Machine Translation Post Editing (MTPE)

T hanks to recent advances in machine learning, Machine Translation (MT) offers a highly efficient alternative to human translation with the potential to automate the initial processing of millions of words per hour. However, even advanced Neural Machine Translation (NMT) systems cannot match human translators in ensuring the cultural appropriateness and syntactic clarity of translated content, making linguistic review by in-country linguists and subject matter experts essential to safeguarding the quality and consistency of final deliverables.

Meet these needs, Machine Translation Post-Editing (MTPE) captures both the efficiency and cost savings of MT and the human-touch only human linguists can offer. Also known as Post-Editing Machine Translation (or PEMT for short), MTPE services offer the ideal solution for high-volume translation projects where mission-critical content needs to be translated at scale without sacrificing quality.

Guidelines for achieving “good enough” quality.

“Good enough” is defined as comprehensible (i.e. you can understand the main content of the message), accurate (i.e. it communicates the same meaning as the source text), but as not being stylistically compelling. The text may sound like it was generated by a computer, syntax might be somewhat unusual, grammar may not be perfect, but the message is accurate.

• Aim for semantically correct translation.
• Ensure that no information has been accidentally added or omitted.
• Edit any offensive, inappropriate or culturally unacceptable content.
• Use as much of the raw MT output as possible.
• Basic rules regarding spelling apply.
• No need to implement corrections that are of a stylistic nature only.
• No need to restructure sentences solely to improve the natural flow of the text.

Guidelines for achieving quality similar or equal to human translation:

This level of quality is generally defined as being comprehensible (i.e. an end user perfectly understands the content of the message), accurate (i.e. it communicates the same meaning as the source text), stylistically fine, though the style may not be as good as that achieved by a native-speaker human translator. Syntax is normal, grammar and punctuation are correct.

• Aim for grammatically, syntactically, and semantically correct translation.
• Ensure that key terminology is correctly translated and that untranslated terms belong to the client’s list of “Do Not Translate” terms”.
• Ensure that no information has been accidentally added or omitted.
• Edit any offensive, inappropriate or culturally unacceptable content.
• Use as much of the raw MT output as possible.
• Basic rules regarding spelling, punctuation and hyphenation apply.
• Ensure that formatting is correct.