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About how many Chinese characters to English words in CHI-ENG texts?
Thread poster: Caroline Moreno
peiling
peiling  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 20:27
Chinese to English
+ ...
Self-analysis Aug 28, 2007

As I see it, the ratio varies from person to person. It'd probably give you a better idea of your own ratio (should be quite constant in my experience) by analysing a biggish translation project of your own.

Same goes for the second part of the question, of which I have not the slightest idea.
Caroline Moreno wrote:

I'm just hoping someone will give me a resource or an average ratio of about how many target English words are produced per every source Chinese character? I hope this question is phrased so that people can understand what I mean. Also, about how many Chinese characters and also how many English words appear on a standard full-text page? Thanks in advance friends!


 
lbone
lbone  Identity Verified
China
Local time: 03:27
Member (2006)
English to Chinese
+ ...
100 English words - 150-200 Chinese characters Aug 28, 2007

Caroline Moreno wrote:

I'm just hoping someone will give me a resource or an average ratio of about how many target English words are produced per every source Chinese character? I hope this question is phrased so that people can understand what I mean. Also, about how many Chinese characters and also how many English words appear on a standard full-text page? Thanks in advance friends!


1) ratios

In both Chinese to English and English to Chinese translations, 100 English words are about 150-200 Chinese characters (words), or:

100 Chinese words - 50-67 English words

Ratio may vary for the following reasons:
1.1 Type of project and requirements
1.2 Language/writing style of the translator on this direction. In addition, some translators are experts in increasing target word count.
1.3 Direction itself - usually we may expect more Chinese characters in English to Chinese translation, at least you can expect me on that (in most of my fields, I may add the English original text and/or some explanations where necessary).

2) typical word counts in a page
English: 200-350
Chinese: 300-500

Word count may vary for different page sizes/margins, font sizes, and text densities related to the average lengths of paragraphs, the distance between lines/paragraphs, images, layout, etc.

The word counts in a full-text page may be around the upper limits.

Counting it by yourself is always the best way for a fast and precise estimation.

[Edited at 2007-08-29 00:06]


 
Atilebari
Atilebari
German to Spanish
Chinese characters - spanish words Sep 13, 2007

I would also like to know how many spanisch words does it produce a chinese text... After reading about chinese-english I guess the translation into spanisch sould generate a little bit more words... about 200 words per 100 chinese characters, does it?

And how can I quote a translation? I think the best way is per source word... but what about rates? Which are the usual rates chinese-spanish? Is it possible to rate 0,12 (chinese character)- 0,24 spanish word?

Thanks


 
wherestip
wherestip  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 14:27
Chinese to English
+ ...
Spanish Sep 13, 2007

Atilebari wrote:



I would also like to know how many spanisch words does it produce a chinese text... After reading about chinese-english I guess the translation into spanisch sould generate a little bit more words... about 200 words per 100 chinese characters, does it?

And how can I quote a translation? I think the best way is per source word... but what about rates? Which are the usual rates chinese-spanish? Is it possible to rate 0,12 (chinese character)- 0,24 spanish word?

Thanks



I don't know about words, but from the Spanish I hear spoken, it's bound to generate tons of syllables

... just joking.


 
chrisleo
chrisleo
Local time: 03:27
Chinese to English
+ ...
1.5:1 Sep 14, 2007

如题

 
Jamasian
Jamasian
United States
Chinese to English
+ ...
Update on Word Count? Aug 30, 2016

Has there been any changes to how everyone counts charging Chinese source words? Here it seems you ended with 1.5 as an average. I saw one website where one person did 2:1. I'm in China now and many people are asking how much I charge per thousand characters. 怎么办呢?

 
David Lin
David Lin  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 19:27
Member (2013)
English to Chinese
+ ...

Moderator of this forum
range Aug 31, 2016

Jamasian wrote:

Has there been any changes to how everyone counts charging Chinese source words? Here it seems you ended with 1.5 as an average. I saw one website where one person did 2:1. I'm in China now and many people are asking how much I charge per thousand characters. 怎么办呢?


Try give them a range of say 1.5 and 2 but stress that the final charge will be based on the actual counting of English target words you will deliver.

This will give them an idea to budget while they do the pricing with different translators.

Just an idea.

David


 
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