Machine translation post-editing: The only guide you need

What is machine translation post-editing (MTPE)?

Machine Translation Post-Editing (MTPE) is the process of improving machine-translated text to make it accurate, natural-sounding, and suitable for the intended audience.

It combines the speed of machine translation with the expertise of human editors, who refine the content by correcting mistakes and improving readability.

Example of MTPE

Let’s say a SaaS company wants to translate their website copy from English to German. The original tagline might say: “Boost your productivity with our easy-to-use software.”

Let’s see how a free machine translation tool like Google Translate would translate it to German:

The German translation generated by Google Translate goes like this:

“Steigern Sie Ihre Produktivität mit unserer einfach zu bedienenden Software.”

While this is grammatically correct, it sounds a bit stiff and formal. It doesn’t really reflect the tone of voice from the source copy.

A professional translator knows how to make it more natural sounding and informal, so they might write something like this in the post-editing process:

“Mit unserer benutzerfreundlichen Software steigern Sie mühelos Ihre Produktivität.”

A professional linguist can reference the Style Guide of the client, and decide on the best way to post-edit the sentence. So, they might even choose to switch from the formal “Sie” to the informal “du”, in which case the sentence would read:

"Mit unserer benutzerfreundlichen Software steigerst du mühelos deine Produktivität."

This version feels more personal and casual, which might be better suited for a younger audience or a brand with a friendly and approachable tone.

Types of machine-translation post editing

There are two main types of post-editing process: light post-editing and full post-editing. Each serves a different purpose depending on the project’s needs.

Both approaches to editing machine-generated translations will help you save time and money. So, what’s the main difference? Which one should you choose?

• Light post-editing = Fast, functional, and with minimum effort
• Full post-editing = Detailed, polished, and audience-ready

Light post-editing

Light post-editing is about making the content understandable and accurate. The goal is not perfection but clarity. Here, you’d fix big errors, adjust awkward phrases, and ensure the meaning is correct. Style and tone are not a top priority.

When to use: Ideal for quick translations (e.g., internal documents, emails) or content with a short lifespan.

Full post-editing

Full post-editing takes it further. You aim for a polished, high-quality result. This includes correcting grammar, improving fluency, and aligning tone and style with the brand or audience. It’s as thorough as traditional translation but starts with a machine-generated draft.

When to use: Full post-editing is great for customer-facing content, or anything requiring a professional touch.

Step-by-step: MTPE workflow overview

MTPE follows a clear process to turn machine-generated translations into polished content. We’ll walk you through all the steps, and then explain what’s the role of 1) translators and 2) project managers.

Step 1: Receive the machine-translated text

You’ll start with the raw output from a machine translation tool. You can think of it as a very rough “first draft” of the translation. It might be accurate in parts but it’s often clunky or unnatural (like you saw in the example earlier in the article).

Step 2: Make sure you understand the requirements

It’s very important to know the project goals. Is this light or full post-editing? What’s the target audience? Are there any specific guidelines, glossaries, or tone preferences? As a translator, you need to have all the context before you get to work.

Step 3: Initial review

You can start by skimming the content to spot mistakes, inconsistencies, or sections that need major adjustments. This will help you prioritize your focus areas. It’s smart to identify high-impact areas early on because this helps you spend most of the time refining the most critical parts of the translation.

Step 4: Edit for accuracy

Time to correct mistranslations or inaccuracies. Make sure the content conveys the intended meaning clearly and aligns with the source content. There main things to bear in mind:

• Check that key terms match the glossary or industry standards
• Make sure the translation reflects the source content accurately
• Rewrite sentences for clarity

Step 5: Refine for fluency and style

Further smooth out awkward phrasing. Adapt tone and style to match the brand or target audience. This is where full post-editing shines. Pay attention to cultural nuances and make sure the sentences flow naturally in the target language. Sometimes it helps to read your translation out loud, especially if you’re working in bulks.

Step 6: Run a quality check

Use tools or manual checks to ensure translations match the guidelines. Think about consistency, grammar accuracy, and the tiniest details. Glossaries and translation memories can help here.

Step 7: Deliver the final translation

You made it. As the last step, you’ll need to submit the polished content, confident that the translation is clear, professional, and ready to be released. Take a final look to catch any missed errors. If everything matches the translation project guidelines, hit “send” and give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done.

Understanding roles of translators and project managers

We can all agree that translators have a key role to play in MTPE, but let’s see where the responsibility falls in a larger scheme of things.

Of course, if you’re a freelance offering translation services and working directly with the client, you’ll be taking care of the project management part as well.

Finally, let’s take a look at the MTPE best practices.

Actionable MTPE tips you can implement today

When it comes to the most useful post-editing tips, they come down to three key things:

• Quality assurance
• Efficiency
• Tools you use

Quality assurance tips

Naturally, you’ll start by cross-checking the machine-translated content against the source content to confirm the meaning is conveyed correctly. The output you get will depend on the machine translation tool you’re using. Neural machine translation (NMT) tools are generally the best choice.

Here, it’s important you always keep the style guide and glossaries close while you work. They’re your go-to tools for keeping the translations consistent and on-brand.

If you don’t check them regularly, it’s easy for small inconsistencies to slip in. Also, reading the text aloud can help identify awkward phrasing or unnatural flow that may not stand out otherwise.

Efficiency tips

Efficiency matters, especially when working with large volumes of text. You can use keyboard shortcuts and built-in features of CAT tools to minimize repetitive tasks and save time.

Translation memory can also be a game-changer. It gives you access to previously translated content, so you don’t have to waste time thinking if one phrase is better than another.

It’s smart to tackle major issues like mistranslations first, and then focus on smaller tweaks. This is how you’ll be able to deliver high-quality translations without getting bogged down in minor details from the get-go.

Streamline post-editing with Lokalise

Post-editing becomes much smoother with tools like Lokalise. Its advanced AI features, combined with translation memory and glossaries, will help you deliver consistent and high-quality translations every time.

Lokalise provides translators with clear context through integrated style guides and in-app collaboration. It also offers you intelligent suggestions for translations. This creates room for you to refine the content rather than waste time fixing basic mistakes.

There is a difference between machine translation and AI translation, but they are both forms of automatic translations that can help you decrease turnaround times without sacrificing quality.

Lokalise AI uses advanced models to deliver human-like, highly accurate translations right from the start. It helps businesses translate content up to 10 times faster while cutting costs by up to 80%. This makes life easier for translators handling post-editing.

Also, the AI integrates smoothly into your workflows. It can automatically handle large volumes of content across multiple languages. On top of it all, it picks the best translation engine (GPT-4o, Claude Sonnet 3.5, DeepL, Google Translate, and Microsoft Translate), for each language pair, so that you get high-quality, context-appropriate results.

Want to see Lokalise in action? Sign up for a free trial, no credit card required.