https://www.proz.com/forum/money_matters/127444-what_rate_to_quote_how_to_convert_cartelle_into_per_word_rates.html
This site uses cookies. Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site, while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used. For more information, please see the ProZ.com privacy policy.
Cookie settings

Translation - art & business » Money matters »
What rate to quote - how to convert cartelle into per-word rates?
Thread poster: Carole-Anne
Carole-Anne
Carole-Anne  Identity Verified
Local time: 15:01
Italian to English
Feb 12, 2009

I work as a translator in Italy, where it is common practice to quote on a € per cartella basis (a cartella being 1500 characters including spaces). How do I go about translating this into the rate calculation used here?

[Subject edited by staff or moderator 2009-02-12 14:24 GMT]
 
Latin_Hellas (X)
Latin_Hellas (X)
United States
Local time: 15:01
Italian to English
+ ...
Approximation Feb 12, 2009

Well, since you're in Italy, I suppose you can't insist that they change their quotation method which has worked for me being outside: everyone I work with has complied.

Anyway, use the approximation that each word is 6.5 characters, so a cartella is 1500 characters divided by 6.5 = 232.46 words. So €12 per cartella is about €0.05 per word (12/232.46). Again, this is an approximation, not exact.

Hope this helps.
 
Claudio Porcellana (X)
Claudio Porcellana (X)  Identity Verified
Italy
cartelle contro parole Feb 12, 2009

in media, una cartella = 1500 caratteri
in media, una parola = 5 caratteri
quindi in media, una cartella = 300 parole

Claudio
 
gianfranco
gianfranco  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 10:01
Member (2001)
English to Italian
+ ...
About 220-230 words per cartella (1500 keystrokes) Feb 12, 2009

Claudio,

Latin_Hellas's value is more realistic than yours, and 300 words per cartella is far too high.

Time ago I posted some average calculations in the Italian forum, using quite large samples of text.
The average value were ranging between 220 and 235 words per 1500 characters, therefore 230 words is a good average value for estimating a wordcount.

Note that once it is known the average length of 5.5 characters per word,
you have to divi... See more
Claudio,

Latin_Hellas's value is more realistic than yours, and 300 words per cartella is far too high.

Time ago I posted some average calculations in the Italian forum, using quite large samples of text.
The average value were ranging between 220 and 235 words per 1500 characters, therefore 230 words is a good average value for estimating a wordcount.

Note that once it is known the average length of 5.5 characters per word,
you have to divide 1500 by 6.5 (to include the spaces).
The correct calculation is: 1500 / 6.5 = about 230 words per cartella

See the old discussion in http://www.proz.com/post/84961#84961

bye
Gianfranco



[Edited at 2009-02-12 16:16 GMT] ▲ Collapse
 
Marie-Hélène Hayles
Marie-Hélène Hayles  Identity Verified
Local time: 15:01
Italian to English
+ ...
Agree with Gianfranco Feb 12, 2009

For me at least, one cartella of target language as I write it is fairly consistently 220 words, and that's what I use to convert my rates (regardless of whether I'm asked to quote in source or target).

Anyway, its easy enough to work it out for yourself, on source or target as you prefer: just do a word count in Word, which will give you figures for both number of characters (use the number including spaces) and number of words. It's best to do this on several files, so you get an ... See more
For me at least, one cartella of target language as I write it is fairly consistently 220 words, and that's what I use to convert my rates (regardless of whether I'm asked to quote in source or target).

Anyway, its easy enough to work it out for yourself, on source or target as you prefer: just do a word count in Word, which will give you figures for both number of characters (use the number including spaces) and number of words. It's best to do this on several files, so you get an average.

To take the file I'm working on right now (which is currently uncleaned so includes both source and target segments)

Number of characters: 33103 / 1500 = 22.1

number of words: 4528

4528/22.1 = 205 words/cartella

[Edited at 2009-02-12 16:30 GMT] ▲ Collapse
 
Carole-Anne
Carole-Anne  Identity Verified
Local time: 15:01
Italian to English
TOPIC STARTER
Thanks so much for the prompt replies Feb 12, 2009

Thank-you everyone this has really helped. I will get my calculator out and start converting.
 


To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator:

Moderator(s) of this forum
Jorge Rodrigues[Call to this topic]
Andriy Bublikov[Call to this topic]
Rita Pang[Call to this topic]
James Heppe-Smith[Call to this topic]

You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request »

What rate to quote - how to convert cartelle into per-word rates?


Translation news
» Climate Cardinals Plans To Double Its Science Translation Efforts With New Google Backing
(0 comments)
» Translation trends at the London Book Fair: Japanese are overtaking the UK market, translations from Ukrainian are on the rise
(0 comments)
» Survey finds generative AI proving major threat to the work of translators
(0 comments)


Forum rules
Help and orientation




Protemos translation business management system
Create your account in minutes, and start working! 3-month trial for agencies, and free for freelancers!

The system lets you keep client/vendor database, with contacts and rates, manage projects and assign jobs to vendors, issue invoices, track payments, store and manage project files, generate business reports on turnover profit per client/manager etc.

More info »
TM-Town
Manage your TMs and Terms ... and boost your translation business

Are you ready for something fresh in the industry? TM-Town is a unique new site for you -- the freelance translator -- to store, manage and share translation memories (TMs) and glossaries...and potentially meet new clients on the basis of your prior work.

More info »