{"id":432,"date":"2016-04-01T21:50:41","date_gmt":"2016-04-01T16:20:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ulatus.com\/translation-blog\/?p=432"},"modified":"2024-12-03T20:02:41","modified_gmt":"2024-12-03T14:32:41","slug":"translation-space-issues-and-line-breaks-alignment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ulatus.com\/translation-blog\/translation-space-issues-and-line-breaks-alignment\/","title":{"rendered":"Translation Services: Why Even Spaces and Line Breaks Matter in Translation"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are times when just one alignment mistake on an application, contract, or formula could cost you your patent, contract, or reputation!<\/p>\n

While a translator with the lowest bid, or even strictly machine translation services<\/a>, might serve you well for basic text, when dealing with formal government documents, contracts, texts with graphics, projects where page or information alignment is critical, or information projects involving data fields, this choice could come back to haunt you.<\/p>\n

Surprisingly, one of the greatest mistakes made by those who are not professional translators is not with the text itself, but with blank spaces.<\/p>\n

The Dilemma of Handling Translation Space Issues<\/h2>\n

Words are rarely translated on a one-to-one basis, especially when translating between languages like English and Japanese<\/a>. It may take an entire paragraph of Japanese to express what was written in only a few English words. When you have a limitless number of pages, this is not a problem. When filling out forms or adhering to a strict format, however, text expansion and contraction shift from a mere hindrance to a major obstacle or even a critical fail.<\/p>\n

It is not just words that offer a challenge, but phrases, too. Many languages, like Dutch, German, and Finnish, replace entire English phrases with one large compound word. Other languages can express a longer thought in a single short word or shorter phrase. Translating a document from English to Thai, Spanish, Polish, or Portuguese may shorten the text by up to 15 percent, while the same document may be lengthened by 20 percent in Korean, 30 percent in Hebrew, 40 percent in Finnish, and up to 60 percent in Japanese.<\/p>\n

While you may not run into ‘rindfleischetikettierungs\u00fcberwachungsaufgaben\u00fcbertragungsgesetz’, the actual word that replaces “the law for the delegation of monitoring beef labeling”, the challenge should be clear.\u00a0 “See you tomorrow” in French becomes “\u00e0 demain”.\u00a0 These may not seem to be major problems, but consider the following scenarios:<\/p>\n