Why does the translator keep asking me questions?

You have sent your document to a professional translator. Everything seems perfectly clear to you. And then the questions start arriving. What exactly do you mean here? Is this term correct? Who is your target audience? Can you give me more context? At first glance, it might seem odd for a translator to ask questions about your text. Shouldn't they already know what it means? In fact, questions are a hallmark of good translation. A few well-placed questions can make the difference between a translation that is merely correct and one that truly conveys your message in language that appeals to your intended audience.

What exactly do you mean?

Something that seems unambiguous to you may leave room for several interpretations. Legal language, for instance, needs to be precise.

Take the distinction between terminate, give notice to terminate, cancel and rescind. In everyday English these may seem like different ways of saying ‘end an agreement’. In legal English, however, they can describe different mechanisms with different consequences.

Also, attorney, solicitor, barrister and lawyer are not straightforward synonyms. England and Wales traditionally distinguish between solicitors and barristers, whereas attorney has a different everyday legal meaning in the United States. Translating a generic term as solicitor could therefore introduce a jurisdiction-specific meaning that was absent from the original.

Is that the right technical term?

Specialist terminology deserves special attention. A word may have several possible translations, while a company or industry may have its own preferred terminology.
Consider a technical translation about fire safety engineering. The translator may opt for the term ‘power density’, for example, whereas NIST documentation refers to ‘heat release rate per unit area’ as a specific fire-related measure. Instead of assuming that two apparently similar terms are interchangeable in your document, the translator may ask you to confirm what you intended.

Abbreviations are another potential pitfall. An experienced translator may be able to make an educated guess based on the context, but abbreviations are often unique to an organisation. Take PM, for example: does it mean project manager, programme manager, product manager or preventive maintenance officer? A two-minute query to you eliminates uncertainty and prevents an error from being repeated throughout the translation. 

Who and what is the translation for?

The translator may ask who will read the translated text and what it will be used for. Website copy, a contract, an internal report and an advertising campaign may all require different translation choices. Likewise, English for an American audience may require different vocabulary, spelling and conventions from English for a British audience.
Audience, purpose, location and tone all influence how a text is translated. The better the translator understands them, the better they can tailor the translation to your readers.

Can I make this sound more natural?

A translation can be accurate yet still sound awkward in the target language. The translator may see an opportunity to improve the flow, by restructuring a sentence, for example, or shortening a passage. But how much editorial freedom do you want to give them? Marketing content may benefit from a freer translation, while legal or highly technical documents often need to stay close to the source.
The translator may therefore ask how much flexibility you are comfortable giving them before making significant stylistic changes.

Has the translator spotted a problem?

Good translators approach texts from two perspectives at once, stepping back to consider your text’s overall meaning and purpose while closely examining every sentence and term. This combination of breadth and attention to detail can reveal ambiguities, inconsistencies and errors that have gone unnoticed until then. A date might differ from one given elsewhere in the document, for example. Alternatively, a product's official name may have changed or a figure in a table may conflict with the accompanying text.When a translator raises a query like this they are not disputing your intentions or expertise. They are making sure that an uncertainty in the original text does not become an error in the final translation.

Questions are part of quality

Professional translators don’t ask questions unnecessarily. They will research terminology, consult reference materials and resolve as many issues as they can independently. But some answers can only come from you or your organisation.
So when a translator asks you a thoughtful question, it is usually a positive sign. It shows that they have examined your text carefully, weighed the possible interpretations and chosen to seek clarification instead of relying on guesswork.

Need a translation you can rely on? Our translators combine linguistic expertise with careful research and personal contact. Find out more about our professional translation services and discuss your text with our team.