Definitions

A translation agency is a company that provides translation as a comprehensive service – translation as well as editing and delivery review.

A translator provides written translation.

An interpreter provides oral translation.

Written translation service – a written translation that also includes editing, and may feature the work of a terminologist and a delivery review if necessary.

Interpreting service – the provision of interpreting, which is categorised into three types: whispered interpreting, consecutive interpreting, and simultaneous interpreting.

Whispered interpreting – the interpreter speaks in a quiet voice to a small group (1–3 people) while the speaker is talking. This service does not require translation equipment.

Consecutive interpreting – the speaker delivers their presentation in segments in the source language, followed by the interpreter rendering the content as accurately as possible in the target language. The speaker and interpreter take turns speaking.

Simultaneous interpreting – the interpreter translates in real time as the speaker talks. The interpreter is located in a separate booth and the translation reaches listeners almost instantly. This type of interpreting requires specialised technical equipment.

Machine translation post-editing (MTPE) – a process where machine-generated translation is edited by a human.

Source (original) text – the text that needs to be translated into another language.

Translation text – the translated version of the source text in the target language.

Editing – reviewing the translated text in terms of substance and language by comparing it with the source text.

Proofreading – the main goal is to identify and correct grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors.

Light post-editing (LPE) – post-editing carried out to produce a text that is merely comprehensible, but nowhere close to human translation. The aim is to convey the content of the original text very accurately, without adding or omitting anything, while ensuring that all sentences are clear, correct, and unambiguous. However, errors in grammar, wording, and style are not corrected as part of LPE.

Full post-editing (FPE) – post-editing carried out to obtain a result comparable to that of human translation. The translation is accurate, clear, and stylistically correct with proper wording, grammar, and punctuation.

Volume – the length of the translation, calculated based on the final text. One page is equivalent to 1,800 characters (including spaces).

Delivery review – a final check to ensure that all parts of the source text have been translated correctly, that names and numbers are accurate, and that the formatting aligns with the client’s requirements.

Support services – additional services provided by the translation agency to enhance quality, such as creating termbases and translation memories, developing terminology, linguistic and specialised consulting, localization, printing, writing or saving data onto storage media, pre-press text review, layout, design, publishing, etc.

Localization – the process of adapting a translated text to align with the language and cultural context of the target audience.