What techniques do you use to stay consistent with terminology and style across large or ongoing translation projects?

Here, Cat tools play an important role. Personally, I use a software for translations, it makes life easier. I suggest using a Memory (in legal texts, most phrases are repeatedly used) and a Glossary. I could be as easy as using Excel or software programs.

Also, communication is indispensable, if working in a group, we all need to communicate and share the terminology used. 

Lastly, always ask the client to make sure you're using the right terminology, level of formality, audience, style, etc. 

Best,

Andrea Rubio

English-Spanish Translator

When I’m working on a large translation project, staying consistent with terminology and style is non-negotiable. The first thing I do is create a glossary or term database—basically a document where I save key terms, phrases, and their approved or required translations. This ensures that no matter how long the project runs or how many people are involved, we’re all speaking the same language.

Next, I rely on a style guide tailored to the project. This outlines tone, formality, and any rules for formatting or grammar that fit the brand’s voice. It’s like a roadmap for keeping the translation on-brand and on-point.

For bigger projects, I’ll use translation tools, often provided by the clients. These are lifesavers—they store previously translated content and suggest consistent phrasing as I go. It’s especially helpful for repetitive content or when the project spans multiple phases.

Communication is also huge. If I’m part of a team, I make sure we’re aligned through regular check-ins of the content created by my colleagues. And if something new or unclear comes up, I don’t hesitate to document it or flag it for clarification.

The trick is to treat consistency like a habit. A little extra effort upfront—like setting up tools and processes—saves a ton of time and headaches later. Plus, it keeps the final product polished and cohesive, which is always the goal, while saving time from having to make a lot of final corrections during the proofreading phase!

A glossary is a must in any translation project, whether small or large. This helps you not to lose yourself in the process and speed things up, as your mind may be thinking about other simultaneous projects and it may be too much of a burden.

If it is a project with several translators, the glossary helps a lot so that everyone starts from the same point, ensuring consistency and coherence. In addition, the localization manager will have less hassle putting all the translations together and making the corresponding corrections.

In my case, I translate video games, so it is essential to record every important word that will be constantly used, such as names of skills, characters, locations, events, lore, etc. You can do this with any CAT tool, or even do something very simple with a CSV file in a spreadsheet, since videogame file formats are not always friendly with CAT tools.

In the case of medium or long-term projects, it is also advisable to make personal notes to detail certain relevant elements and remember them easily, since it may take several weeks or months until you return to work on the same project according to your client's requirements.

To ensure consistency in terminology and style across large or ongoing translation projects, I employ the following techniques:

1. Terminology Management:
Create and Maintain a Glossary: I develop a comprehensive glossary of technical terms, industry-specific jargon, and consistent translations. This glossary serves as a reference point throughout the project.
Utilize Translation Memory Logs: I leverage translation memory logs to store and reuse previously translated segments, ensuring consistency in terminology and style.

2. Style Guide Development:
Establish Clear Guidelines: I collaborate with clients to develop a style guide outlining specific formatting requirements, tone, and voice.
Adhere to Consistent Formatting: I strictly follow the defined style guide to maintain a consistent look and feel across the translated document.

3. Regular Communication and Feedback:
Open Dialogue with Clients: I maintain open communication with clients to discuss any specific requirements, preferences, or changes.
Incorporate Feedback: I actively incorporate client feedback to refine the translation and ensure alignment with their vision.

By implementing these techniques, I strive to deliver high-quality, consistent, and accurate translations that meet the highest standards of professionalism.

I use Trados to ensure consistency in large or ongoing projects by leveraging translation memories and integrated termbases. These tools help maintain uniform terminology and style, while updates to the database ensure alignment with client preferences throughout the project.

Utilize glossary, translation memories, and style guides.

A Translation Memory is a database that stores previously translated phrases, sentences, or paragraphs along with their corresponding translations.

In a perfect world, you would have big ones for your client texts, and smaller ones for each big project, all easily readable and available.

Glossary ensures the consistency and is easy to check with search function. In a perfect world, the client provides one that was consulted with native professionals in that specific industry.

A style guide provides rules for tone, formatting, punctuation, capitalization, and more, helping ensure the translation adheres to the same style throughout the project. In a perfect world it is accessible, not a bland PDF, and concise.

Most of these should be integrated into the CAT tool of your/your client's choice.

To stay consistent with terminology and style across large or ongoing projects, I use tools like glossaries and translation memory systems. These help keep track of key terms and ensure the same style is maintained throughout the project. I also regularly check the work and adjust as needed to keep everything on track.

To stay consistent with terminology and style during ongoing translation projects, a glossary should be implemented where you bundle all specific terms for a translation project and agree on one translation for those terms. Ideally, the client and the translator discuss any special terms before agreeing on a translation for them in the glossary.

The glossary should be continuously updated as new terms emerge in the translation process. Also, it should be easily accessible for all people that are involved in the translation project. This can include project managers, multiple translators etc.

From my experience, there are 2 good ways to implement a glossary:

1. A lot of translation tools have a glossary function already included. This makes managing the glossary super easy, as those tools also usually automatically translate all terms listed in the glossary with the term you have agreed on
2. If you are creating a glossary outside of a translation tool, Google Sheet makes sense for tracking and updating terms as it can easily be shared across multiple people that are working on the project. Changes should be tracked with dates to make sure that you always have an overview when a term was updated the last time

Once you have a functioning glossary going, the translator needs to make sure that he or she actually uses the terms during the translation process!
If you are working within a translation tool, this usually happens automatically; otherwise, a good best practice is to search for terms from the glossary in the source content and then translating them one-by-one according to the glossary.

Hope that helps!

Best,

Mathias

English-German Translator