| Terminology consistency | The same term becomes “device”, “apparatus”, “unit” in one document — reviewers and courts read three different things; interpretation gaps arise. | A client-owned term base plus translation memory: one name — one term, across all documents and years. Mandatory for technical documentation. |
| Numbers, units & decimal separators | German comma and English point are swapped (1,5 ↔ 1.5), imperial and metric units “translated along” — a tolerance, dose or balance-sheet figure becomes a number error with liability. | Target locale fixed in advance; numbers, units and currencies are checked, not guessed. Critical e.g. in the annual report. |
| Date & name formats | 03/04/2026 is 3 April in DE and 4 March in the US; names and transliterations run inconsistently — deadlines flip, persons are no longer unambiguous in documents. | Target-language date logic instead of digit-shuffling; names per passport spelling, transliteration per ISO/ICAO. Decisive for certificates. |
| Standards not translatable 1:1 | “GmbH”, “Amtsgericht”, “Prokura” are rendered literally, DIN/EN/ISO numbers “translated” — the term does not exist in the target country, the standard is no longer findable. | Legal institutions with equivalent and explanation instead of a pseudo-translation; standard identifiers copied character for character. |
| Legal-system asymmetry (civil vs. common law) | “consideration”, “trust” or “notarize” have no German counterpart and are translated freely — the clause loses its effect in the target country or suddenly means something else. | Professional translators with a legal background; functional rendering with a note, no false friends. Core of every contract translation. |
| Layout, DTP & text expansion | The target text is 15–30 % longer or shorter per language pair; the translation “overflows” the template, labels and tables break — the document is no longer print- or submission-ready. | Translation in the original format (InDesign, XML, CMS) with DTP control; the operating manual stays ready to use. |
| Target variety ignored | One “English” or “Spanish” for all markets: EN-US and EN-GB, ES-ES and ES-MX are mixed — trust drops in marketing, misunderstandings arise in technology. | Native translators of the target variety; market and region fixed before the job starts. Decisive in marketing & web. |
| Confidentiality & data routing | Sensitive documents run through freely accessible online MT tools; trade secrets, patient or patent data leave the house uncontrolled — a GDPR breach. | Specialists bound to secrecy, purpose-bound processing under the GDPR, NDA and defined data routing. |
| No four-eyes principle / QA | A raw translation goes out unchecked, numbers and omissions go unnoticed — the error only shows in the damage: recall, rejection, reprint. | Revision by a second qualified person to DIN EN ISO 17100, with number, completeness and terminology checks. Details under Quality & ISO. |
