How to use client instructions and language guidelines

When you have a translation doubt and you’re deciding which of our resources to refer to - whether client instructions or language guidelines - we know that things can often get a bit confusing! So, to make things a little easier, we have created a short hierarchy of how our resources work. 

#1 -  Consider the client instructions your most important resource - they are the client’s wishes and should always be followed, even if they are in direct contravention of the language guidelines, or if you feel your version would be better.

#2 - If there is no information in the task, you should follow the language guidelines. 

#3 - If an issue isn’t covered in the language guidelines, nor the client instructions, you should use your own judgment. However, please make sure to avoid non-standard forms (e.g. dialect) and deviation from commonly accepted linguistic reference works (e.g. the Duden for German, OED for English etc.).

#4 - If you aren’t able to solve your issue with the above resources, please do your best to translate it in a way that is universally understandable. Please also do not hesitate to reach out to us for advice if you see something that you feel needs to be addressed [https://help.unbabel.com/hc/en-us/requests/new].

On a final note, remember that evaluators may refer to this hierarchy when carrying out evaluations - this is because it’s really important to us that we’re all on the same page and using the same resources when we have a doubt!  

As always, if you feel that a task has been unfairly evaluated and the evaluator has gone against the language guidelines/client instructions, please feel free to flag it to us [https://help.unbabel.com/hc/en-us/articles/360047665273-I-don-t-agree-with-my-evaluation-results].