How Long Does a Translation Take?

For some reason, many clients remember about translation at the very last moment: the tender deadline is tomorrow and 150 pages have to be translated by morning, or an auditor arrives tomorrow and nobody thought about translating the quarterly financial report in advance. I could go on with examples from my own practice.

So to avoid an awkward situation, it's best to order translation well in advance. In this article you'll learn how long a translation takes and how much work a translator can do in a given time.

As a unit of measurement we'll use the standard translation page of 250 words. You can read more about it in our article on what a standard translation page is.

By common industry norms, a professional translator can translate 6 to 8 pages a day. That's a realistic daily volume at a decent level of quality.

Of course, under certain conditions a translator can do more. The most I have ever translated in one day was 18 standard pages. But I knew the subject very well, the client was someone I had worked with for years, and I had translation memories and term bases at hand. That case is the exception rather than the rule.

So if you need an urgent translation, plan on 6 to 8 pages a day per translator.

Now let's look more closely at what affects translation speed, so that when you order a translation you know how long it will take and how fast it can realistically be done.

From my experience in an in-house translation department, as a freelancer and as part of a team, translation speed depends on these factors:

• Translation direction
• Subject of the text
• Source file format
• Available reference material
• Current workload

Translation direction

It's only logical that speed depends on the target language. Translating into your native language is usually easier and faster than into a foreign one. Translating into a foreign language means paying attention to many linguistic details: the correct rendering of complex terminology, whether terms and collocations fit a given context and style, and other nuances.

That's why the industry follows a simple rule: a translation is assigned to a specialist whose native language, or near-native language, is the target language. That's considered the best way to ensure quality.

Subject of the text

The subject has a big impact on speed. A newspaper article or a short website news item of one standard page may take 30 to 40 minutes, while the same volume of a scientific paper, a complex legal document, a patent or a technical manual may take up to an hour and a half.

It all comes down to how complex the terminology is and how well the translator knows the field. That's why many professional translators prefer to work in specific subject areas.

We translate between English and Russian in science and technology, IT, law, marketing and tourism.

Source file format

The file format affects speed indirectly. Depending on the format, the document takes more or less time to process.

A document created in Microsoft Word needs no extra formatting work, while a handwritten document has to be translated from the page (or typed up first), and scanned PDFs or JPGs have to be converted into editable text with OCR.

In general, the more complex the source format, the longer it takes to prepare for translation, because in most cases the client wants the translation to match the original layout. So if you want your translation done quickly, send editable files such as Word, Excel or PowerPoint.

Available reference material

If you want to speed up the translation, help your translator! Send any reference material you have: a list of abbreviations used in the text, previously translated documents with their source files, glossaries or translation memory files (if other translators have provided them), and so on.

Without such material, the translator will have to research a lot on their own, such as deciphering your company's internal abbreviations and acronyms, which inevitably slows things down.

Current workload

Translators also factor in their current workload when estimating a deadline. An agency can handle more volume than a single translator. But keep in mind that a text translated by several people will vary a lot in style and terminology if the translators work remotely, aren't part of one team and don't use quality assurance software. In that case an editor must review the text afterwards to bring it to one style.

When a client needs a large volume translated quickly, we bring in a team of professional translators, up to 4 or 5 people per project. We have worked with many of them for over ten years, and we all work online in a shared CAT environment where results are synchronized, which keeps the terminology consistent.

So how long does a translation take?

Now you know what affects translation speed. On average, one translator handles 6 to 8 pages a day. If a team or an agency works on your text, ask how many translators will be involved and plan accordingly.