Many people have the wrong idea that if they can speak a second language, then they’re capable of translating it, but it doesn’t work that way. A good translation not only implies finding what a word means in another language, but also being able to maintain the meaning of the message it conveys.
How many times have you used an automatic translator and realized that the text obtained is a bit out of touch? Many, right? This happens for several reasons, but especially because of the way these tools work: by performing word-by-word translations. It's not like this technology is all bad—in fact, it's a great way for professional translators to save time while delivering the same high quality. But the fact remains that you need a human translator's expertise.
1. Literality is not what you need.
If you’re looking for a professional Norwegian translation, automatic systems alone won't cut it. As programs, they don’t have the human qualities required to make a subjective and personalized interpretation. Therefore, if you opt for a machine translation without an experienced human translator to verify the accuracy, you’ll get a literal and rigid text that hardly captures the true intention of what the issuer wants to transmit to others.
2. Word-by-word translation can ruin the message.
A major disadvantage of automatic translators is that they translate word by word. In other words, they don’t consider complete sentences, so the content can lose its meaning since they study its equivalent instead of its meaning. In the same way, they don’t follow the grammatical structures corresponding to each language, which can generate a final result that’s completely different from what was expected. Professional human translators, armed with the original text, can easily clean up machine-generated translations, but you never want to rely on machine translation alone.
3. Norwegian has a different alphabet.
Another big problem that results from using automatic translators instead of quality Norwegian translation services is the deficit in the correct use of letters, signs and even numbers. For instance, the Norwegian alphabet has 29 letters, 26 from the Latin alphabet plus Æ, Ø and Å.
4. Differences in semantics.
Each language has its semantic creation possibilities. In Norwegian, for example, you can compose long words through agglutination. One of them could be sannsynlighetsestimator (advisor of maximum probability). Nevertheless, the influence of English has reduced its use. As a consequence, new words are created. On other occasions, the meaning of the words is reversed. In this way, for example, “not smoking” becomes røykfritt (smoking freely).
5. Norwegian has a wide variety of dialects.
Currently, it’s unknown exactly how many Norwegian dialects there are. They can include variations in grammar, syntax and lexicon, which make idioms unintelligible for those unfamiliar with them. For that reason, automated translation software can't be trusted to produce a high-quality Norwegian translation—at least not without the careful oversight of a skilled human translator.
Are you looking for a professional Norwegian native-speaking translator who can avoid all the pitfalls?
You’ve come to the right place! Our professional Norwegian translators have extensive experience overcoming these stakes. If you have a text and need a professional Norwegian translation, don’t hesitate to contact us! We’re here to help you and offer you all our knowledge on the subject.