Technical Translation Time EN to PT

EN to PT Technical Translation: Throughput Planning

In the Brazilian market, technical translation from English into Brazilian Portuguese is the most common direction. It usually yields 400 to 600 words per day per translator. The translator is working into their native language, so drafting goes faster and idiomatic fluency comes naturally. The estimate follows days = (pages × words_per_page) / daily_output, plus a 10 to 20% buffer for revision and quality assurance (QA).

Most of the demand sits in IT and software (UI strings, documentation, knowledge bases), medical and pharmaceutical work (clinical trials, IFUs, regulatory submissions), legal texts (contracts, terms of service, patents) and finance (annual reports, prospectuses, ESG documents). You cannot really work without CAT tools — SDL Trados Studio, MemoQ, Memsource/Phrase, Wordfast — and most agencies want certified proficiency in at least one of them.

Applications

SINTRA suggests reference rates of R$ 0.40 to R$ 0.80 per source word for EN to PT technical translation. That sits below the reverse direction, simply because supply is more abundant. ABRATES handles credentialing and keeps a member directory, while PROZ.com remains the dominant international marketplace where Brazilian freelancers connect with foreign agencies and end clients. Joining ATA (American Translators Association) and ITI (UK) widens your reach too. When it comes to sworn translation of foreign documents (diplomas, birth certificates, contracts), only tradutores públicos juramentados registered with the state Junta Comercial may sign the work.

FAQ

Why is the per‑word rate lower than PT to EN? There are a lot of Brazilian translators, and demand for native‑PT output is high, which pushes prices down. PT to EN needs native‑English skill, and that is rarer locally, so it commands a premium.

Should I accept MTPE assignments? Machine‑translation post‑editing (light or full) has become mainstream for IT and e‑commerce content. Rates run 40 to 60% of full translation, but if the engine output is good your throughput can double. Turn it down when the raw MT quality is poor — you will end up rewriting from scratch.

How are repetitions billed? CAT‑weighted word counts discount fuzzy matches and repetitions (Trados grid: 100% / 95‑99% / 85‑94% / 75‑84% / new words). Settle the grid before you accept a project — agency defaults can underpay jobs with heavy repetition.