Of course, there is no absolute answer as to what makes a translation “good” or “bad”. In a sense, a good translation is one that can be done within the budget available while serving its purpose.
However, there are times when text quality is the overriding factor – well-written and easily understandable text will save your colleagues time and leave your customers and business partners with a positive impression. Here are some things that I suggest to keep in mind when evaluating the quality of a text that has been translated into English. They are the types of criteria that a good translator should consider when translating their text, and they highlight some of the problems often encountered in mediocre translations. Of course, some of these points will apply more generally to cross-language translations:
– Does the translation overuse formal or scientific-sounding vocabulary? Words that sound too scientific in English can often be direct translations of words in other languages that sound simpler. For example, is the word “anomaly” being used when “failure” would sound more natural? Does the translation mention a “lung disease” when “lung disease” would sound more natural to a general audience? These are classic symptoms of a translation from a language such as French or Spanish, where the word ‘Latinate’ is a naturally derived word that sounds normal in these languages, but in English it becomes a scientific term suitable only for highly specialized audiences.
– Does the translation use words that are understandable, but are not ‘the right word’? Does the text speak of “social insertion” when “social integration” would sound more natural? Are you talking about “eventual problems” instead of “potential problems”? Or the “administrative status” of a person when the “administrative status” would be more common?
– Are adjectives or descriptive sentences used where English would more naturally use a compound? For example, English allows a phrase like “remotely accessible device”, while other languages may have to use a phrase that literally means “remotely accessible device” or “device that allows remote access”.
– Similarly, phrases with “of” or “for” are overused where English would use a compound. Overuse of phrases like “sales strategy” instead of “sales strategy” are classic signs of a multilingual translation.
– Are the determiners (“the”, “a”, “your” …) used as they would in idiomatic English? Phrases like “I saw an increase in productivity” rather than simply “I saw an increase in productivity” suggest an overly literal translation. More subtly, a phrase like “terms and conditions”, “towns and cities” instead of “terms and conditions”, “towns and cities” suggests a translation of a that generally does not allows two nouns. sharing the same word for “the” (as in French), while repeating the word “the” is not natural in English.
– Does the translation use a narrative style and rhetoric that sounds natural in English? We have all seen French museum posters that tell us, for example, that “the king will die in 1483.” The subtlest signs of a translation include overuse of rhetorical questions (which, for example, seem more common in Spanish than in English, where they can make your text sound too childish). In an English translation, decisions must also be made about, say, the use of contractions (“I can’t”, “I can’t” versus “no”, “I can’t”) or preposition stranding (“Who .. . a? “vs” Who (m) …? “) which may not have been problems in the source language. Does the adopted style convey the impression you want to make on your audience?
Ultimately, the translated text should ideally sound like the original, written to convey your message in the style and readability you intended.
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