MACHINE TRANSLATION – WITH FULL POST-EDITING
Choose the path to the future. Machine or human?
- Machine translation is inexpensive.
- Machine translation is fast.
- But machine translation is not always correct.
We work according to the principle of the highest possible level of perfection in the quality of a human translation. That is why we recommend: machine translation WITH full post-editing.
What is machine translation?
Machine translation (MT) is an automated translation by a so-called engine, a specially trained computer program.
What does “full post-editing” (PE) mean?
Full post-editing means the checking of the machine translation against the source text. In full post-editing, the following points are taken into account to ensure that the target text is correct, comprehensible and stylistically appropriate:
- Comprehensibility
- Correspondence of the source and target text content
- Consistent terminology
- Correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, semantics
- Adaptation of date and time specifications, units of measurement, currencies, etc.
- Correct/consistent formatting
- Suitability for target group and purpose
- Editing offensive, inappropriate or culturally unacceptable content
Full post-editing can virtually achieve the quality of a human translation.
The DIN ISO 18587 standard “Translation services – Post-editing of machine translation output – Requirements” describes the requirements of full post-editing, according to which we work.
What are the advantages of machine translation?
Speed: For time-critical projects, a machine translation can be significantly faster than a human translation, about 2–3 times depending on the project.
Costs: The costs for machine translation only amount to about 50–60% of those for a human translation, depending on the project.
Translation memories (TMs): Existing contents are stored in the TM and can be looked up during translation. This ensures consistency, accuracy and completeness.
Whenever you need a particularly quick or cost-effective translation, you should consider whether machine translation would be worthwhile.
It should be noted that your existing translation memories will be used in combination with the engine to increase the translation speed as efficiently as possible.
For which texts can machine translation be performed?
Machine translation can be used for both internal and external texts, provided that full post-editing is performed afterwards.
It should always be checked in advance whether the text in question is at all suitable for MT. In doing so, the purpose of the translation and the quality of the text to be translated must be taken into account.
MT is not recommended for the following texts:
- If the normal TM is already quite full and a human translation would be less expensive
- Legal texts
- Texts with notes on high hazard potential and risk of injury
- If an ISO 17100-compliant translation is required
- Product lists, product descriptions (generally texts with many names)
- Master data sheets, parts lists (generally lists without context, sentence fragments)
- Texts that contain too many errors
- Texts where you have to follow certain company guidelines
- Longer texts with termbase (TB)
- Texts with many abbreviations
- Marketing texts, advertising slogans/texts (transcreation)
- Highly specialised texts for which sufficient data material is not yet available
- Poorly formatted texts -> preparation by the project management
- Incorrectly converted texts -> formatting by graphic artist
The following criteria influence the quality of the MT output; the source text should be checked to that effect (also by the client)
- Spelling mistakes
- Grammar mistakes
- Incorrect punctuation
- Misused diacritics
- Incomplete sentence structures
- Unconventional abbreviations
- Proper names
- Sentences in the passive voice
- High number of pronouns
- Ambiguities
- Inconsistencies
Why COMLOGOS?
At COMLOGOS, we place the same high value on quality in our machine translation projects and our selection of post-editors as we do with our technical translations and technical translators.
We have developed a tightly integrated workflow so that the process runs flawlessly and smoothly in terms of technology and we receive high-quality output from the engine.
All post-editors go through a multi-stage evaluation process before they are allowed to edit your projects. They must be able to prove their qualifications (in accordance with ISO 18587) and experience, and must undergo tests that enable us to assess the quality of their work. As a result, only evaluated and experienced native-speaking technical translators work for us as post-editors in the usual COMLOGOS quality.
Your advantage with COMLOGOS at a glance:
- Support by a dedicated contact in project management
- Professionally qualified, native-speaking post-editors
- Project execution taking the DIN ISO 18587 post-editing standard into account
- Top quality target texts through our full post-editing
- Clear and unambiguous target definitions
- Consulting for the optimisation of source texts
- Specialist for all foreign-language projects
- Broad service portfolio with many solutions and tools
- Maintenance and optimisation of translation memories and glossaries
- Holistic consulting for your projects
- Over 10 years of market experience
Our language combinations for machine translation:
Our Blogs
What’s in a name?
What’s in a name? A couple of weeks ago, I needed to stock up on washing powder, so I nipped into my local Penny, a branch of a popular German discount supermarket chain that carries a lot of cheap generic brands. The special offer that week bore an evocative name:...
THE CASE OF THE COSMIC CAPPUCCINO
THE CASE OF THE COSMIC CAPPUCCINOWhat colour is the universe? What does this question even mean? The other day I was sipping a cappuccino in a coffee bar downtown when I chanced upon a newspaper article. A team of astronomers from the John Hopkin’s University,...
A KILLER ADDRESS!
A KILLER ADDRESS!Riding on the U-Bahn recently, I glimpsed a woman clad in a neon pink bikini, arms outstretched: „Aloha, Hawaii – entdecke Hawaii ( discover Hawaii)“ she declared. I knew at once she was addressing me intimately. A little later, I changed trains and I...
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English → German
French→ German
Spanish → German
Portugese → German
Italian → German
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Furthermore, you can download our e-book Maschinelle Übersetzung mit Full Post-Editing (Machine Translation with Full Post-Editing).
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