{"id":11006,"date":"2018-06-24T12:57:55","date_gmt":"2018-06-24T11:57:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.versioninternationale.com\/?p=11006"},"modified":"2025-08-14T15:22:02","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T14:22:02","slug":"the-expansion-rate-in-translation-english-french-german","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.versioninternationale.com\/en\/blog\/the-expansion-rate-in-translation-english-french-german\/","title":{"rendered":"The expansion rate in translation – English French German"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every translator will tell you the same thing: the translation of the text you\u2019ve requested won\u2019t stay the same length as the original. Linguists are well aware of this phenomenon of inflation, which is a natural side-effect of the passage from one language to another: words swarm. Technically speaking, it\u2019s called the expansion rate. Here’s why.<\/span><\/p>\n

Words have the gift of the gab, and when they head down the path of translation, they make the most of the opportunity to loosen up, to stretch their muscles, to expand and thicken up. So do you always end up with more words than you started with?<\/span>
\nThis increase in size from source language to target language, and which is specific to each language combination, is defined as the percentage of growth or reduction which appears in the text once it has been translated. It depends on the language being translated.<\/span>
\nIn practice, a translation from English to French has a growth rate of +20% and varies between +25% and +30% for German. As for Romance languages, it\u2019s the other way around: the number of words gained in translation shrinks to around 10% when it comes to translation into French.<\/span><\/p>\n

An overview of different growth rates<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The rate varies depending on the chosen language combination. Growth rates are discussed in terms of negative and positive. The generally observed percentages are as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Source<\/strong>\u00a0language<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nTarget language<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\nRate of expansion<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
English<\/span><\/td>\nFrench\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n+20%<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
German<\/span><\/td>\nFrench\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n+30%<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Spanish<\/span><\/td>\nFrench<\/span><\/td>\n0-10%<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Italian<\/span><\/td>\nFrench<\/span><\/td>\n-10%<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Dutch<\/span><\/td>\nFrench\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n+20%<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Japanese<\/span><\/td>\nFrench\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n-67%<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

It\u2019s important to clarify that the count in Japanese always corresponds to the number of characters, which is not the same as the number of words. Rather, it\u2019s a line of characters included between two spaces, an apostrophe or a punctuation mark.<\/span><\/p>\n

The translator: a multilingual counterfeiter?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

If the size of the target text is more substantial than the source text, does that mean that the translator isn\u2019t being concise enough?<\/span>
\nAs translation is a method of textual transformation, words are constantly in motion to make sure the text is intelligible, grammatically correct, and semantically accurate. It\u2019s a transformation that\u2019s crafted and carried out based on an existing text, which is thoughtfully adapted. The expansion is therefore partly linked to thelinguistic constraints of the target language. It\u2019s worth noting other factors, such as the domain of the text, how technical it is, any stylistic effects, the level of the language, the connotations… There are so many elements which can affect the rate of expansion.<\/span><\/p>\n

The all-in-one<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Additionally, anglophones have a more compact language. They use more compound words and can express many ideas with one word, while francophones need to use several. In English, the use of articles is also reduced. For German, the result is even more glaring! That means, for example:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
Please<\/strong>\u00a0= 1 word in English<\/span><\/td>\nS\u2019il vous pla\u00eet<\/strong>\u00a0= 3 words in French<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mineralwasserflasche<\/strong>\u00a0= 1 word in German<\/span><\/td>\nBouteille d\u2019eau min\u00e9rale<\/strong>\u00a0= 3 words in French<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Weltmeisterschaft<\/strong>\u00a0= 1 word in German<\/span><\/td>\nCoupe du monde<\/strong>\u00a0= 3 words in French<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Domesticating the page layout<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Integrating the expansion rate of a translation means understanding what it does to the balance of the translated text. If the final document needs to respect a specific or defined page layout and you don\u2019t want this to be a distressing experience, it\u2019s important to take into consideration the language\u2019s expansionist inclinations and to have it sent to graphic designers or other specialists, whether it\u2019s to be printed out or shown onscreen.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lastly, let\u2019s conclude by remembering that the expansion rate is unrelated to transcreation. Transcreation is about refining a translation by integrating a real thought process about the commercial and cultural environment of the selected target. And that\u2019s how the multipotentiality of the words and thoughts of the translator are expressed.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you have a translation project, we can help you to find the best solution – all you have to to do is contact us!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every translator will tell you the same thing: the translation of the text you\u2019ve requested won\u2019t stay the same length as the original. Linguists are well aware of this phenomenon of inflation, which is a natural side-effect of the passage from one language to another: words swarm. Technically speaking, it\u2019s called the expansion rate. Here’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11582,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting-facts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.versioninternationale.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.versioninternationale.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.versioninternationale.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.versioninternationale.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.versioninternationale.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11006"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.versioninternationale.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29031,"href":"https:\/\/www.versioninternationale.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11006\/revisions\/29031"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.versioninternationale.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.versioninternationale.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.versioninternationale.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.versioninternationale.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}