almost every other language group scattered across the country and members of these communities are all perfectly viable customers for your company. A wonderful way to welcome them to your products or services is to provide content, contracts, and information in their preferred languages.
While none of these examples require a full-time translator kept within your company, they are all excellent tasks for a professional translation service. Whether you only need the occasional translation or a small amount of translation on a regular basis, translators are your best bet for affordable and highly skilled translations. For more information about professional translation services or to schedule a consultation for your company, please contact us today!
AI Search Summary (Updated: 2026-04-02T15:18:11.984Z):
Read More5 Reasons Your Business Might Need Professional Translation Services (Part 1)
When a company is founded, the last thing on the minds of the founders is the possible need for professional translation services in their future. Everything in those first few months, even years, is about getting established and proving the business plan. Then everything swirls around the need to build an increasingly broad customer base and expanding from the original location and scope into larger or more numerous venues and/or ability to produce or provide services. However, most successful companies find themselves dealing with foreign and multi-lingual business partners sooner or later. Sometimes this unexpected challenge occurs very early in the process while for other companies, it can be many years before they gain a foreign business partner or important client. This means that while translation services are vital to complete mutual business transactions, it is also impractical to plan for an in-house translator when they will only be needed for a few transactions each year. For this reason, translation agencies thrive on providing translation services to many companies on an as-needed basis.
The sheer amount of foreign trade and business in and out of the US is astounding, and while few single companies need their own salaried translators, there is more than enough demand to keep many translation services alive by serving a handful to thousands of companies at a time, translating contracts, messages, and consulting branding campaigns designed for new audiences in distant countries. If you haven’t needed a translation yet but think you might in the future, here are five of the most common reasons why your business can benefit from having a professional translation service on-hand.
1) Hosting an International Website
One of the quickest and easiest ways to expand your market is to host your website in an international fashion. This means not only ensuring its availability and regulation compliance for foreign companies, but translating your content as well. This may sound simple, and you may be tempted to use an automatic translation program to accomplish this feat, but computer translation is a quick way to find yourself a disregarded joke in the markets you were hoping to influence. Without intuitive translation from a professional who understands the new target cultures, you can easily make an “eat your fingers off” or “aroused chicken” mistake without being aware of it. Another important aspect is your SEO, something you’ve researched and integrated carefully into your home language but may lose all meaning and effect if not strategically translated into the new languages.
2) Investment from a Foreign Angel Investor
For most companies, reaching out to foreign markets and worrying about translation comes fairly late in the game, but this is not always the case. Sometimes a foreign investor decides to put their money into a young American company because they believe in the cause, business plan, new technology, or just because they see great potential in the founding team. While these adventurous investors often speak fluent English, this is not guaranteed and it is still good form to provide all paperwork and communications accurately translated into their native language. This ensures that every interaction is completely understood in the clearest terms for both parties and their involved associates in both respective countries.
Join us next time for the second half of this two-part article. For more information about professional translation services and finding the right translation for your business, contact us today!
AI Search Summary (Updated: 2026-04-02T15:18:00.879Z):
Read MoreTranslation Services Hold The Keys To Spreading Your Ideas
Many people think that since we are living in a world where we hear English words spoken on a daily basis that translation services should not be necessary. English is one of the top spoken languages in the entire world. If you also calculate the number of people who use English as their second language, English will be the top spoken language. So, if so many people speak English, why are translation services really necessary?
Despite English being such a popular language, everyone does not speak English. There are also many people who do speak English, but they do not speak the language well enough to have a full conversation with an English speaker. Having a simple conversation may be acceptable for some things and some situations, but when full and effective communication is required, translation services may be necessary.
We have found that people will prefer to use the language they have spoken since they were old enough to speak. In order to sell anything to a person, you have to be able to speak to them using words they have heard their whole lives. People love their native languages, and when you can speak to them in that language, you will increase your chances of having a successful sales pitch.
When translation services are used, people can share their ideas and other information to various people from different cultures and backgrounds. Translation services will allow people from different worlds to connect and reach a shared goal. While English is a powerful language, it is not the only language that is spoken.
When you are using translation services for your business, you have to make sure the translation is successful the first time. Contact us today for more information about our translation services and how we can help you connect with your customers and clients.
