After initially starting part-time in 2001 and going full-time in 2004, I now have the equivalent of thirteen years full time experience and my language combinations are Italian, French, Spanish, and Portuguese into English. I am a mother-tongue English speaker from Britain with an Oxford degree.

My subject specialisations involve formal language and are the following:

Medicine
Pharmacology
Dentistry
Dental prostheses
Legal medicine and forensics
Law
Finance
Urbanism
Health and Safety
Material Safety Data Sheets
Academic articles
Buying a house in Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal

So the documents I translate tend to be formal ones such as contracts, balance sheets, profit and loss accounts, medical reports, patient notes, pharmaceutical clinical trials, academic articles, and official house purchase documents.

Quality

My own quality control is quite rigorous. I proofread my draft translation twice, and follow the advice in articles on proofreading that I have downloaded from the Internet. The main problems in my specialisations are the technical terms, abbreviations and acronyms, and the style. To avoid leaving tipos, spacing, and punctuation errors in my translations, I use the Find and Replace function in Word and in addition to using the Spellchecker, I have a program called Editor to proof the file.

I also have a great many glossaries, dictionaries, and supporting reference materials to produce quality translations as you can see from a few examples from the lists of my paper-based resources below, which include my own hand-written glossaries. The full lists are available upon request.

In addition, I have lists of ‘false-friends’ and I am in the process of putting them in the Wordfast glossaries I use for each of the language combinations that I translate.

If possible I add a day to the time I expect a translation to take so that any unforeseen problems do not affect the quality or delay the consignment of my translation. I translate 1500 words a day, revise 6000 words a day of human translation, and 4000 words a day of machine translation.

I aim for continuous professional development, learning from successes, from proof reading other translator’s work, and reading books and articles of advice on translating. As provided for in ISO9001 and EN15038 certification, feedback about my translations is most welcome to help achieve quality standards.

Email:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

Translation and Revision Rates

My translation rates depend on the level of difficulty of the text. The average is 0.10 Euro per word. Furthermore, the following surcharges apply:

1) Documents with a lot of formatting such as letters – 50%
2) Tables – 100%
3) Documents full of abbreviations and acronyms – 100%
4) Handwriting – 200% to 300%

Revision/review costs 0.03 to 0.06 Euro per word (30 to 60 Euros an hour). A bad translation that takes a lot of time to revise has an additional premium.

I charge €0.06 per word for machine translation.

My minimum charge is 30 Euros.

Tests for translation agencies cost 0.10 Euro per work or a minimum of 30 Euros whichever is the larger amount.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon,

Best Wishes

Clive Prestt

Email:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

Examples of Dictionaries, Glossaries, and Specialised Books Spanish <> English

The Oxford Spanish Dictionary ES<>EN
Larousse Gran Diccionario: English-Spanish/Espanol-Ingles
Glosario Internacional para el traductor ES<>EN- Mariana Orellana (Forth Edition - Editorial Universitaria)
Diccionario Mosby de Medicina ES<>EN (Elsevier)

French <> English

Larousse Grand Dictionnaire, Français-Anglais, Anglais-Français
Cassell's French Dictionary by Denis Girard
Quebecois-English/English-Quebecois Dictionary and Phrasebook (Hippocrene Dictionary and Phrasebooks)
Merriam Webster’s FR<>EN Dictionary ‘Highlights Canadian terms’
Dahl’s Law Dictionary FR<>EN (Third Edition)
International Law Dictionary FR<>EN by Ernest Lindbergh (Blackstone Press Ltd - 1992)
FR<>EN Harrap-Dalloz French Law Dictionary
Oxford Business French Dictionary – edited by Marianne Chalmers and Marine Pierquin (OUP – 2002)

Italian > English

Law Dictionary IT>EN by Francesco de Franchis

Italian <> English
Collins Zanichelli il Ragazzino Dictionary IT<>EN
Gould Chiampo Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Medicine IT<>EN
International Lexicon of Odontology IT<>EN, FR, DE edited by Vito Maria Melica (Masson Italia Periodici)
Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Economics and Commerce IT<>EN by Fernando Picchi
Harrap’s IT<>EN Business Dictionary (1984)

Synonyms & Antonyms

Webster’s New Explorer Dictionary of Synonyms & Antonyms
Collins Internet–linked Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms
Oxford Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms
Reader’s Digest Family Word Finder – A New Thesaurus of Synonyms and Antonyms in Dictionary Form

Style

The Chicago Manual of Style (the university of Chicago Press – 14th Edition – 1993)

