RE: Translation question: words numbers in different languages?

["technical writing plus" <doc-x -at- earthlink -dot- net>]

Interesting, that Wikipedia article. I'll have to read it in detail later.
As to the estimate for your English to French document, I cannot add too
much to Simon North's reply, other than to agree that normally 'target
language' is used as the basis for the cost of the translation, and not
'source language'. It does seem that they should be able to give you a
general range for the statistic that you are looking for. Jim Jones

-----Original Message-----
On 7/16/07, Susan Hogarth <hogarth -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
> I have a doc we are going to have translated to French from English.
> The procurement people tell me that the translators charge .16-.17/per
> word of *French* (the 'to' language). My boss wants me to tell her how
> much the translation will cost. I have the number of words in English
> (1,500), but no way to estimate how many French words it would be. Is
> there an easy rule-of-thumb? The document is written for educated
> non-scientist types about health research.

Trying to Google this, I came up with this completely bizarre article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales

I guess I knew there was some sort of confusion, but I thought it was
just me and poor memory. I haven't done much international stuff
before. This makes the A3/letter paper issue seem trivial by
comparison...

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to Help file formats or 
printed documentation. Features include support for Windows Vista & 2007 
Microsoft Office, team authoring, plus more.
http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList

True single source, conditional content, PDF export, modular help.
Help & Manual is the most powerful authoring tool for technical
documentation. Boost your productivity! http://www.helpandmanual.com

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info.