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Glossary · 6 · Translation and terminology

Machine translation post-editing (MTPE)

Also known as: MTPE, Post-editing, PEMT, Full post-editing, Light post-editing

German: Post-Editing maschineller Übersetzungen

Machine translation post-editing (MTPE) is the editing and correcting of machine translation output by a qualified post-editor, comparing it with the source text, so that the target text reaches an agreed quality; ISO 18587:2017 sets requirements for full post-editing, which aims at a result comparable to human translation.

  • Translation and terminology
  • AI
  • Standards

In one sentence

Machine translation post-editing (MTPE): a post-editor corrects MT output against the source; ISO 18587 sets requirements for full post-editing.

Example

A post-editor compares the machine translation of a lockout procedure with the English source, corrects a mistranslated signal word and replaces two terms with the approved termbase entries.

How it applies

  • Full and light post-editing: ISO 18587 sets requirements for the process of full post-editing and for the competences of post-editors; light post-editing, which corrects only what is needed for the text to be understood, is described in an informative annex and is meant for internal or short-lived use.
  • Technical documentation: Information for use that is delivered to users needs full post-editing at least, and many companies add a review by a subject-matter expert. Safety wording, signal words, units and values are checked against the source, and terms against the termbase from terminology management.
  • Release of the language version: The post-edited text is a translation like any other. Each language version is reviewed and released before publication; the machine translation output alone is not a release.
  • AI translation: Translations produced by large language models are machine translation output in this sense and are post-edited the same way.

Post-editing vs. revision

In revision (ISO 17100), a second linguist checks a human translation. In post-editing, the post-editor works on machine output, which tends to produce fluent text with errors that are harder to spot, such as omissions or wrong terms in otherwise natural sentences.

External references