Legal Systems

English Legal System by Catherine Elliott and Frances Quinn (Pearson Longman – Fifth Edition 2004)
The French Legal System by Catherine Elliott, Eric Jeanpierre, and Catherine Vernon (Pearson Longman – First Edition 2006)
You and the Law in Spain by David Searl (Sanatana Books – Fifteenth Ed.2004)
The Spanish Legal System by Elena Merino-Blanco (Sweet & Maxwell - 1996)
The Italian Legal System by G. L. Certoma (Butterworth’s Legal Systems of the World - 1985)

Forensic Science

Clinical Forensic Medicine edited by W D S McLay (Greenwich Medical Media – 2nd Edition – 1996)
Forensic Medicine for Lawyers by J K Mason (Butterworths – 1995)

Pharmacology

Textbook of Pharmacology by W C Bowman/M J Rand (Blackwell Scietfic Publications – 2nd Edition 1980)

Pharmaceutical Clinical Trials

Handbook of Clinical Trials – Editors: Marcus Flather, Hazel Aston, Rod Stables (ReMEDICA Publishing – 2001)
Introduction to Clinical Pharmacology by Marilyn Winterton Edmunds (Mosby Elevier – 6th Edition 2010)


Email:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

Portuguese Dictionaries - General

The New Michaelis Illustrated Dictionary PT>EN (1320 pages) and EN>PT (1123 pages) (Melhoramentos - 31st Edition – 1982)
‘Dicionários Modernos’ Portuguese Dictionary PT<>EN (Porto Editora - 2012)
Collins Portuguese Dictionary PT<>EN (1991)
Larouse Portuguese Dictionary PT<>EN (2008)
The Routledge Portuguese Bilingual Dictionary (Routledge – 1st Edition – 2011)
Wordsworth Reference Dictionary PT<>EN (1996)
Dicionários Académicos: Dicionário De Inglês-Português (Porto Editora – 1997)
A Portuguese – English Dictionary by James L. Taylor (Stanford University Press – 3rd Edition – 1970)
Brazilian Portuguese Dictionary and Phrase Book PT<>EN (Hippocrene Books - 2004)
Longman Dicionário Escolar para estudantes braslilieros PT<>EN (2002)
Oxford Dicionário Escolar para estudantes braslilieros PT<>EN (OUP – revised 2nd Edition - 2009)
Modern Portuguese – English English-Portuguese Dictionary by Elbert l. Richardson, Maria de Lourdes Sá Pereira, and Milton Sá Pereira (Harrap – 1st Edition – 1944)
Dictionaries – Specialised
Dictionary of Finance by Luis Waldmann PT<>EN (Top Tier Publishing - 2012)
Portuguese Business Dictionary by Mary Sofer and MariCamen Pizarro (Schreiber Publishing – 2006)
Finanças Dicionário Bilingue PT>EN (The Economist Books – Edções CETOP - 1sr Edition – 1998)
Dicionário Verbo de Inglês Técnico e Cientifífico PT<>EN (Editorial Verbo - 1994)
Glossaries
European Employment & Industrial Relations Glossary: Portugal (Sweet and Maxwell – 1996)
Glossary of Public Service Interpreters by Helena L. Masri EN>PT (2001)
Multilingual Dictionaries and Glossaries
British Chambers of Commerce Six Language Business Dictionary IT, ES, FR, PT > EN (1978)
IMF Glossary FR<>EN, PT<>EN

Specialised Books

Portuguese Business Law by Maria Antónia Cameira (MX Publsihing – 2nd Edition – 2006)
Buying a Property in Portugal by Sue Tyson-Ward (howtobooks – 2004)
Portugal
Teach Yourself Portuguese Language, Life, & Culture by Sue Tyson-Ward (Hodder Headline Plc – 2002)
Portuguese Grammar
Portuguese: An Essential Grammar by Amélia P. Hutchinson and Janet Lloyd (Routledge – 2nd Edition – 2003)
Essential Portuguese Grammar by Alexander Da R Prista (Dover Publications, Inc – 1966)
Portuguese Verbs Explained: An Essential Guide by Manuela Cook (Lusophone Publishing – 2nd Edition – 2009)
501 Portuguese Verbs by John J. Nitti and Michael J. Ferreira (Barron’s Educational Series - 2nd Edition – 2005)

Others
The Portuguese Language by J. Mattoso Camara, Jr. (translated by Anthony J. Naro) – (The University of Chicago Press – 1972)