Unlike machine translations which are instant, human translations are translated by multiple levels or professional human translators. Quality is always our first priority which can take some time to achieve as well. Because of this process, human translations of up to 10,000 words will be completed in 5 business days, although frequently a lot quicker than that. If you have an order over 10,000 words, please contact us for a time estimate.
Help Center
- For customers
- For translators
- For developers
- Zendesk integration
- How do I exclude words from being translated?
- How long will my order take to translate?
- Formatting requirements for an Excel (.xlsx) memory/glossary file
- Formatting requirements for a CSV memory/glossary file
- How does translation memory and translation glossary work, and what is the difference?
- What types of content does your site not translate?
- I've downloaded my final translation, why are the characters not appearing properly?
- What services in addition to translations does translate.com offer?
- I need special formatting for my document, can Translate.com do that?
How do I exclude words from being translated?
If you have words or phrases you want to exclude from being translated, place them in the triple brackets "[[[ ]]]" to exclude what you don't want translated from the word count. After your order is finished, your translation will be returned to you with the words inside the brackets untranslated.
Example:
[[[Translate]]]
[[[Translate.com]]] enables you to expand your global reach by communicating in other people’s native languages. Our proprietary translation method delivers the highest quality translations at the best price.
After Translation:
[[[Translate]]]
[[[Translate.com]]] le permite ampliar su alcance global mediante la comunicación en lenguas nativas de otras personas. Nuestro método de traducción patentada ofrece las traducciones de calidad máximas al mejor precio.
How long will my order take to translate?
Formatting requirements for an Excel (.xlsx) memory/glossary file
In order to successfully import an Excel (.xlsx) file into Translation Glossary or Translation Memory, the file must contain only one sheet and the following format must be used exactly:
Your spreadsheet must begin with these 4 column headings in the following order:
| source_language | source_text | translation_languages | translation_text |
Beneath these headings, each entry gets a new row, like so:
| source_language | source_text | translation_languages | translation_text |
| en | Hello | es | Hola |
| en | Widget Corp, LLC | es | Widget Corp, LLC |
Multiple translation languages can be specified in a single row using the | character in-between languages, like so:
| source_language | source_text | translation_languages | translation_text |
| en | Hello | es | Hola |
| en | Widget Corp, LLC | es|fr|de|zh-TW | Widget Corp, LLC |
Use the following language abbreviations:
| ar | Arabic |
| bg | Bulgarian |
| zh | Chinese (Simplified) |
| zh-TW | Chinese (Traditional) |
| cs | Czech |
| da | Danish |
| nl | Dutch |
| en | English |
| en-gb | English (British) |
| fi | Finnish |
| fr | French |
| fr-ca | French (Canada) |
| de | German |
| el | Greek |
| iw | Hebrew |
| hu | Hungarian |
| id | Indonesian |
| it | Italian |
| ja | Japanese |
| ko | Korean |
| ms | Malay |
| no | Norwegian |
| pl | Polish |
| pt | Portuguese |
| pt-br | Portuguese (Brazil) |
| ro | Romanian |
| ru | Russian |
| sr | Serbian |
| sk | Slovak |
| es-la | Spanish (Latin America) |
| es | Spanish (Spain) |
| sv | Swedish |
| tl | Tagalog |
| th | Thai |
| tr | Turkish |
| uk | Ukrainian |
| vi | Vietnamese |
| fa | Persian |
| hi | Hindi |
Formatting requirements for a CSV memory/glossary file
In order to successfully import a CSV file into Translation Glossary and Translation Memory, the following format must be used exactly.
NOTE: If using a Mac ensure you save the .csv file as a Windows or Text .csv file.
NOTE: Commas in source and translation text are not allowed.
Your file must begin with these 4 column headings in the following order:
source_language,source_text,translation_languages,translation_text
Beneath these headings, each entry gets a new row, like so:
source_language,source_text,translation_languages,translation_text
en,Hello,es,Hola
en,Widget Corp, LLC,es,Widget Corp, LLC
Multiple translation languages can be specified in a single row using the "|" character in-between languages, like so:
source_language,source_text,translation_languages,translation_text
en,Hello,es,Hola
en,Widget Corp, LLC,es|fr|de|zh-TW,Widget Corp, LLC
See the sample.csv file at the bottom of this page.
