Bulletin Articles

Separated by a common language?

An often quoted Golden Rule for translators is that they should translate only into their native language.

This seems straightforward enough. But what if your native language has many variants? As a British translator, I am occasionally asked to use American English (AE) in the target document. (More often, neither British English (BE) nor American English is specified and I am left either to ask or make an educated guess.) I believe honesty is the only option and always inform the agency that, while I am fairly familiar with the major differences between BE and AE, I can only offer to take on jobs into AE on a “best effort” basis.

Most English speakers are aware of the differences between BE and AE spelling. In these days of sophisticated spellcheckers, these are actually the least of the translator’s problems. It is the more subtle differences that can catch you out. For example, suppose you are a British translator translating the Swedish word “körkort” into AE. While congratulating yourself on remembering that the BE noun “licence” is “license” in AE, you do not hesitate in putting “driving license” – the problem being, apparently, that in the United States people tend to say “driver’s license”. Furthermore, your British driving licence may expire on “20 April 2040” but your American driver’s license would expire on “April 20, 2040”.

In most practical situations, these differences cause no confusion at all, though the AE date format “mm/dd/yy(yy)” has caused me some headaches on online booking systems! Indeed, I have seen websites where BE and AE spelling seem to mix together perfectly happily, with “organisations” and “organizations” sitting side by side. Problems can arise, however, where different terminology is used – in legal texts, for example, where using the “wrong” term could lead to a lack of understanding or, worse, a misunderstanding and wrong interpretation. Readers of translated text may be very forgiving of spelling and punctuation differences, for example, but in specialised texts the right terminology is paramount.




Thank you for the times you have helped up with translations into English. As you are aware we have been very pleased with our collaboration. I will gladly act as a reference for your potential clients.

Translations of annual and sustainability reports

One Of Swedens Largest Family Owned Holding Companies

I hope you are well and thank you again for the excellent work you have done with the translations so far!

Would you be able to help us with another translation?

April 2023

Legal Translations

Major Swedish Energy Company

Just thought you would like to hear the feedback from my Finnish and German colleagues… They are all very happy with the translations Stratcore has done, very correct and well translated 😊.

March 2023

Marketing and technical translations and creating journalistic-style web content

Swedish Food Tech Company

Just wanted to thank you for a remarkable interpreter you organised for us. She impressed us with her professionalism, being so calm in front of totally new audience and business area. Everything went well and we are looking forward to use Stratcore and Tuija's services again in the near future.

Communication Manager

Leading Global Brand Consumer Products

We often need texts translated quickly. This is when we simply could not do without Stratcore – they are always so reliable. They return our translations with total professionalism and always with the same happy smile. We really appreciate Stratcore and would like to thank them for a wonderful partnership.

Major global airline

Head Of Internal Online Communications

Stratcore adheres to the european standard for translation service requirements SS-EN15038