Character Counts and Approximate Word Counts (Russian)

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Brian Hayden wrote:

> Dear SEELANGers,
>
> Can anyone give me an equation for calculating the approximate ratio of
> printed characters to words for Russian? I think I've heard 1800
> characters = 300 words, but I can swear to that, and I'm not sure I
> trust it. I suppose text type and subject area also come into play --
> ratios for all text types and subject areas interest me, but I'm asking
> this question for a journalism/periodical job, so numbers for that would
> be especially helpful.

Six to one is a good rough estimate for English, seven to one is better 
for Russian.

As a test, I opened the Russian source for an anthology I'm translating, 
and got:
	  101,426 words
	  629,747 characters (no spaces)
	  727,778 characters (with spaces)

Thus, the ratios are 6.21 without spaces and 7.18 with spaces for this 
group of authors.

For an English translation we recently produced, the figures were:
	  229,743 words
	1,231,175 characters (no spaces)
	1,457,197 characters (with spaces)

Here, the ratios were 5.36 without spaces and 6.34 with spaces.

Our practice is not to double-space after sentence terminators.

The ratios with and without spaces do not differ by precisely one 
because a small percentage of sentences are separated by paragraph marks 
instead of spaces.

Obviously, the ratios will vary somewhat from author to author and 
subject to subject. These documents were light to moderate sci-tech.

-- 
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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