Use the following language abbreviations:
| ar | Arabic |
| bg | Bulgarian |
| zh | Chinese (Simplified) |
| zh-TW | Chinese (Traditional) |
| cs | Czech |
| da | Danish |
| nl | Dutch |
| en | English |
| en-gb | English (British) |
| fi | Finnish |
| fr | French |
| fr-ca | French (Canada) |
| de | German |
| el | Greek |
| iw | Hebrew |
| hu | Hungarian |
| id | Indonesian |
| it | Italian |
| ja | Japanese |
| ko | Korean |
| ms | Malay |
| no | Norwegian |
| pl | Polish |
| pt | Portuguese |
| pt-br | Portuguese (Brazil) |
| ro | Romanian |
| ru | Russian |
| sr | Serbian |
| sk | Slovak |
| es-la | Spanish (Latin America) |
| es | Spanish (Spain) |
| sv | Swedish |
| tl | Tagalog |
| th | Thai |
| tr | Turkish |
| uk | Ukrainian |
| vi | Vietnamese |
| fa | Persian |
| hi | Hindi |
How does translation memory and translation glossary work, and what is the difference?
Translation Memory
A translation memory (TM) is a database that stores "segments", which can be sentences, paragraphs or sentence-like units (headings, titles or elements in a list) that have previously been translated. When we encounter text that exactly matches existing memory segments, we will use memory entry instead of having the text re-translated. We match TM entries on a per-sentence level or an entire order level. We do not combine multiple sentences together within a larger order, nor do we do fuzzy-matches at this time.
Translation Glossary
A translation glossary allows you to specify how you want specific words or phrases translated. For example: “automobile”, “car” and “vehicle” are all accurate ways to call a vehicle. By default, the correct word to use for the translation is up to the translator’s discretion. By adding in glossary entries, you can tell the translator that you want the word “automobile” used in place of “car” and “vehicle”.We match glossary entries on a single word or a phrase, as long as the text we are replacing exactly matches the glossary entry.
What’s the Difference?
Translation memory is matched on a per-order or per-sentence level. It tends to be larger entries that are used increase accuracy and seed up the translation process. Glossary entries tend to be much shorter and are used to specify how you want specific words and phrases translated.
How Does TM Effect The Order Cost?
If you submit an order that has been previously submitted in your account, and completed by us before there is no charge for us to process it again. If only specific sentences are found with the memory, we still put the order through our entire translation process so there is no change in the cost of the order.
What types of content does your site not translate?
Translate.com does not provide human translations for the following types of content:
- Gist or summary translation
- Orders that include emojis or characters outside of normal UTF-8 formatting
- Legal, medical, technical or other specialist texts
- Texts that require creativity or where brand image is at stake
- Safety-critical texts or material where human life may be at risk in case of error
No refunds or translations will be given for these types of human translation requests.
I've downloaded my final translation, why are the characters not appearing properly?
Older versions of Microsoft Word will often not support or properly display several language characters such as Chinese, Korean, Japanese, or Hebrew. If you're having trouble viewing the translated text for your order, be sure to download the newest version of Word. For issues with language support in Microsoft word, visit support.office.com, for answers to questions like these and more.
What services in addition to translations does translate.com offer?
We can offer many services in addition to text translations. These include:
- Custom Formatting
- Transcription
- Interpretation
- Desktop Publishing
- Custom API Integrations
- And More.
If you are interested in a custom quote for items like these, please submit a ticket using the link above.
I need special formatting for my document, can Translate.com do that?
If you need special formatting or desktop publishing, please submit a ticket to us using the link above and we can give you a custom quote. When you do submit the ticket, please be sure to include your original document and give us as many details as possible.
Custom Formatting Examples:
- Microsoft Office (Excel, Powerpoint) Formatting
- Text in Tables or Diagrams
- Desktop Publishing Formats like Quark, PDF and InDesign
- Right to Left Languages like Arabic, Persian and Hindi