No! Machine translation, while constantly being improved, is still far inferior to human translation. Free translators such as Babel Fish or Google Translate can be useful for getting the ‘gist’ of a passage, but make many potentially costly mistakes. Computers are unable to comprehend figurative language or the situational context in which language is used, and cannot always correctly differentiate between the various senses of words. (Just think of how many ways the word “drive” can be used: it can mean a spin around the block, a golf shot, an innate urge, the opposite of “reverse,” a computer’s hard disk…you get the point. How’s a computer to know?)

No! Word-for-word translation produces monstrosities like “in the practiced register in one of the domiciles” (en el registro practicado en uno de los domicilios = while searching one of the homes). A good translation necessarily makes changes to the form of the original text, since different languages express the same meaning in very different ways.

spantrans focuses primarily on translations from Spanish and Catalan into U.S. English. Projects requiring other language pairs or variants may be accepted on a case-by-case basis, with the understanding that translation and proofreading will be subcontracted to other professional translators with the necessary language skills.

Yes! It is vitally important that a translator work into his or her first language, to avoid unnatural or misleading phrasing in the final product. Daniel Greuel, the founder of spantrans, grew up in the U.S. and speaks and writes English natively, ensuring clear, natural, and precise translations. If spantrans takes on projects into a language other than English, you can rest assured that the translation will be done and reviewed by native speakers of the required language.

Please see the Quality Assurance page for a detailed description of our QA process.

Yes! In addition to document translation, we also provide website localization, as well as proofreading and editing services. See the Services page for more information.

Payment is accepted via check or money order (U.S. customers only), wire transfer, or PayPal.

Simply complete our online form to request a free, no-obligation quote for your project.