{"id":6962,"date":"2011-07-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/2011\/07\/11\/what-is-a-translation-memory-tm\/"},"modified":"2021-01-04T19:10:11","modified_gmt":"2021-01-04T19:10:11","slug":"what-is-a-translation-memory-tm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/2011\/07\/11\/what-is-a-translation-memory-tm\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a translation memory (TM)?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"\/tools\/translation-memory-tools\/\"> Translation Memory (TM)<\/a> is a database which stores predetermined units of a source language together with its translated equivalent. A TM allows you to take advantage of repetitions within or between documents. In other words, the program that uses a TM will automatically translate repeated sentences by pulling the translation of a 100% matched and previously translated source sentence from the database.<\/p>\n<p>The different TM software uses complex &#8220;fuzzy-logic&#8221; algorithms that allow the translator to take advantage of similar previously translated source sentences. In other words, the TM application will pull the translation of a previously translated source sentence, which &#8220;somewhat&#8221; matches a new sentence, and allows the translator to change it accordingly.<\/p>\n<p>The main purpose of working with a TM tool is to save time and assure consistency in the <a href=\"\/tools\/translation-portals\/\"> translation process<\/a>. As a <a href=\"\/\">translation services agency<\/a> we at GPI integrate the translation memories in each translation project and customer.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the benefits of using TM&#8217;s are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ensure translators that the document is completely translated.<\/li>\n<li>Ensure consistency through all the file or files.<\/li>\n<li>Cost reduction for client and the translation company.<\/li>\n<li>Time saving while maintaining quality.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>What is the real impact of using TM technologies in the translation process?<\/h4>\n<p>With TM tools, translation agencies can analyze all source files received and breakdown <a href=\"\/request-a-quote\/\">translation costs<\/a> into different tiers, for example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>100% match and repetitions: 100% match will apply only if the client can provide previous approved translations; otherwise this will apply to upcoming translation projects. Repetitions are words repeated across the source files provided and they&#8217;re charged usually as same rate as 100% matches.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fuzzy_matching\">Fuzzy Matches<\/a>: Fuzzy matches are words\/sentences that are very similar to ones translated before. This will apply only if the client can provide previous approved translations; otherwise this will apply to upcoming translation projects.<\/li>\n<li>New words: Words\/sentences that don&#8217;t fall in the categories above.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Each tier listed above have a different price model which helps translation agencies and customers to achieve savings in cost and time for upcoming translation projects.<\/p>\n<h4>Common <a href=\"\/tools\/translation-memory-tools\/\"> Translation Memory tools<\/a><\/h4>\n<p>There are a variety of TM tools available. The list below highlights some of the tools more commonly used by linguists:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>SDL Trados 2009<\/li>\n<li>SDLX<\/li>\n<li>Trados<\/li>\n<li>D\u00e9j\u00e0 Vu<\/li>\n<li>Star Transit<\/li>\n<li>OmegaT<\/li>\n<li>Wordfast<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>Who does Translation Memory belong to?<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Translation Memory<\/strong> (TM) is an important asset, and it belongs to the client (you) who paid for it in the first place. All time spent creating TM is billable as part of on-going translation projects, so TM does not belong to the vendor (translation agency.)<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, there are a small number of <a href=\"\/\">translation vendors<\/a> who will attempt to &#8220;sit on&#8221; TM and not deliver it to their clients. If this ever happens to you, treat this as a &#8220;red flag&#8221; and consider finding another translation company to work with. Most translation agencies will deliver TM updates at the end of the project, or on a quarterly basis. Your TM files are highly &#8220;portable&#8221; and can be shared with a multitude of translation vendors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Translation Memory (TM) is a database which stores predetermined units of a source language together with its translated equivalent. A TM allows you to take advantage of repetitions within or between documents. In other words, the program that uses a TM will automatically translate repeated sentences by pulling the translation of a 100% matched and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":6963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[65,26,66,216,53,278,228],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6962"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6962"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22438,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6962\/revisions\/22438"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}