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All categories/Translation and localisation

Translation practice · Level Advanced · Translation Marketing Localisation

Marketing copy: transcreate, not translate

A slogan translated literally falls flat.

Prompt

First decide what the text does: inform, persuade or process. The same sentence translates differently. You translate function, not words.

Task: A slogan translated literally falls flat.

[Before you start, do three things]
1. Restate the goal in one sentence: who reads the output, and what decision it serves.
2. If I have not given you the following, ask me. Do not assume:
   - selling point and emotion
   - target culture
   - brand voice
   - length and layout
3. Say how you plan to do it (at most 5 steps) and wait for my go-ahead.

[Go through each of these]
- extract the point and emotion, forget the wording
- three rewrites
- culture-specific items and substitutes
- what claims are not allowed in that market

[Process]
1. Confirm purpose, audience, venue
2. Fix terminology and proper nouns
3. Restructure per target-language habit
4. Flag what cannot be translated literally and needs the author
5. Check numbers, units, names

[Output]
Translation, glossary, list of uncertainties.

[Do not]
- No word-for-word rendering
- Never smooth away facts or qualifiers
- No inconsistent invented terminology
- Never present guesses as fact

What to state before it starts

Leave these unsaid and the model fills them with an assumption. Most 'wrong answers' start here.

  • selling point and emotion
  • target culture
  • brand voice
  • length and layout

Go through each of these

Where this kind of work most often goes wrong. Already in the prompt, so you do not have to remember it.

  • extract the point and emotion, forget the wording
  • three rewrites
  • culture-specific items and substitutes
  • what claims are not allowed in that market