What is the Spanish word for...?

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Translation buyers frequently suffer from this danger. They have had just enough Spanish in high school to know that there is a Spanish word for everything. On their tests, they matched English words with the corresponding Spanish words by drawing a line between them, or they wrote the Spanish word in the blank to replace the English word shown in parentheses.

From this limited experience, they know that there is a one-to-one correspondence between any English word and the one Spanish word that translates it. "Dog" is "perro," "cat" is "gato," "house" is "casa," and so on. So, naturally, what is true about words, must also be true about sentences, paragraphs, documents, and even entire books!

Translating, then, is just a matter of choosing the correct Spanish word for each English word. All you really need is a good dictionary that provides a translation for each word. And when it comes to hiring a translator, choosing between translators who charge 4 cents, 15 cents, or 50 cents per word is an easy choice: each of these translators will just end up producing the same exact translation, anyway, so obviously you should hire the cheapest one! Anyone who ever studied a language in high school could tell you that!

And that, of course, is the "logical" conclusion to an argument built on this foundation of "a little knowledge."

The dangers of a little knowledge, however, can usually be overcome with the application of a little thought.

What, for example, is the meaning of "dog" in English? Domesticated canine often kept as a pet? Sure. Ugly female? Oh, yeah. To follow someone persistently? Uh-oh, I think I see where this is going. How about: to chase with dogs, or a kind of sausage (hot dog, corn dog), or a really bad movie or novel, or feet (dogs)?

So, you say that the Spanish word for dog is always "perro"; is that your final answer?

How about the English phrase "get down"? Start or make to feel depressed? Move an object or oneself from a higher position in space to a lower one? Obtain soft feathers? Leave the table? Commit (an idea or thoughts) to paper? Boogie??

Even just "down" by itself: Eat or drink quickly. The aforementioned soft feathers. Depressed. Another attempt at moving the ball 10 yards. To knock something over. An amount paid at the beginning of a purchase by loan. Approximately half the answers in a crossword puzzle. The condition of a computer, or of a computer system, experiencing problems and, therefore, unavailable for use. In particle physics, a d quark.

Clearly, even just considering English, most words have many meanings and uses; some just two or three, but others, hundreds or even thousands. These meanings and uses have developed over centuries of use by English speakers, frequently without any influence from outside languages, and certainly without any concern for whether a newly created usage had a one-to-one equivalent in all the other languages of the world.

To translate between two languages, then, requires more than a great dictionary. It requires someone who knows enough English, for example, to understand the real meaning of "dog" or "get down" in a particular sentence, and who also knows enough Spanish to choose a Spanish expression which will capture and express that particular intended meaning faithfully.

When you hire better translators, your translation will be a more accurate and more faithful reflection of the original text. Your translation and your original will say the same thing, have the same meaning, and produce the same effect in the reader. With less expensive, less qualified translators, your original document will say one thing, but your translation will usually say something quite different!!

And as far as differences in rates go, translators, like anyone else, charge what they can. The ones who charge more have clients who are happy to pay that amount for the higher levels of expertise, quality, and service that brings. The ones who charge less either do not realize they could charge more or, more likely, are not offering their clients the expertise, quality, and service that would allow them to do so. Fortunately, translators in this position can, and often do, improve their knowledge, quality, and service as they continue in the profession, and are able to raise their rates accordingly. Differences in rates may not necessarily reflect differences in quality, but most of us understand that there is a relationship between the two. Not all $15,000 cars or $80 hotel rooms are identical, for example, but the $50,000 car or the $300 hotel room is probably much better! (And the same goes for translations.)