Machine Translation with Human Post-Editing (MT + PE)

Machine translation (MT) is the fully automated translation of text into another language. MT has improved in recent years, owing to better software and faster computers. Well-known purchasable MT tools in the language industry include IBM Watson, memoQ and DeepL.

It is now possible for computers to learn how words relate to one another and what they mean in different languages. This is achieved using statistical models and artificial intelligence, e.g. in neural machine translation (NMT). These machines, programmed in specific fields, are able to translate speedily large quantities of usable text.

However, although text translated in this way is understandable, it often reads rather wooden. Jokes, sarcasm, alliteration, subtleties and, unfortunately, even meaning are often lost. Such a text may also give the reader the impression that your product or service is of inferior quality.

Translations intended to persuade the reader should, of course, read well and fit the right cultural context. After all, you want to evoke a positive feeling and achieve results with your text. This is why it makes sense to have machine translation edited by a native speaker of the target language (post-editing or PE).

Many traditional translation agencies are resistant to the emergence of machine translations. Our agency thinks differently. Machine translation is improving every day. Clever application of MT results in major translation-process efficiency gains and cost-savings. However, incorrect use of MT can result in an unusable and unwanted translation. This is why human post-editing remains indispensable to the translation process.

Fasttranslator’s approach to MT + PE is explained in more detail below.

Machine Translation(MT)

We start by comparing your text with our database of manually translated sentences. With over 20 years’ experience, our translation agency has stored hundreds of millions of sentences and their corresponding translations. It is often possible to translate a large part of the text in this first stage.

Then we start the actual machine translation. The text is translated by a specific NMT engine that has been “trained” on texts similar to yours or texts matching the required field of expertise.

Advantages of Machine Translation:

• The rate of machine translation is exponentially faster than that of human translation.
• The cost is considerably lower than human translation.

Disadvantages of Machine Translation

• Even after editing, the meaning from the original document will not be 100% accurate.
• Some types of documents simply cannot be machine-translated.

Post Editing (PE)

Once the text has been translated by machine, professional human translators take over. They check the text for errors, including awkward syntax and incorrect terminology. Most of the time spent on your translation is devoted to post-editing.

Your translated text is now suitable for use in professional communications. The advantages of this combination of MT and human PE are speed, quality and a low price.

When to Use MT + PE?

To be honest, not every text is suitable for machine translation. Examples are:

• when a lot of subject-specific terminology is used, especially in combination with long sentences.
• texts with a high degree of creativity, e.g. professional food reviews, poetry or literature.
• language pairs in which too little human translation has been done to allow sufficient machine learning, e.g. Danish-Turkish and French-Swedish.

Our project managers will immediately advise you as to whether machine translation is an unwise choice for your particular text or language combination.

Machine translation is well suited for translation of the following examples:

• blogs, customer ratings, hotel descriptions and news articles
• training materials, manuals and company policies
• very long texts for which human translation would not be cost-effective
• tenders in which investment in human translation up front is unjustified
• website copy

Low Risk

It might transpire that a translated text does not read well or that a very high-quality translation is required after all. In such cases, we will meet you half-way by offering a substantial discount on a 100% human translation.