German English Translation

    Although this page primarily concerns German English translation, the central message applies to any language combination.


    german english translationThe generally accepted rule is: always translate into the native language. This means that your translated text will be natural and fluent. As a native Brit, this means that I only translate from German to English.

    Although I live in the Geilenkirchen area, eMail makes geographic boundaries meaningless.

    However, should it be necessary (for example) to personally attend meetings, I will happily visit you in other areas, for instance, Aachen, Stolberg, Düren, Heinsberg, Mönchengladbach or even Maastricht and Liège.

    I will translate most types of text, but specialise in technical and commercial translations.

    There is a saying

    “you only get one chance to make a first impression”

    and in the business world, this is especially true. It really does make good sense to have your marketing brochures and sales information as professional as possible.

    Poorly translated material creates a poor initial impression that you will have to fight against.

    In contrast, polished and professional material creates a good impression on which you can build.

    Let’s put this another way. The cost of a decent translation pales into insignificance when compared to the cost of lost opportunity.

    Please contact me for further information, or to discuss specific translation details.


    Proofreading

    There is no doubt that modern word-processing software has made huge improvements in the areas of spell-checking, style-checking and grammar-checking. However good they may be, my claim is that they will never completely replace a human reader.

    The following examples are not made up. They are real examples, found in the real world. Furthermore, modern word-processor programs accept them without comment. Can you spot the correct version?

    We wish to expend our knowledge.

    We wish to expand our knowledge.

    The costumer will provide all necessary hardware.

    The customer will provide all necessary hardware.


    OK, I admit it, I made up this last one! But it shows how punctuation can alter the meaning. Both of these sentences are accepted by a word-processor, but have very different meanings!

    A woman without her man, is nothing.

    A woman: without her, man is nothing.

    This concludes my brief and somewhat light-hearted look at proofreading and why it is necessary. I assure you that I will take your requests seriously.