Principles of translation use of electronic means Translation memory

How is a TM different from machine translation?

• Machine translation uses a translation engine, e.g. Google, to perform the translation. The translation memory is a way to store previously translated text and locate a matching phrase in the database.
• How do translation memories work
• Translation memories automatically retrieve and suggest previously translated text when it detects identical sentences or fragments of text. The translator is shown both the source text and the previously translated text and they decide whether to accept the proposed translation, edit it, or ignore the suggestion and translate the segment from scratch.
• It’s important to note that texts are not always perfectly identical. Sometimes they are only similar, but can still be of use to the translator. The extent of similarity is shown as a percentage and calculated based on the accuracy of the match between the new source segment and the old source segment stored in the database. Let’s see how.

The benefits of a translation memory

• All the benefits of using a TM are related to improving translation efficiency, which means translating quicker and cheaper without sacrificing quality. Let’s take a closer look at each advantage.
• Saving time:
• The more segments are translated, the less work the translator and the editor have to do,
• The less text there is to translate from scratch, the quicker the translator will deliver the whole project,
• If the translation is done in parallel with product design, the developers/designers won’t have to test the interface or other elements that were previously successfully implemented.

Building a translation memory that will save you time and money

• The best thing about translation memories is that they’re self-replenishing. This means that there are just three steps you need to take to make every translation memory you create efficient.
• Use the Editor as much as possible. It’s always a good idea to keep all the translation revisions in one place. But you have one more benefit with translation memories: every edit trains your TM to produce translations of better quality.
• Bring all your team to one CAT tool. The more people contribute to the translation memory, the richer it becomes. Besides that, if you stick to one CAT tool, all your colleagues will have equal access to the edited translations and respective translation memories.
• Prioritize TM matches. You can customize your CAT tool settings. For example, you can go with machine translation or translation memory only. But why not benefit from both?