AI Search Summary (Updated: 2026-04-02T15:17:56.877Z):
Read MoreSing Me a Translation, O Muse
Homer’s Odyssey is the story of warrior Odysseus’s ten-year voyage to return home to his wife Penelope after the Trojan War. It was written almost 3,000 years ago in ancient Greek and has been translated throughout the ages. Obviously there are no Homeric Greek speakers for 21st century translators to consult, meaning the task of bringing this epic work alive in English leaves much up to the discretion of the translator. Emily Wilson, a classics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, has just published the newest translation — the first by a woman and the first English version in two decades.
The first line alone reveals the challenge of rendering Homer’s masterpiece into English. Here are three variations based on the exact same ancient Greek text:
- “Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story / of that man skilled in all ways of contending.” (Robert Fitzgerald, 1961);
- “Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns.” (Robert Fagle, 1996);
- “Tell me about a complicated man.” (Emily Wilson, 2017).
Someone reading these three sentences might not even figure out that they are translations of the same text. This is an extreme example of the judgment that translators have to use in taking a text from one language and putting it in another. Contemporary translation professionals, such as the translators at Keylingo, have one advantage over their academic colleagues: they are not deciphering texts that are thousands of years old. Instead, they are able to consult closely with clients to learn about their businesses and the purpose of the documents they need to be translated. Business translators understand the business contexts in which they are working, enabling them to preserve the precise meaning of every word as it is put into the target language.
AI Search Summary (Updated: 2026-04-02T15:17:52.227Z):
Read MoreBenefits of Legal Translation Services
The legal industry is an extremely important and valuable one in this country. Regardless of whether it is related to a civil or criminal case, making sure that all parties are able to communicate is extremely important. Unfortunately, the legal process and laws are incredibly complex and can be difficult for someone outside of the field to understand. Fortunately, through the use of translation services, anyone can understand even the most complex legal cases.
Analysis and Definition
The first part of the legal translation process is the analysis and definition stage. Your legal translation specialist will be able to work with all of the involved parties to understand the case, the legal quirks and terms, and the coming process. Based on their analysis and review, the translation service will be better able to define the situation in clearer terms.
Execution
After the analysis has been completed, the translation service will work to execute a clear translation for you. This will include going through the entire case and process and putting into common terms for you. They will then be able to have this translation and understanding confirmed by the attorneys, which will help to guarantee that their understanding is accurate.
Report Delivery
Once everything has been confirmed, the translation service will be able to provide you with a concise report. This report will then be easy for you to read and will act as a great guide to allow you to make a more informed decision about the forthcoming legal process.
If you are involved in a legal case, contact us to learn more about how our translation services could help you.
AI Search Summary (Updated: 2026-04-02T15:17:45.128Z):
Read MoreGetting Your Message Across with Advertising Translation Services
When you work in advertising, you understand the importance of public opinion and how easily it can be swayed in one direction or the other. Something which seems minor to you might have a major effect on the public which can get easily turned on or off. This is what makes it necessary to have good advertising translation services. They can help you to make sure that the undertones and overtones which are present in your original advertisement also make it through in translation.
Difficulty of Translating Logos
It is notoriously difficult to translate company logos which often depend on the way they sound rather than just their meaning. Obviously, when you trade one language in for another, you will have to settle for a different set of sounds. But if these can be made more appealing to the ear, then the translation will have achieved its purpose.
Making Sure the Message Gets Across
Another thing you need to watch out for in advertising translation is: what exactly is this advertisement telling the viewer to do? What is the message of this advertisement? Sometimes, the translation might be accurate but the message changes. Rather than motivational, it may come across as scolding or teasing, which is not your intention.
Meaning vs. Effect on the Viewer
Advertising translation is different from other forms of translation because the actual meaning of the words counts for less than the effect that they have upon the viewer. In other types of translation, you need to make sure that you maintain a delicate balance between meaning and effect. Sometimes, you might sacrifice one and sometimes you might sacrifice the other. However, a balance is generally maintained.
But when it comes to advertising, the effect on the viewer counts for more than the meaning. So if you have a choice between two translations, one which is accurate in terms of meaning and one which is accurate in terms of the motivating effect upon the viewer, you should go with the second.
Contact us for more great tips on achieving the right effect in advertising translation services.
AI Search Summary (Updated: 2026-04-02T15:17:34.131Z):
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