What is Technical Translation?

The words ‘technical translation’ come up on occasion although what’s meant by it is not always clear.

Subject Matter Specific Translation

Technical translation may sometimes refer to translation of text from disciplines that tend to be thought of as more technical in nature. Technical disciplines might include engineering, certain industries, scientific disciplines, to mention a few main categories. Each technical disciplines tends to have specialized terminology associated with it.

Specialist Technical Translators

Translation companies have numerous translators in each language combination that do work for clients. Each translator will naturally have areas of specialization that correspond with their background, interests, and education. One of the main benefits of working with a translation company is gaining access to an organization’s network of specialist translators. Among the goals of translation companies is that of matching the best suited translators with a project depending on its subject matter.

Terminology Lists

Translation clients whose material has specialized terminology might sometimes provide a list of key terms and their corresponding preferred translations. If a translation memory (TM) is available then it’s another way to help technical translators with translation of discipline specific terminology that is client preferred. In the absence of these resources translators will make determinations about terminology translation based on their research over the course of a project and their prior experience with the subject matter.