5 Tricks for Completing Contract Translations at a Lower Price

By Rachel wheeler 

Understanding the culture and standard business practices of other countries demands expertise. Detailed attention to language translation that enhances and protects your business is essential.

For good business practice, contracts become critical tools for clarity and expectations. Poorly written contract translations can lead to ambiguity and the real risk of costs in fees, mediation, and other legal expenses.

A quality language service provider can help you navigate the pitfalls of working in another language. Many firms offers a suite of services geared to local markets, including not only legal document translation, but also subject matter expertise, print and online marketing, and industry familiarity and guidance.

These services do come at a cost of their own. Nevertheless, you can manage and lower your contract translation service prices by keeping these five points in mind:

1. Use Contract Models and Templates

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel every time you translate a contract. Most businesses utilize similar contract formats particular to their industry and legal system.

Understanding the layout of the contracts used in a local market can guide you to create an original document for translation that will reduce unnecessary revision and redrafting. You will already have a template for reference, saving you the time and money it takes creating a new one each time.

2. Use Plain Language in Your Contracts

Contract legal language can be unnecessarily complex. Utilize specific legal terms when necessary, but keep everything else in easy-to-understand language. Contracts do not need to be examples of impressive style flourishes; they need to be clear and understandable. Simple language reduces translation costs because they are more readily translated into similar simple language in the local language. Additionally, translation costs are often on a per-word basis. More simple language often means fewer words, keeping your price as low as possible.

3. Avoid Archaic Words

The legal world has a vast history that often relies on dated language. While these words might make some sense in the original language, they often do not have obvious foreign language analogs.

Eliminating words like “wherefore” and “hitherto” can reduce the time, cost, and ambiguity of contract translations. A good way to approach the proper word choice is to check if the syntax makes sense without the archaic word, or if a modern equivalent makes the intention clearer.

4. Don’t Repeat Words that Mean The Same Thing

It is tempting to use several words in a row to cover every nuance of meaning. In general, choosing the right word is more critical than presenting a group of words that mean slightly different things.

Writing that someone is “hired, employed, and contracted to…” stuffs your document with unnecessary clutter, and each word comes with a translation cost. Pick one word that has a simple, straightforward meaning.

5. Find A Language Translation Service That Uses Translation Memory

If you expect to have ongoing contract translation needs for your business, hiring a language translation service that uses translation memory can save you significant costs. Translation memory is a content management platform that saves your contract translations to a database for future use.

Rather than spend time translating standard paragraphs, headings, and sentences, your translation service can pull this information from previous projects. Since language translation services often charge by the word, translation memory can reduce the price of repeat translations.

A Language Translation Firm Can Save You Money

Your contracts are important, legally-binding agreements. Quality language translation firms can help save future costs by providing expert translations into local language that address the local culture and its legal requirements. By using the above tips, you can reduce your translation costs while still having the confidence that you have a comprehensive and accurate legal document.