Esikäännetään

Esikäännetään is a Finnish term used in translation and localization to describe the act of pre-translating content before the main translation stage. It denotes an initial or rough translation produced to accelerate subsequent work, such as human editing or quality assurance. In practice, esikäännetään often involves automated tools or guided drafts that furnish a base text for translators to refine.

Etymology and form: The word derives from the prefix esi- meaning “before” or “pre-” combined with kääntää, “to translate.” The form esikäännetään is the passive present tense, indicating that the action is performed on the subject rather than the subject performing it. This grammatical construction is typical of Finnish passive verbs and is used to discuss processes in a general, non-agentive way.

Usage and context: Esikäännetään is commonly employed in translation management, localization workflows, and academic discussions of translation processes. It is particularly relevant when teams use machine translation or structured glossaries to generate a starter translation that human translators then post-edit or finalize. The concept supports faster turnaround times and helps ensure consistency across large sets of strings, documents, or software interfaces.

Limitations and considerations: While esikäännetään can speed up early stages of a project, it may also introduce inaccuracies or stylistic inconsistencies if not carefully reviewed. It is typically followed by post-editing, proofreading, or professional translation to achieve target-language quality.

See also: machine translation, post-editing, localization workflow, pre-translation.