Like any professional, the translator needs various tools to carry out his or her work, ranging from the most generic to the most specific. Although not all translators work in the same way, there are a number of similarities between them. However, much of what is needed is generally unknown to the general public. Here is a selection of the most commonly used tools in our business:
office suites
This may seem rather obvious, but today’s translators work almost exclusively with computer tools. The days of the typewriter are long gone, and the days of pen and paper even longer. Most of the translations are done in word processing, spreadsheet or slide presentations. This is a bit of a translator’s b-a-ba and the office suite is really the essential.
Everyone knows the Microsoft Office suite, but it is not the only one on the market. There are solutions, sometimes free and open source, such as Open Office or Libre Office, which are even preferred in some institutions.
Whatever solution is used, the translator must know how to use it to the full. It is not enough to master the basics of word processing software. The nature of the job requires the use of advanced functions on a daily basis. Comparison, tracking of changes, parallel view of two texts, macros… are all essential.
Dictionaries
Let’s face it, a translator cannot master the entire vocabulary of his or her working languages. The list is long and includes terms that are not widely used, outdated, very specific to a professional jargon or those that simply require some clarification.
However, a native speaker only uses between 3,000 and 5,000 words, of which only about 1,000 are used in everyday discussions. A dictionary such as the Petit Larousse illustré, which is far from being the most complete, already has over 35,000 entries. Multiply this number by at least two, since we are talking about source and target languages, and we have enough to forget a few words here and there! In short, it is normal that the translator sometimes needs to look up a dictionary.
Beyond clarification, thesauruses are a valuable asset. They allow you to make up for a lack of inspiration, to find an exact nuance or sometimes to think of another approach to an inelegant sentence.
Although linguists are still very attached to paper, the need for speed in the profession inevitably leads to a move towards computers. The offer is abundant and especially online: Larousse, Robert, Wordreference, Urban Dictionary, Synonymes.com are just some examples.
Glossaries
In addition to dictionaries, translators work a lot with glossaries, which can be both monolingual and bilingual. These are often provided by the client and respond to needs for clarification, for example for acronyms or neologisms, or for homogenisation of vocabulary to respect an editorial line or a brand image. For example, I worked for a brand that asked to use the term “shoe” and to ban the word “shoe”.
The same problem can arise in relation to internal company jargon. Personal titles or department names are good examples: from one company to another, it is easy to find different names for identical functions.
The glossaries remove many doubts and prevent back and forth with the client. They also help to avoid some of the pitfalls that could be seen as a quality flaw.
While most glossaries are provided in table format, these can be converted into formats that make them more interactive. In particular, so that the terms are automatically identified and the translator warned when using the software dedicated to translators par excellence: CAT.
CAT software
I have already mentioned this in the FAQ on the site, but if there is one indispensable tool for translators that is ignored by the public, it is the CAT software.
CAT stands for Computer Aided Translation, also known as CAT tool. Now, some may say that this is by no means a must. It is also true that for some documents this does not add much. This can even be a hindrance (literary or highly editorial texts). But for the rest, it is one of the most useful tools in the translator’s palette.
While there are variations in functionality from one software package to another, the main principles always remain the same. Texts submitted to the software are broken down into segments (more or less sentences) which are then compared with the translation memories. In simple terms, translation memories are databases that contain all the translations that have already been done in previous projects. The aim is to collect similar sentences and their translations in order to save time and maintain consistency.
But the benefits of this software do not end there. They also provide a plethora of other tools: interactive glossaries, spellcheck, automatic number localisation, unit of measure conversions, quality checks, spellcheckers… and some even have automatic translation engines.
Spell checkers
Yes, linguists are language lovers and sometimes a little rigid about the rules. But they are still human and can make mistakes, typos and other oversights. Not that they don’t know the rules, but in the heat of the moment, with this sentence rephrased 15 times… well, the mistake that was supposed to happen is there. Fortunately, the experienced translator is equipped with a powerful spellchecker.
Everyone knows the one found in the Microsoft Office suite, especially in Word. But there are much more powerful tools, sometimes integrated directly into certain CAT software or sometimes completely independent (Antidote for example). These tools not only provide the correct spelling of words, they also check grammar, agreement, syntax and for some even give style tips!
But you have to choose the right tool, because these are really based on verified languages. For example, Grammarly, which is very popular at the moment, only deals with English.
Machine translation engine
I can already feel the purists sounding the alarm… But yes, apart from the usual small village of diehards, the translators also use machine translation. This is reflected in a number of ways in everyday life.
