Today’s translation challenge makes us reflect on the influence of Machine Translation on our translation work. In the context of budget and human resources, machines often translate the verb 'to strengthen' literally into Croatian as 'ojačati' or 'osnažiti'. However, our language professionals believe that sometimes it would be more appropriate to paraphrase this verb and use expressions like 'povećati kapacitete' (improving the capacity) or 'poboljšati' (improving). Take a look at the example below. In a sentence such as 'the Agency was strengthened in terms of staff and technical equipment', our Croatian translation team would opt for 'Agencija raspolaže većim brojem članova osoblja i s više tehničke opreme'. Do you find that MT sometimes influences your translation work? Share your thoughts with us in the comments! 👇
Robin Palotai
3mo
I, as a non-native speaker, also find that "strengthen" to mean add more people/budget is unnatural. Why not put it in clear language, like "headcount was incremented" or "we added more staff" or "we raised the budget"?
Cynthia P.
3mo
This can happen if the source text is clumsy in the first place, be it machine translation or human translation.
Intercultural Educator | Expert in Digital Education & Spanish as a Foreign Language (ELE) | Specialist in Educational Technology & Research
3moIt’s important to go beyond literal translation and consider the context and cultural nuances. While machine translation can be useful, it often misses subtle nuances in meaning. For example, the Spanish word "desarrollo" can translate as "development," but in some contexts, "growth" or "progress" may be more appropriate. In a sentence like "La empresa está enfocada en el desarrollo de su personal," "The company is focused on the growth of its staff" is a better choice than a literal translation. Paying attention to these details ensures the translation resonates with the reader and preserves the original intent.