| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Advice on charging - source or target? Thread poster: katherine-anne
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I am starting out as a French/English translator specialising in marketing materials, and am familiar with charging by hour or day. When being asked to quote by word, are we talking about source language? Any advice on reasonable rates ( I live in the S of France - but not the Cote d'Azur, so can't fleece my clients!
[Subject edited by staff or moderator 2005-06-09 09:09]
| | | | | A matter of choice | Jun 9, 2005 |
katherine-anne wrote:
.. so can't fleece my clients!
[Subject edited by staff or moderator 2005-06-09 09:09]
Don't forget that clients browse these forums too, so be careful of the impression you give out! As far as source or target is concerned, in my experience it's a matter of choice. If you charge by source the client knows in advance how much he has to pay, rather than waiting for the target word count once the job has been completed.
Good luck!
| | | | Samuel Murray 
Netherlands
Local time: 08:47
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
| I charge for souce | Jun 9, 2005 |
katherine-anne wrote:
When being asked to quote by word, are we talking about source language?
Some quote by source and some quote by target -- there is no 'standard'. Quoting by source makes it possible for you to tell the client upfront how much he'll pay. If the client says "no, I want you to charge the other way", be sure to alter your rate to reflect the fact that the other language may use less words.
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Jeremy Smith
United Kingdom
Local time: 07:47
Member (2003)
French to English
+ ...
| Source for me | Jun 9, 2005 |
As stated above, with charging by the source word the client knows how much it will be in advance. With the added bonus if you're doing French into English, the French wordcount is liable to be higher than the English one.
| | | | | Source as a rule, target when establishing source count is a problem | Jun 9, 2005 |
I usually charge per source word but often it's just simpler to charge per target word (for example when the files have been faxed, scanned and then made into a pdf).
| | | | | Target for me! | Jun 9, 2005 |
I charge per target word or line because I believe it's my work that should be paid. This is especially the case when translating from Eng - Ger as usually a German text is at least 25% longer than the English one.
Regards and happy translating!
Kathinka
| | | | BelkisDV
United States
Local time: 02:47
Spanish to English
+ ...
| Target language because... | Jun 9, 2005 |
I realize it's easier for clients to know how much something is going to cost from the beginning, however, in my opinion that's not the reason why they prefer to pay for the word count of the source text. The reason is as always cutting costs.
I learned how to figure out the "vocabulary increase" (or decrease) from English into the Romance languages. Therefore when I get a document I prepare an estimate which includes that vocabulary increase (15-20% from English into Spanish). Cli... See more I realize it's easier for clients to know how much something is going to cost from the beginning, however, in my opinion that's not the reason why they prefer to pay for the word count of the source text. The reason is as always cutting costs.
I learned how to figure out the "vocabulary increase" (or decrease) from English into the Romance languages. Therefore when I get a document I prepare an estimate which includes that vocabulary increase (15-20% from English into Spanish). Clients have always accepted my prices. The opposite applies if it's a translation from Spanish into English (10-15% vocabulary decrease).
There was an instance of a client who first asked how I charged and then said "nevermind, you're going to charge me for monosyllables also". I replied "yes sir, unless you would prefer for me to leave them out".
Good luck to all, learn the vocabulary increase in your language pairs. I've been right on the dot so many times when preparing an estimate it's scary. One gets better with practice.
Cheers!
Belkis ▲ Collapse
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Williamson
United Kingdom
Local time: 07:47
Flemish to English
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| F>E: Source... | Jun 9, 2005 |
It depends: I have the following rule: If it is from a Romanic language>Germanic language I'd take the Romanic language as a basis.
If it is the other way around, I would take the target language. Romanic languages tend to be more analytic (descriptive), Germanic languages more synthetic.
For Slavonic languages I would choose the target language, if the source language is Russian.
For other Slavonic languages, I am curious to know....
For Oriental languages, I was told... See more It depends: I have the following rule: If it is from a Romanic language>Germanic language I'd take the Romanic language as a basis.
If it is the other way around, I would take the target language. Romanic languages tend to be more analytic (descriptive), Germanic languages more synthetic.
For Slavonic languages I would choose the target language, if the source language is Russian.
For other Slavonic languages, I am curious to know....
For Oriental languages, I was told that you take a 400 character rule= one page. Correct me if I am wrong?
I would also be curious to know what happens When translating into agglutinating languages such as Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian,... ▲ Collapse
| | | | | What are going rates in the Languedoc? | Jun 9, 2005 |
[quote]Fiona Peterson wrote:
katherine-anne wrote:
.. so can't fleece my clients!
[Subject edited by staff or moderator 2005-06-09 09:09]
Don't forget that clients browse these forums too, so be careful of the impression you give out!
Thanks for the warning, but I was simply trying to ask what is a fair rate in my geographical area. Any advice, anyone?
| | | | Dr. Janos Annus (X)
Hungary
Local time: 08:47
English to Hungarian
+ ...
| English > Hungarian | Jun 9, 2005 |
Hi,
When translating from English the number of Hungarian words tends to be somewhat less (about 5%), but the number of characters with or without spaces considerably more: about 20-25%. Hungarian words are about 7-8 character long, as an average. At least from my experience.
Have a good day
Janos
| | | | BelkisDV
United States
Local time: 02:47
Spanish to English
+ ...
To Williamson and Janos, I've always wondered about the vocabulary increase in other languages.
Happy translating!
Belkis
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BelkisDV
United States
Local time: 02:47
Spanish to English
+ ...
Kathinka Lavelle wrote:
I charge per target word or line because I believe it's my work that should be paid. This is especially the case when translating from Eng - Ger as usually a German text is at least 25% longer than the English one.
Regards and happy translating!
Kathinka
Way to go, I agree 100%.
Cheers.
Belkis
| | | | Edward Potter
Spain
Local time: 08:47
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
| Source (generally) | Jun 10, 2005 |
I usually use the source count in order to know the exact amount to be paid beforehand. This avoids potential misunderstandings later. I generally only use target counts when the source text is difficult to count accurately.
Of course for languages such as German, line count or something similar should be used. I recently had a customer call from Germany wanting to use the German word count without increasing the rate. We did not agree to the price on that one.
I ha... See more I usually use the source count in order to know the exact amount to be paid beforehand. This avoids potential misunderstandings later. I generally only use target counts when the source text is difficult to count accurately.
Of course for languages such as German, line count or something similar should be used. I recently had a customer call from Germany wanting to use the German word count without increasing the rate. We did not agree to the price on that one.
I have another customer in Spain who always wants to use target count for Spanish to English translations. I have a very funny feeling that they use source count when they pay for English to Spanish translations. Out of several job offers I only accepted about two from them - when they were desperate and had no one else and somehow decided to accept my terms. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Czech - German: target | Jun 11, 2005 |
Williamson wrote:
For other Slavonic languages, I am curious to know....
As a rule of thumb, I found that Czech texts are about 20-25% shorter than German, among other things due to the (very frequent) omission of articles and personal pronouns so I prefer to charge by target...
Charlotte
| | | | | Pages in topic: [1 2] > | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » Advice on charging - source or target? | Trados Business Manager Lite | Create customer quotes and invoices from within Trados Studio
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