German to English Translation

Although German and English vocabulary has common roots, German to English translation can be challenging as any other language pair. This is because most words have evolved through different paths in these two languages. A common word in German to English translation such as “Nummer” may be easily guessed as number. However, huge differences that exist in these languages can result in extensive work being involved in German to English translation.

Most German to English translations require further editing. Why? There are very few translators who are proficient in both languages to be able to produce perfect German to English translations.

To produce an almost perfect German to English translations would usually require a native German to provide the German to English translation and an English proficient editor to perfect the German to English translation according to customer needs.

For example, German to English translations containing distinctly old fashion English would not go down well for marketing materials. In the case of marketing brochures, further editing work in the German to English translation may come in the form of sentence restructuring and appropriate choice of words. This is in addition to literal translations in the German to English translation that should be retranslated to present it in a more attractive manner to the target reader. Also, long German compound words should preferably be simplified in the German to English translation for easy “digestion” of the words.

In particular, German to English translation editors would also need to take note of possible missing definite articles and conjunctions for further smoothening of the sentences in the German to English translation. Sometimes certain nouns in the German to English translation have to be transformed to its possessive form to bring out the meaning correctly in the German to English translation. Any German cliché found in the German to English translation would also have to be crafted into its English version with the actual meaning rendered across.

For legal documents, there are special unique features in the German language that needs to be taken into account in its German to English translation. It’s common to see the symbol § in German contracts which should be translated into “Section” or “Article” and should be left as it is only if the client requests for it in the German to English translation. “GmbH” at the end of a company name should be kept as “GmbH” according to its exact registered name in the German to English translation. Besides, “GmbH” has different meanings in different German speaking countries.

For a technical document, a translator that provides good German to English translation would generally conduct a research of the topic if s/he isn’t familiar with it already. This would result in the German to English translation having the appropriate technical terms.

Regardless of the type of documents, I feel it is important that project coordinators should allocate sufficient translators and editors in any German to English translation projects to produce excellent works in German to English translation. Proofreading, editing and other forms of checks, which are usually found in established translation companies, should also be a habit for all translators and editors to ensure the delivery of high quality translations.