Pre-Editing for AI Translation: A Practical Efficiency Guide

Note: This blog post was originally written in Japanese for our Japanese website. We use our machine translation platforms to translate and make automatic corrections, and then partially edit to fit the content in English.

As globalization advances, more companies are encountering situations where translation is required on an everyday basis, for emails, manuals, contracts, and technical documents. Machine translation and generative AI are expected to significantly cut down on the time and effort translation takes. However, we often hear feedback like, "We still have to make so many revisions after translation that our workload hasn't dropped as much as expected," or "The results from AI translation are inconsistent."

Many of these issues actually stem from the source text itself, before translation even begins. Machine translation and generative AI process the source text as it is, so if the source text is ambiguous, the output tends to become unstable and misleading. In other words, an ambiguous source text produces an ambiguous translation. This is why pre-editing, the process of refining the source text before translation, is relevant.

In this post, we'll walk through the key points of pre-editing that you can put into practice right away when using AI for translation, along with its practical benefits.

What is pre-editing?

Pre-editing means preparing the source text before translation so AI can interpret it correctly.

Rather than changing the meaning of the text, this involves tasks like clarifying ambiguous expressions, simplifying sentence structure, standardizing terminology, and adding necessary background information.

Post-editing is correcting the translation after the fact, but pre-editing works as a preventative measure that significantly cuts down on rework.

Here's a closer look at each of these points.

Eliminate ambiguous language and clarify the subject

Business documents often use expressions like "this," "that," "as appropriate," and "promptly," leaving interpretation up to the reader. AI translation can't infer meaning from context, so these expressions raise the risk of mistranslation. For example:

• "Please check this." → It's unclear what "this" refers to.
• "Please handle XX as needed." → The conditions are vague.
• "There is some variation." → The range or criteria are unclear.

Simply rephrasing these so the subject, conditions, reasons, and scope are clear will significantly improve translation results.

Eliminating ambiguity in the source text keeps AI translation accuracy consistent and reduces the burden of post-translation editing.

Keep sentence structures simple and break up long sentences

In sentences with long clauses, it can be hard to tell which modifier applies to which part of the sentence. In particular:

• Sentences with too many commas
• Sentences where the subject and predicate are far apart
• Sentences with ambiguous logical relationships due to a lack of conjunctions

These factors, among others, can lead to mistranslation.

You can improve AI translation accuracy just by keeping the following in mind during pre-editing:

• Break long sentences into multiple sentences.
• Add conjunctions such as "however" or "therefore" where needed.
• Place modifiers close to the noun they modify.

Breaking up long sentences alone improves AI translation accuracy and makes the text easier to read.

Standardize terminology and add background information

If terminology isn't consistent in the source text, the translation won't be consistent either. Common culprits include:

• Company-specific abbreviations that appear without explanation
• Product or feature names spelled multiple different ways

One solution is to build a glossary. Standardizing terminology in the source text through a glossary eliminates inconsistencies in the translated text and improves translation accuracy.

AI translation also struggles with texts that lack sufficient background information, particularly for technical and quality-related documents, where missing context can lead to mistranslation. When the background is clear, the translation is more consistent and conveys the message accurately to the reader.

Summary

Pre-editing is one of the simplest ways to improve translation quality and work efficiency at the same time.

Basic measures like clarifying ambiguous expressions, shortening sentences, standardizing terminology, and providing background information can significantly cut down on translation revisions and streamline your company's entire translation workflow. Build pre-editing into your daily workflow, and you'll consistently see benefits like lower translation costs, shorter turnaround times, fewer mistranslations, and more consistent document quality.

Kawamura International's translation services

If you'd like expert support putting these principles into practice, we're here to help. At Kawamura International, we handle translation across a wide range of fields, including IT and localization, medical devices and pharmaceuticals, tourism and inbound travel, manufacturing, finance, business, and legal affairs, as well as SAP-related documents. We assign the translator best suited to your industry and area of expertise, and every translator on our team is an experienced professional who has met our rigorous screening standards.

If you're looking to streamline your translation workflow or reduce post-editing rework, we'd love to help. Feel free to reach out.