Translation Conversion

[Margaret Samu]

Dear Paul and Bela,

Thank you so much--that's extremely helpful. I'll aim for 3300-3600 words.
Apparently if it's a little over or under 3000, "ne beda," but I just
needed to get a sense of the task.

Best regards,
Margaret




On Wed, Dec 11, 2013 at 4:59 PM, Paul B. Gallagher <
paulbg at pbg-translations.com> wrote:

> bela shayevich wrote:
>
>  russian words X 1.2 = english words
>>
>
> In my experience, translating into English, the increase is more like
> 10-15% for lightly-edited translations; in certain subject areas or with
> heavy editing, it can be as low as 5-10%. Legal texts tend to inflate more,
> as much as 20%. But if I received a translation in a nonlegal subject area
> with that much inflation, I'd wonder why and expect editing to reduce it
> significantly.
>
> However, I don't translate into Russian, so I can't say how much decrease
> to expect; I would guess the decrease will be less than the figures quoted
> above. Other things being equal, a translation in any language will usually
> be longer than an equivalent text written originally in that language,
> because even a perfect translator will have to work harder to express
> culturally alien thoughts. In practice, translators are not perfect and
> often try too hard to be too faithful to the original phrasing.
>
> The originator's estimate of 3,000 Russian words seems reasonable for 10
> pages at 1.5-line spacing. If I were drafting in English and aiming for
> that target, I'd write an extra 10% or so -- about 3,300-3,400 words --
> unless I knew my translator was especially efficient or especially laconic.
> A beginning translator might even produce 3,500 words of Russian in
> response.
>
> --
> War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
> --
> Paul B. Gallagher
> pbg translations, inc.
> "Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
> http://pbg-translations.com
>
>
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