Using custom dictionary in Translation Weaver - Preventing addition of extra space and reducing post-treatment

Hi,

When we use a custom dictionary in Translation Weaver, the translation provided requires several changes (post-treatment). I would like to know if there is a way to configure the system to ensure the translation provided is more accurate. We had previously uploaded our dictionary (French to Italian). I made sure that I selected the dictionary in the tab Translation and Insights. We translated an Excel file in Language Weaver (from French to Italian). I had the same result when I tried translating the text by copying it into the Text field.

When using custom dictionaries in Translation Weaver, is there a way to configure the system to:

  1. Prevent the addition of extra spaces before the inserted term.
  2. Ensure that the system uses the correct articles and adjective endings once the term from the dictionary is inserted.

Let me explain with some examples:

Here is one term found in the dictionary:

French

Italian

Date de depart

Data della cessazione

 

We had the following segments to translate:

French

Italian (V1 without the dictionary)

Italian (V2 with the dictionary)

1.      Date de départ obligatoire pour le statut de disponibilité

Data di partenza obbligatoria per lo stato di disponibilità

Data della cessazione obbligatorio per lo stato di disponibilità

2.      La date de départ a été ajustée.

La data di partenza è stata modificata.

Il  Data della cessazione è stato regolato.

 

When Translation Weaver translates these segments, we see the following:

  1. In segment 2, extra space is added before “Data della cessazione”.
  2. The case specified in the dictionary is used for both segments. For segment 1, this is OK. However, for segment 2, we have an upper case in the middle of the sentence, and we would like to have a lower case to the term “data della cessazione”. I have tried adding two entries in the dictionary - Date de depart (upper case) et date de depart (lower case), but I get the following error message: “Term already exists”.
  3. The term is inserted, but the article, past participle, and adjective endings are incorrect.
    1. For segment 1, the adjective ending should be “obbligatoria”.
    2. For segment 2, we had the article “Il”, but it should be “La”.
    3. For segment 2, the past participle is incorrect.

Any help would be appreciated. If you need additional information, please let me know.

Regards,

Sonia Guimond

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  • Hello Sonia, 

    Thank you for reporting this behavior and for your precise description.  

    I can reproduce issues 1 and 2 for French to Italian and I am reporting them to our dev team. Interestingly, this behavior is specific to some language directions only. When translating from English to Italian, for example, no extra space is inserted, and the proper case is applied if the dictionary terms are entered in lowercase.

    There is no recommendation I can make that would provide an immediate solution. In general, it is better to enter the dictionary terms in lower case as that is how they appear in the source text most of the time. 

    The examples under point 3 are known behavior that will be addressed with the flexible terminology support we are planning to implement.  

    I will provide an update on 1 and 2 as soon as I have more information.

    Best regards,

    Lenka

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  • Hi Lenka,

    Thank you for your reply. I can also reproduce problems 1 and 2 in another language pair (French to Spanish). Would it be possible to report this as well to your development team?

    I provided examples below.

    Our next project (scheduled for later this year) is for the language pair French to Spanish. For your information, we are using Translation Weaver to help us to translate the labels and error messages for a software application. The project is over 200 000 words.

    Because of the nature of this project, the terms in our dictionary can often be found at the beginning of a segment (where they will need to be in upper case), but they can also be found within a sentence (where they will need to be in lower case).

    With the flexible terminology support you are planning to develop will the system be able to adjust the case? For example, if the term in the dictionary is in lower case (date de départ = data della cessazione) as you suggested, will we be able to get the following results once flexible terminology is implemented?

    French

    Italian

    1.      Date de départ obligatoire pour le statut de disponibilité

    Data della cessazione obbligatoria per lo stato di disponibilità

    2.      La date de départ a été ajustée.

    La data della cessazione è stata regolata.

    • In example 1, the translation uses the upper case because this is what is used in the source segment (even if the term in the dictionary is in lower case)
    • In example 2, the translation uses the lower case because there is an exact match.

    With a dictionary French > Spanish (term in upper case)

    For this test, the term in the dictionary was in upper case.

    French

    Spanish

    Date de départ

     Fecha de finalización

     

    We had the following segments to translate:

    French

    Spanish

    Date de départ obligatoire pour le statut de disponibilité

    Fecha de finalización es obligatorio para el estado de disponibilidad

    La date de départ a été ajustée

    Se ha ajustado el  Fecha de finalización.

     

    With a dictionary French > Spanish – (term in lower case)

    For this test, the term in the dictionary was in lower case.

    French

    Spanish

    date de départ

     fecha de finalización

     

    We had the following segments to translate:

    French

    Spanish

    Date de départ obligatoire pour le statut de disponibilité

    fecha de finalización es obligatorio para el estado de disponibilidad

    La date de départ a été ajustée

    Se ha ajustado el  fecha de finalización

     

    Regards,

    Sonia Guimond

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