9 Challenges in Machine Translation Post-Editing
Machine translation makes work a lot faster. But anyone who works with it knows it still needs a steady human hand. Some lines come out clean; others fall apart the moment you look closely. This is where post-editing comes in.
Post-editors step in to make the text sound natural, make sense, and reflect what the writer actually meant. It isn’t a quick touch-up job. It’s detailed work that requires language instinct and patience.
On paper, post-editing sounds like a clear, repeatable process. But every machine-translated file behaves differently. Quality fluctuates, expectations remain high, and turnaround times rarely slow down. Post-editors must make hundreds of micro-decisions on the go; what to fix, what to leave, and how far “good enough” really goes. And this is where certain challenges arise.
As you read further, you will learn about 9 such challenges. Join the conversation and let us know if you can relate to these and if you would add anything more to the list.
1. Balancing Quality and Speed
Post-editors are always walking a tightrope. Sometimes the draft is good enough to fix in seconds. Other times you end up rewriting entire sections. That constant shift between light touches and deep edits disrupts rhythm.
The hardest part is knowing where to draw the line. Clean too much and you might as well translate from scratch. Clean too little and the text stays clumsy. Deciding what’s “enough” is something you learn only through experience. And doing it all day can wear you out.
2. Understanding the Bigger Picture
Machines don’t follow a storyline or intention. They latch onto surface patterns, not what the writer is trying to say. Words with several meanings get twisted. References drift. Cultural hints disappear completely.
A post-editor often must pause and read beyond a single sentence just to figure out the real meaning. Sometimes the languages don’t match neatly, so you adjust the phrasing to keep the sense of the message rather than cling to the structure on the page.
3. Inconsistent Output
A single file can feel like it was produced by several different systems. One section may read smoothly, while the next may look like it was tossed together in a hurry.
This inconsistency makes it impossible to settle at a steady pace. Every new sentence could be a quick fix or a full rework. That unpredictability slows things down and increases mental load.
4. Bringing Back Tone and Voice
Anything expressive tends to lose its character. Marketing lines lose their spark. Personal writing loses its warmth. Descriptions lose their rhythm. Post-editors have to restore that personality without drifting into their own style.
The aim is simple: make the text feel like something a real person would say, not something that’s been run through a machine twice.
5. Working with Specialist Material
Technical fields don’t forgive mistakes. One wrong medical term or one casual phrase in a legal contract can create problems. Machines often mix up terminology or shift between formal and informal language without noticing.
Editors who know the subject can fix these issues quickly. Others have to research constantly, which slows everything down. Without proper references or glossaries, even small decisions can take longer than they should.
6. The Mental Pressure
Post-editing demands steady focus. You’re comparing two texts, checking the meaning, tone and flow, while watching for subtle errors that don’t jump out at first glance.
It’s also repetitive. Machines tend to repeat the same flaw throughout a document, so you end up fixing the same awkward structure or mistranslated phrase again and again. Staying sharp through that repetition is its own challenge.
7. Unclear Instructions
Sometimes you might get broad directions like “keep it readable,” or “make it clean.” But those phrases mean wildly different things depending on where the text is going. A short internal note doesn’t need the same polish as a brochure or a press release.
When the brief is vague, editors either overcorrect or hold back too much. Clear instructions make a huge difference, but they aren’t always available.
8. Emotional Strain
Most translators enjoy the creative parts of their work. Post-editing takes away a good chunk of that. It’s more about fixing and less about crafting. Add tight timelines or uneven pay, and the job can feel exhausting.
Many editors say the hardest part is not the language challenge but the feeling of constantly cleaning up someone else’s mistakes, even though the machine isn’t a “someone” at all.
9. Assessing Quality and Output
Deciding what counts as “good enough” isn’t simple. Expectations change depending on the purpose of the content and the style of the client. Productivity also varies based on how clean or messy the draft is, so setting fair output targets is tricky.
Numbers alone never capture clarity, tone, or how naturally the text reads. When evaluation focuses too much on speed, editors feel pressured to rush, which goes against the whole point of improving the text.
MTPE sits between two worlds. The machine gives you a draft, but humans shape it into something that carries meaning clearly and naturally. Work won’t disappear just because tools evolve. It will simply shift toward tasks that rely on judgment, context, and a feel for language.
That mix of mechanical output and human refinement is exactly what makes the job demanding. And it’s also what makes the result worth the effort.
How many points could you relate to? And what would you add to the list. Join the conversation and let us know.
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