Translation proofreading in Tournai
revision, correction, post-editing
A bilingual colleague produced your Dutch, an engine produced your English, an agency delivered a text you have doubts about: we read two pages without charging for them, then say whether it needs correcting, revising or starting again.
Free
The first two pages read
1-3 d
Most common turnaround
70+
Languages we review
100 %
Reviewers in their mother tongue
From a light check to a full rework
The state of the text sets the level, never the size of the invoice. We point you to the intervention that serves a purpose, and we say when translating again would cost less.
Revision against the source
A compared reading of the target text and the original, sentence by sentence. That is where omissions, misreadings, inverted figures and evaporated negatives turn up. It is the level that protects a contract.
Spelling and typography
Agreements, punctuation, non-breaking spaces, capitals, the writing of numbers and dates. Belgian French and the French of France do not punctuate in quite the same way, and Dutch even less so.
Terminology brought into line
One term, one translation, from start to finish and from one document to the next. We list the variants we meet and settle them with you before standardising anything.
Post-editing of engine output
A text out of a machine translator reads smoothly and goes wrong without warning. Post-editing restores the meaning, the register and the terminology, with the original open alongside.
Setting the register
An accurate text can still be unusable: too bureaucratic for a brochure, too casual for an official letter, too Belgian for a French reader. We put the tone back where it belongs.
Report of corrections
You receive the clean file, the version with the changes shown, and a note on the structural choices. Enough to decide, and enough to brief whoever translates next time.
Speaking two languages and writing in two languages are two trades
In a town where people work in France and sell in Flanders, almost every company has someone who speaks the neighbour's language fluently. Translations naturally land on that desk, and the result is often right on the word and wrong on the tone.
The traces show up quickly: the word order of the source language, the false friends between French and Dutch, a Belgian turn of phrase in a text bound for France, a register too casual for an official letter. None of those is a spelling mistake, and no automatic checker flags them.
So we read against the original rather than on the target text alone. Every correction stays visible in the file, with a comment wherever the choice is arguable. You keep control line by line.
- Compared reading with the source document
- Corrections tracked and commented
- False friends between French and Dutch
- Two pages read before any commitment
Four texts that arrive every week
The situations repeat from one client to the next, and we recognise them on the first page.
Translated in house
A colleague did the work in good faith, with the means at hand. The text can be understood, but you can hear that it was translated, and the recipient will hear it before you do.
Straight out of an engine
The phrasing flows, the misreadings are invisible. On a set of specifications or a liability clause, the error only surfaces at the moment it costs something.
Written in English by a non-native
An architecture dissertation, a research paper, an application file, an answer to a European call. The assessor is also judging the language, and it weighs more than people expect.
A document with a lot riding on it
A bid filed in a public tender inside the Eurometropolis, a letter to a notary's office, a home page. A revision always costs less than a bid set aside.
Sometimes we advise you not to revise. Once a document holds more errors of meaning than sound sentences, translating it again costs less and gives a far better result than patching it line by line. We say so after reading the two pages, before any quote, and that verdict is not charged to you.
From two sample pages to a text fit to send
We put a figure on nothing until we know what state the text is really in.
- 01
You send two pages
A representative extract, and the source document if it still exists. Without the original we correct the language but guarantee nothing about the meaning.
- 02
Reading and verdict
We name the level of work needed, the turnaround, and the case where translating again would be the wiser move. This step costs you nothing.
- 03
Compared revision
The reviewer, a native speaker familiar with the field, works with the original in front of him and leaves every change visible in the file.
- 04
Handover
Clean file, file with the changes shown, and a note on the debatable choices. You settle whatever is still open, we apply it.
Unsure about a text you are about to send?
Two pages are enough to know where it stands. The reading costs nothing and the verdict is blunt.
Six points included in every reading
Native and from the field
The reviewer has written in the language of the text since childhood and knows the subject. A lawyer does not review a quarry manual, and the reverse holds too.
The original always open
A revision carried out on the target text alone never sees the missing line. Both documents stay side by side from the first word to the last.
A verdict with no invoice
Reading the first two pages and the opinion that follows are free, including when the conclusion is that we have nothing useful to sell you.
Changes shown
Everything is tracked in the file. You see what moved, you understand why, and you can go back on any line you like.
Short turnarounds
Most revisions fit into one to three working days. Rush work stays possible, and its surcharge appears on the quote before you agree.
The same secrecy
A text entrusted for review falls under the undertaking that covers our own translations. It enters no online tool, at any point.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need proofreading or revision?
Proofreading looks at the target text alone: language, spelling, punctuation, flow. Revision sets it against the original and checks the meaning. If the document binds your company or has to be understood without the slightest ambiguity, revision is what you need, and it assumes you can supply the source.
Can you rescue what a machine translator produced?
Yes, that work is called post-editing. Say so from the start, because the reading is different: in those texts the errors hide inside perfectly well-turned sentences. If the output is too damaged we will propose a fresh translation and explain why.
Do you review Dutch written by a French speaker?
It is one of our most frequent requests: the language border runs twenty kilometres away. The reviewer is a Dutch speaker, preferably from the Kortrijk area when the text addresses Flemish clients rather than the Netherlands. Phrasing and commercial habits differ noticeably between the two.
And what about layout?
We work inside your file and respect the formatting already there. Dutch and German stretch the text, English shortens it: we flag the overflows and adjust wherever the format allows. A full graphic redesign, on the other hand, falls outside what we do.
Get your free quote within the hour
Send us your document or your date: firm price, precise deadline, no obligation. You then decide, with everything in front of you.