What is it?

Pseudotranslation is the process in which a simulated translation is performed and the length of the target text is increased by a certain percentage.

What is its purpose?

Although not all the TM tools currently available support this functionality, the ability to perform a pseudotranslation at the beginning of the project can save a lot of effort later on.

The main purpose of performing a pseudotranslation is to check that the usual text expansion can be accomodated by the format of the target file (format which is identical to the one of the source file).

For instance, in the case of software menus, translations of the source strings can be too long for the areas in which they are meant to be displayed. Consequently, if that particular piece of software is not adapted to support the expansion of the original strings, the entire translation/localisation effort will be compromised as no software producer will/should release onto the market an application with such visible flaws.

Pseudotranslation can be as important for the translator as it is for the software engineer involved in the previous example. Translators need to find out very quickly if a new job will involve significant effort in formatting the target file, too - such as in the case of files containing numerous textboxes - so that they can include the appropriate fee in their quote to the clients.

The next page contains a short demonstration of such a scenario.