Translation Memory Tool

Using a translation memory tool is standard nowadays. We work with SDL Trados Studio, guaranteeing that your specialist and company-specific terminology is used consistently.

A translation memory (TM) is a translator’s electronic memory, so to speak. Each sentence in the original text becomes what is called a segment. During translation, each text segment in the source text is then assigned to the corresponding segment of the target text. This text pair is stored in the translation memory.

Furthermore, during translation, the translator enters the relevant specialist and customer-specific terminology in the respective dictionary database.

When translating subsequent documents, the new source text is separated again into text segments, and these are compared with the text segments from the previous source text. Matching text segments are replaced in the new text by the translations that are already stored in the translation memory.

If any text segments are similar, the translation memory proposes a corresponding translation (known as “fuzzies”). Differences such as names or numbers are highlighted in colour. The translator checks the translation proposal and accepts or changes it or else they reject the proposal and reformulate it.

The translator can constantly access the dictionary and the translation memory as they work. This means that specialist and customer-specific terminology is used consistently and that the quality of the translations is constantly high – even if several translators have to work on the same text due to time constraints. In this case, all translators access a shared translation memory and a shared dictionary.