Add terms, lots and lots of terms. Add any term that you might see again. When you first start a new project, examine every sentence to find terms and expressions that can be put into the TDB. Add at least three or more terms from every new sentence, for the first third or quarter of the document.
My rule of thumb is that if I think that I will *ever* see the term again, it goes in the database. This is very fast: Highlight the target term, TAB, highlight the source term, Ctrl-F11, Enter. It’s better to enter all terms as lower case, at least in English and Spanish, but I don’t know much about Polish or German. This will slow you down, at first, but real gains will come later.
Also include compound terms. Remember, the more letters and/or words that it contains, the more time you will save in the future, because you will never have to type it again. Include adjectives and articles when you define target and source terms. This is especially important when gender and number must match in one of the languages and not in the other. That means entering “machine”, “the machine”, “a machine”, “both machines”, “red machine”, “this machine”, “these machines”, etc., all as separate terms. It may seem like double work, at the beginning. But it really pays off for longer terms and phrases, such as “electrical control panel”, especially where the word order is reversed between English and Spanish.
For example, don’t just add:
acabado | finish |
But also: | |
acabado uniforme |
uniform finish |
el acabado uniforme | the uniform finish |
el acabado | the finish |
un acabado uniforme | a uniform finish |
agua |
water |
agua dulce | fresh water |
agua de mar | seawater |
activos fijos | fixed assets |
acero inoxidable | stainless steel |
activos y pasivos | assets and liabilities |
aire de planta y de instrumentos | plant and instrument air |
análisis de sensibilidad | sensitivity analysis |
ablandamiento del agua |
water softening |
asiento de bola integral | integral ball seat |
camiones cisterna | tank trucks |
coeficiente de expansión térmica | coefficient of thermal expansion |
Some expressions can be the source of multiple TDB entries:
sistema de recuperación de datos | data recovery system |
recuperación de datos | data recovery |
sistema de recuperación |
recovery system |
Many people think of
terminology only as nouns (subjects,
objects). But DV can handle so much more. I have been
rewarded by adding
many other phrases, such as prepositional phrases, adjective
and adverbial
phrases, expressions, idioms, etc.
a la derecha | at right |
al día siguiente |
the next day |
A continuación se presenta | Below is |
bajo las mismas condiciones |
under the same conditions |
bajo condiciones garantizadas de caudal y presión de descarga | under guaranteed discharge flow and pressure conditions |
de la siguiente forma | in the following manner |
del capítulo anterior | from the preceding chapter |
en estas situaciones | in these situations |
As of April 15, 2007, terms with a single word make up less than 30% of the total number of terms in my Spanish-English terminology database. Terms with 2 or 3 words were over half of the total. This effect is even more pronounced in my English-Spanish terminology database.
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