First of all, in a more or less punctual way and when necessary. A sentence that is a little twisted, a need for ideas, an unclear word, a need for a quick synonym… The translator often has to look at what the machine offers. There’s nothing wrong with that, since it’s just one of many sources of inspiration.
Systematically in certain translation processes: augmented translation, post-editing. There, the translation provided by the machine serves as a complete basis. The translator will then rework the automatic proposals according to the objective and the quality provided by the machine. This can save a lot of time, but it can also be a real headache and take longer than a human translation. It all depends on the type of text.
It does not matter in which context the translator uses the machine. The engine used to provide the basis for the work must be chosen carefully. Indeed, first there is the problem of confidentiality (see the setbacks of Translate.com), then that of quality. Not all engines are created equal and the same engine is not necessarily equally effective in all domains and language pairs. Many solutions exist and new ones appear regularly. In any case, it’s a subject I’m passionate about and I’ll talk more about it in other posts.
OCR
Another acronym! OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition. The principle is quite simple, you “show” this program letters, words, sentences, texts and it returns the same thing transcribed in an editable format (.txt, .doc/.docx or other). What is the use? The aim is to make editable what is not originally editable. These are mainly images (whether handwritten texts or scanned or photographed pages), but also PDF files which are often uneditable. This allows the translator to do many things:
be able to replace the existing text with its translation;
retrieve a specific layout without spending hours recreating it (assuming it is possible);
be able to quickly find out the number of words in a text, in particular to estimate the cost of translation;
import the text into a CAT tool ;
use machine translation..
In short, there are many applications. However, as with machine translation, it is important to choose the service used from the plethora of solutions available on the market. Again, confidentiality is a concern and the quality can also vary from one software to another, but also from one language to another. The Latin alphabet is not recognised in the same way as Cyrillic or Chinese characters… I’m simplifying, because the reality is much more complex, but I’ll talk more about this in another article.
Subtitles
If the translator specialises in the audiovisual field, new tools are added to his or her list. Indeed, subtitling requires a number of specialised tools.
First of all, those used for transcribing the texts spoken in the source files with the marking of times: the famous time codes which will later be used to say “display this subtitle at such and such a time”. A kind of first subtitle is therefore made in the source language. There are various ways of helping the translator in this task, with varying degrees of automatism depending on the solution. Transcription of audio and video texts is one of the major fields of research in automatic natural language processing, along with translation, but I will have the opportunity to talk about this again next time.
Then it’s time for the actual translation. This should be directly visible in the context of the video. This avoids concerns about the length of the text or subtitles running too fast. Finally, other tools may be needed to overlay subtitles or to convert the final file formats.
Graphics suite
The translator is not a graphic designer. However, it juggles a multitude of clients and therefore a number of graphic formats. The majority of the documents to be translated are published, so they have been formatted and sometimes carefully thought out. The translator must be able to follow through and deliver a job that is just as clean as the original document. From simple presentations to entire layouts, including all image formats, the translator must be able to navigate all types of files.
It is not enough to replace the text, you also have to make sure that it fits into the boxes, which is not always easy. Indeed, from one language to another the text does not take the same place. Because words are sometimes longer, simple words in one language need a complete sentence to convey the same meaning in another, etc. This is called “multiplication”. This is known as overflow. When you know that French is on average 20% longer than English. Any layout will inevitably need to be checked after translation, if only to ensure that the text does not run off the page.
TMS
One more acronym, one! TMS stands for Translation Management System. As the name suggests, it is used to manage all translation files and projects. It is the translator’s ERP and allows him to keep track of his files and their status.
Here, too, there is a range of more or less elaborate offers with various functions. Sometimes this tool is coupled with the CAT tool, sometimes not. To be honest, on the scale of a freelance translator it is not necessarily a must. A simple Excel spreadsheet can often suffice and prove to be more practical and quicker on a daily basis.
On the other hand, the translator must know how things work if he or she works with translation agencies. Indeed, many of them use these MSDs. It is up to the translator to connect to it to retrieve the work to be done and to return it.
Business management
This is not a specific tool, but rather a broad category. A translator is a business in itself. To a greater or lesser extent, it needs everything that keeps a business going.
The translator must do his financial follow-up and accounting (quotations, invoicing, VAT, means of payment, etc.).
He is also a salesman as he has to find his customers. CRM and other sales forces are therefore part of the possible toolbox.
He’s also a marketer/designer/informatician… because nobody can do without an online presence these days.
In short, these are the many hats that all self-employed people wear and each may require additional tools.
What are your favourite tools?