Languages

Our language
translation expertise

Less than 5% of the world’s population speaks English. Connecting brands with the 95% of people who don’t speak English is what we do here at Brightlines.

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Brazilian Portuguese

Carlos Drummond de Andrade, one of Brazil's most celebrated twentieth-century poets, wrote in a voice that was conversational, warm and entirely modern. Brazilian Portuguese carries that quality: a language that expects warmth even in professional contexts. European Portuguese delivered to a Brazilian audience tells readers it was not written for them.

Dutch

Multatuli, the nineteenth-century Dutch novelist who wrote Max Havelaar, built his reputation on directness and plain speaking. Dutch professional culture values the same. Politely hedged English copy reads as evasive in a Dutch context. Direct Dutch communication reads as blunt in English. Both problems require judgement, not just translation.

Italian

Giacomo Leopardi, one of Italy's most celebrated nineteenth-century poets, found profundity not in grandeur but in restraint. That instinct runs through Italian written culture. The gap between a Milanese brief and a Neapolitan welcome, the weight of formal address, the precision register demands: these are professional expectations, not style choices.

Latin American Spanish

Gabriel García Márquez, Colombia's Nobel Prize-winning novelist, wrote in a Spanish that was unmistakably Latin American. Latin American Spanish is one language with many varieties. The differences between varieties are real, and the right one depends on the market. European Spanish does not serve Latin American audiences.

German

Goethe spent decades revising Faust in pursuit of precision, and that instinct runs through German as a written language. Every noun is capitalised. Every compound word encodes a distinct meaning. Translated copy that is fluent but structurally imprecise will read as foreign to a German audience.

Chinese

Du Fu, one of China's greatest classical poets, wrote with a precision that made each character carry weight. Chinese written culture demands the same discipline from translators. A single wrong character can change meaning entirely. Register errors, minor in English, carry significant weight in Chinese professional content.

Arabic

Umm Kulthum, the Egyptian singer whose voice reached every Arab audience for half a century, did it by moving between classical, literary and colloquial Arabic across her repertoire. Arabic translation requires the same instinct: matching dialect and register to who is reading.

Malay

P. Ramlee, one of Malaysia's most celebrated filmmakers, built his work on warmth, precision and an instinct for register. Malay demands the same from translation. The gap between formal and everyday Malay is wide, and the wrong register loses the audience before the message lands.

Russian

Anton Chekhov, the Russian writer who made the modern short story, earned his reputation by saying more with less. Russian rewards the same economy. The language uses case endings, free word order and a formal-informal address distinction to carry meaning that English builds into sentence structure itself. Translators have to use those tools deliberately.

Polish

Wisława Szymborska, Poland’s Nobel Prize-winning poet, built her reputation on saying something precise with very few words. Polish demands the same discipline. Seven grammatical cases and three grammatical genders carry meaning that English delegates to word order. A small inflection error changes the meaning of an obligation or an instruction.

European Portuguese

Fernando Pessoa, Portugal's greatest modernist poet, wrote under dozens of invented voices because he understood that register requires a different person. European Portuguese works the same way. It is formal where Brazilian Portuguese is warm and compact where Brazilian is expansive. The wrong variety will miss the mark in Portugal.

Turkish

Orhan Pamuk, Turkey's Nobel Prize-winning novelist, built his fiction on the tension between register, voice and the weight a single word carries in Turkish. Agglutinative structure means each suffix changes the meaning of what came before. The wrong suffix does not produce awkward Turkish. It produces different Turkish.

The answers to 
your questions

We have over 1000 vetted professional translators and 352,866 clients have been translating the intelligent way since 1999.

See all FAQ’s Get a quote for the languages you need...

Why does the price change depending on the language?

Translation rates vary by language pair because each language has its own market conditions and specialist availability. We price each language pair on its own merits. That means if a language is cheaper for us to resource and deliver, we pass that saving on to you, rather than charging a single flat rate across all languages.

How do you ensure translation quality and accuracy?

We match every project to an experienced translator with the right subject knowledge. The translation is then checked by a second professional (the “four-eyes” approach) to check meaning, terminology, and consistency.

Can I send you scanned documents?

Yes. We can translate scanned documents, as long as the scan is readable. For good-quality scans, we can use OCR (text extraction) to speed things up. We can supply the translation as an editable Word document or PDF. If you need the layout to match the original (for example, images, logos, and similar formatting), we can do that too and we’ll quote for it separately.

Can you give me a rough cost over the phone?

We’re happy to talk through your project on the phone and give you a ballpark figure. Costs vary depending on the language pair, word count, file type and the complexity of the source copy. If you send the file, we’ll provide a quote by email, often on the same day.

Do you use native translators?

Yes. Always. All of our translators are qualified professionals and native speakers. We’ve worked with many of our translators for years, and we hand-pick the right translator for each project based on subject matter and style. Wherever possible, we keep the same translator on your account for consistency.

Will the translator understand my content?

Yes. We hand-pick the right translator for your subject matter and style. If your content is technical or high-stakes, we’ll match you with a specialist who works in that field, often with relevant industry or academic background (for example, medical translators with medical training).

We also build in checks. If anything in the source text is unclear, the translator will query it rather than guess. And if you have reference material, a glossary, or preferred terminology, we’ll use it to keep wording consistent and accurate.

Do you offer certified translations?

Yes. We provide certified translations for businesses, legal firms, and official organisations. Certification requirements vary, so we'll always ask you to confirm what the receiving authority requires before we begin.

What do you need from me to provide a quick quote?

For a quick quote, we need three things:

- The source language and the target language(s)

- The word count (or the file so we can calculate it accurately)

- What the content is about (for example, marketing, legal, technical, medical, HR, training)

If you can send the file, we’ll confirm the word count and recommend the best approach, for example, AI-assisted or 100% human, which can affect the price. Page count on its own isn’t reliable because the number of words per page can vary a lot depending on the document.

If you’re not sure, send what you have and we’ll tell you what else we need.

Do you have translators who specialise in my sector?

Yes. For specialist content, we hand-pick a translator with the right subject expertise, not just language ability. We work with translators who have degrees in languages or linguistics, as well as academic qualifications in fields such as science, technology, engineering, medicine, and law.

We also work with translators who have real-world experience. For example, some have worked in engineering or finance before moving into translation. That background helps them understand the source text properly and use the right terminology.

I’m a translator. How do I apply to work with Brightlines?

We work with hundreds of trusted translators on an ongoing basis so we only recruit new translators to join our team when the need arises.

If you would like to work with us, you can send an email with your CV and details of your qualifications and experience to "registration@brightlinestranslation.com". If your languages and specialisms match what we need at the time, we’ll be in touch for more info.

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