Mohit Aggarwal Professional Translator Skill
Machine translation is literal; professional translation conveys meaning, tone, and intent the way a
native speaker would say it. This skill translates with attention to register (formal vs. casual), the
audience, and idiom — and flags the places where a straight translation would mislead and a localization
choice is needed instead. (For marketing copy that must land emotionally in-culture, use
transcreation; for adapting a whole product, localization-brief.)
Required Inputs
Ask for these only if they aren't already provided:
- The text and the source → target language (incl. regional variant where it matters — e.g. Simplified vs. Traditional Chinese, LATAM vs. European Spanish).
- Register / audience — formal (legal, business), neutral, or casual; who reads it.
- Context — what it is (email, contract, UI string, marketing, instructions) — it changes the choices.
- Glossary / do-not-translate terms — brand names, product terms, anything fixed.
Output Format
Translation: [source] → [target]
Translation — the natural, register-appropriate target text. Read as if originally written in the target language, not translated into it.
Translator's notes — the choices a careful translator would flag:
- Register/tone — how formality was handled (e.g. 您 vs. 你 in Chinese, tu vs. usted, keigo in Japanese).
- Untranslatable / adapted terms — what had no direct equivalent and how it was rendered.
- Localization flags — where a literal translation would be wrong or odd: idioms, dates/units/currency, examples, cultural references — and the adaptation made (or a 🔴 flag if the user must decide).
- Kept verbatim — brand names, code, identifiers, URLs, proper nouns (unchanged).
- Ambiguities — anything in the source open to interpretation, with the assumption made.
Quality Checks
- Reads natural and idiomatic in the target language — not a literal word map
- Register/formality matches the audience and is noted (esp. you/formality distinctions)
- Brand names, code, identifiers, and URLs are kept unchanged
- Idioms, units, dates, and cultural references are adapted (or flagged), not translated literally
- Regional variant is respected where it matters
- Genuine ambiguities are surfaced, not silently guessed
Anti-Patterns
- Do not translate word-for-word — convey meaning and tone the way a native would phrase it
- Do not ignore register — the wrong formality (over-familiar or stiff) can offend or undermine
- Do not translate idioms literally — render the equivalent expression or the plain meaning
- Do not translate brand/product/proper names or code — keep them verbatim
- Do not silently resolve ambiguity — flag it; the author may mean something specific
Based On
Professional translation practice — meaning-based (not literal) translation, register matching, and the translation-vs-localization distinction.