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Do you charge articles (a/the) and prepositions (in/of, etc) while using pay-per-word charge system?
Thread poster: James Frost
Katrin Braams
Katrin Braams  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 19:22
Member (2018)
English to German
+ ...
der, die, das Mar 26, 2021

In German ‘the’ can be:

der, die, das, den, dem, des

I think I have every right to get paid for the effort of figuring out which of these I should use in my translation.

As others pointed out we are paid for the time we need to complete a translation plus other costs such as marketing, administration, cost of equipment, further education etc. It does not really matter how you charge, but the resulting hourly rate must be adequate to cover your cost plus
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In German ‘the’ can be:

der, die, das, den, dem, des

I think I have every right to get paid for the effort of figuring out which of these I should use in my translation.

As others pointed out we are paid for the time we need to complete a translation plus other costs such as marketing, administration, cost of equipment, further education etc. It does not really matter how you charge, but the resulting hourly rate must be adequate to cover your cost plus a decent salary.

It cannot be adequate if the client pays you 0.05$/word and refuses to pay for articles. However, if the client pays you 0.5$/word except for articles, it will most likely work out to a nice hourly rate.

You are an entrepreneur, you should try to enforce your rules. Business standard is charging for all words. Fuzzy discounts (if this is how your question originally came up) are based on repeated fragments between segments, not on repeated words within segments.
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Christine Andersen
 
jyuan_us
jyuan_us  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 14:22
Member (2005)
English to Chinese
+ ...
I'm still thinking Mar 26, 2021

that the OP was joking. Otherwise, the thought itself sounds weird to me.

MollyRose
Beatriz Ramírez de Haro
 
Adieu
Adieu  Identity Verified
Ukrainian to English
+ ...
OP says he's in Russia Mar 27, 2021

The Russian domestic translation industry bills per "page", but defines a page as 1800 symbols (although spaces vs. no spaces and source vs. output can vary).

The way you guys charge per word is frankly bewildering to the uninitiated.

It clearly makes simple texts EXPENSIVE and complex texts CHEAP, unless you haggle rates with each customer for each project.

So yeah, any "how the hell does that even work????"-type question coming out of Russia or the forme
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The Russian domestic translation industry bills per "page", but defines a page as 1800 symbols (although spaces vs. no spaces and source vs. output can vary).

The way you guys charge per word is frankly bewildering to the uninitiated.

It clearly makes simple texts EXPENSIVE and complex texts CHEAP, unless you haggle rates with each customer for each project.

So yeah, any "how the hell does that even work????"-type question coming out of Russia or the former Soviet Union should be viewed as honest bafflement.


PS btw, I get paid by word and I have NO CLUE what does and doesn't get counted. I had long assumed it was some constant value like for scoring typist WPMs (like the usual "5 keystrokes including spaces and punctuation" mentioned in wikipedia), but that doesn't seem to be the case.

[Edited at 2021-03-27 07:49 GMT]
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Multiverse Solutions s.r.o. (X)
Multiverse Solutions s.r.o. (X)
Local time: 19:22
Polish to English
+ ...
a different view Mar 28, 2021

Automotive industry has been in business since eternity. They had loads of time to develop, optimise, improve, re-improve, re-re-improve and cost-optimise again, plus cut out all burdensome costs (like employees) wherever possible. Their machine stock is as cheap as it comes. Raw materials they use come x-fold cheaper than 50 years ago. Transport costs are a laugh in this perspective. Other industries fare even better. So…

Why does a new car cost much higher than 5 years ago in la
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Automotive industry has been in business since eternity. They had loads of time to develop, optimise, improve, re-improve, re-re-improve and cost-optimise again, plus cut out all burdensome costs (like employees) wherever possible. Their machine stock is as cheap as it comes. Raw materials they use come x-fold cheaper than 50 years ago. Transport costs are a laugh in this perspective. Other industries fare even better. So…

Why does a new car cost much higher than 5 years ago in label price? Why are they impertinent enough to charge absurd figures for things that are in the standard for 50 years, like A/C or that extremely unique exterior temperature sensor?

Because they can.

So can you.

You put on the table your knowledge, expertise, machine stock that is ever increasing and that requires constant learning and improving (unlike with click-and-go welding robots) PLUS layers of fat, short nights, family distress, preferring phone calls to quality time with friends PLUS uncertainty of repeat jobs, risk of complaints from one-day employees threatening not to pay, payment coming or not when expected… you know the list.

And you really want to argue about 10-bean worth of articles in a translation on which business depends where millions are at stake?

Ah, and I forgot to add those silly reductions for 5% matches, 7% matches, 11-1/2% matches and so on. You sell number crunching, really?

You yourself sabotage your work. Small wonder that your client wants 70% discount on first call. And why would they want to pay you when the time comes, when your ‘discount’ is 20% at the start? One fifth of your time going with the drain just because they have a business card?

Ah, and… when was the last time your client offered you higher pay for the same job? Or even worse, when did you request increase in rates last time? Just those 20% per year in real inflation across most high-tech countries.

All I want to say with these examples is that your clients make millions doing practically nothing and risking even less while you are still stuck in a discussion over beans.

It’s not about who is right or wrong or is it always like that or not. Just to change the perspective.
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Joanna Posylek
 
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Do you charge articles (a/the) and prepositions (in/of, etc) while using pay-per-word charge system?







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