Translating specialist terminology from German to English

Part I What to do when a product has no direct equivalent

Every translator knows that a standard dictionary has its limits, and never is this truer than when translating specialist terminology in a domain with a specific vocabulary. In an ideal scenario the translator will have direct experience of the relevant area. Failing that, you will need to factor in additional time to undertake painstaking research to identify the correct terminology. Sometimes even generic content can throw up a surprising amount of specialist vocabulary; the examples discussed here all come from a very standard interior design text covering kitchen refurbishment options.

The first thing to note is that in some cases an equivalent product may not exist in your target country, in which case some ingenuity will be required! A carefully worded explanation is better than an impenetrable translation. Remember: Google is your friend, if your chosen special terminology has few or zero hits, that is usually a sign that you’ve gone astray.

Let’s look at a few examples. German kitchen designers have the option of installing a kopffreie Dunstabzugshaube above the stove to extract cooking smells. Although you will find this translated rather literally as a “head-free cooker hood”, it is not clear what your average UK consumer would understand from that description. The alarmingly low number of search hits, often with a German manufacturer as the source is a red flag that this may not be a great choice. English does not seem to have such a pithy term to describe these products, which the German website Küchenfinder helpfully reveals are a relatively new design of cooker hood, which is angled and mounted on the wall so you don’t bash your head while cooking. The wordy, but clear “angled, wall-mounted hood” is one option for describing the type of product involved here.

Another specifically German kitchen-device relates to ovens, some of which come with a Backwagen. Websites such as Linguee and Reverso let you search for existing examples of translated texts containing a particular word or phrase, and you will find plenty of these choose the term “baking trolley” for Backwagen. A quick online image search reveals that this usually refers to a wheeled trolley or rack on which trays of cooked goods can be placed. Ovens are nowhere to be seen in the results. The useful terminology search at Proz is more helpful, suggesting a sliding oven carriage. This still isn’t perfect, as the German specifically refers to an oven rack that slides out on a support but — in contrast to a standard telescopic oven shelf — is also attached to the oven door. I suspect English ovens simply do not have a standard term for this type of design and descriptive text is the only solution.

The last term we will look at is Unterfensterarmatur, which translates literally as an “under window tap”. The intended meaning is clear, the question is: what would an English consumer call this type of design? Once again, a bit of research is required to discover that this would more commonly be described as a “folding tap”, where the emphasis is on the functionality offered by the tap, rather than its installation location. With SEO playing such an important role in channelling consumers towards particular products and retailers, translating specialist terminology this nuanced is vital.

Part II Resist loyalty to dictionary definition

The above described examples where specialist terminology lacks a direct equivalent in the target language. Now we take a tour of vocabulary that appears at first sight to have an obvious translation but where the dictionary definition may be misleading. The following terms are a reminder that slavishly adhering to dictionary suggestions can lead a translator astray.

Once again, we are in the domain of kitchen design and we start with the German Folienrollen, which you will find listed in online dictionaries like Linguee and dict.cc as “rolls of film”. The trouble with this choice is that your average English reader will immediately think of photographic film when what is meant is “rolls of clingfilm / foil”. The reason this problem arises is that German Folie can refer to Alufolie or Klarsichtfolie / Frischhaltefolie, whereas in English a specific reference to both aluminium foil and clingfilm is required for clarity.

Next, we delve into the intricacies of oven design. English ovens generally offer a choice between a standard oven setting (the oven heats up and cooks whatever is inside) and a fan or convection setting (where hot air is circulated by means of a fan for more efficient heat distribution inside the oven). In Germany, things are slightly more complex. Or more sophisticated, as German oven designers would no doubt insist! You will often find the term Umluft translated as a fan or convection oven, and the terms Oberhitze/Unterhitze (which refer to the top/bottom heat elements in an oven), can often simply be translated as a “non-fan setting”. In fact, German ovens often allow you to switch on these elements independently, which is not such a common feature in UK appliances, but that’s a whole other story. In the kitchen text I was wrangling with, the German also threw the term Heißluft (hot air) into the mix. The usually reliable Proz terminology search suggests convection oven is the appropriate translation. Often this choice would be fine, but where a distinction is required between Heißluft and Umluft a different approach is required. It turns out that German ovens distinguish between Umluft, in which the fan simply circulates the heat created by the top/bottom heating elements, and Heißluft, in which an additional heating element is attached to the fan itself. An equivalent does not really exist in English oven design so, where the precise technical details really matter, you will find that Heißluft appliances are referred to as “European convection ovens”.

Finally, let’s visit more straightforward cases where the dictionary definition for a lexical item can be deceptive in translating specialist terminology. The German term Holzdekor is usually listed as “wooden décor” or similar, but is that always a good choice? This is a great example of the power of an online image search. Try a Google image search for Holzdekor and compare the results with an equivalent search for the English phrase wooden décor. The former shows synthetic wood products, which might be translated as “wood effect” or “wood laminate”. The latter results in images showing wooden decorative objects, such as charming carved ornaments and other trinkets.

About the Author

Alison Tunley

Alison is a seasoned freelance translator with over 15 years of experience, specialising in translating from German to English. Originally from Wales, she has been a Londoner for some time, and she holds a PhD in Phonetics and an MPhil in Linguistics from the University of Cambridge, where she also completed her First Class BA degree in German and Spanish… Read Full Bio