Machine translation is set to provide better results with machine translation tools in 2022
While it may not be a requirement, translating the content on your website can bring numerous perks to the platform. One, it drastically expands your reach as you accommodate the needs of people of different languages. Two, search engines often rank websites with translations much higher than those without. Finally, you’re establishing your website as a reputable platform. However, website translation requires great attention to detail. This explains why errors are common in translation projects, though this wouldn’t be an issue with machine translation. Machine translation is essentially the use of software to translate text automatically without the help of a human being. However, to fully optimize the capabilities of machine translation, your input is necessary. In that regard, here are five tips to make the most out of machine translation.1. Proofread the source text
Your translations can only be as good as the source text. If the source text contains spelling or grammatical errors, for example, the translated text will most likely have the same defects. For that reason, an excellent first step to machine translation implementation would be to proofread your source text. This is one of the reasons most organizations hand over the responsibility of machine translation to their quality assurance and editing team. That way, they can proofread the text before, during, and after going through machine translations. (1)2. Minimize the use of complex terminologies
While not all languages have complex structures, a lot of them do. The English language, in particular, consists of words that have two different meanings in spite of having similar spellings or words with different spellings but similar meanings. There may also be terminologies that aren’t commonly used by the public, also known as jargon. (2) If you want accurate results from machine translation, you might want to tone down on your use of jargon, as they only make it harder for the tool to convert your content to the translated text. You must also remember that certain expressions may make sense in a specific language but not to people with different languages. For example, you cannot use the phrase “break a leg” or “piece of cake” and expect machine translation to come up with an equivalent phrase from other languages. In such cases, it’s best to use terms like “easy,” “good luck,” and other simpler words.Other complex types of expressions you should avoid include:
- Abbreviations
- Clichés
- Colloquialisms
- Idioms
- Slang
3. Stick to only one form of language
Certain languages have different forms. For example, English can be categorized as British, Canadian, Australian, and American. While it rarely happens, you must ensure the text employs only one form of the language you’re using. This is because machine translation tools determine the form of language of the text first and come up with translations afterward. Therefore, if the text uses American English in the first half and British in the second half, machine translation may mistake the British parts for American English and vice versa. (3)4. Eliminate unnecessary words
A general rule of thumb in machine translation is that the more words, the harder it becomes to translate the text. Therefore, you might want to eliminate words that you think are unnecessary. Writers often call these words fluff—a piece of information that’s off-topic and doesn’t add value to the text, often added simply to increase word count. Not only will these words make it harder for machine translation tools to produce acceptable output, but it also affects the readability of the text. (4) In that regard, make sure there aren’t any words in the text that one can consider unnecessary. Ideally, you want each sentence to contain 5 to 25 words. An excellent way to go about this is by having a revision phase for the source text before the actual translation process. Again, this further emphasizes the importance of involving your proofreaders and writers in the machine translation procedure.5. Avoid the use of passive voice
Passive sentences are known to be vague due to the fact that the doer of the action or verb is often not the highlight of the sentence. This makes it harder for readers to understand who’s doing the action. While machine translators are generally much better than humans at recognizing sentence structures, these tools may still struggle to translate text in the passive voice. With that said, try to avoid using the passive voice as much as possible. (5)Parting words
Nowadays, gaining traction for your website is an incredibly difficult undertaking, especially with how many websites there are on the internet today. That’s why it’s important to have a unique factor to your platform, and translations are most definitely something that can attract users. It may be difficult, but with machine translation, it should be doable. These tools can be a bit tricky, but with these tips, you can get a lot of value out of machine translation.References:
1. “19 Compelling Reasons Why Proofreading Is Important”, Source: https://omproofreading.com/proofreading-is-important/ 2. “Why Bother With Complex Terminology?”, Source: https://www.plainlanguage.gov/guidelines/words/avoid-jargon/ 3. “Different Varieties Of The English Language”, Source: https://cudoo.com/blog/different-varieties-of-english-language/ 4. “9 Tips To Eliminate Fluff In Your Writing”, Source: https://www.elevenwriting.com/blog/fluff-writing 5. “Vague doesn’t mean passive”, Source: https://linguischtick.wordpress.com/2012/08/27/evasive-speech-and-the-passive-voiceJoin our WhatsApp and Telegram Community to Get Regular Top Tech Updates
