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- Date: Thu, 30 Apr 2020 14:42:05 +0000
- To: public-mqmcg@w3.org
Copyright © 2015–2018 the Contributors to the Multidimensional Quality Metrics (MQM) Issue Types, published by the MULTIDIMENSIONAL QUALITY METRICS (MQM) COMMUNITY GROUP under the W3C Community Contributor License Agreement (CLA). A human-readable summary is available.
This report was published by the MULTIDIMENSIONAL QUALITY METRICS (MQM) COMMUNITY GROUP. It is not a W3C Standard nor is it on the W3C Standards Track. Please note that under the W3C Community Contributor License Agreement (CLA) there is a limited opt-out and other conditions apply. Learn more about W3C Community and Business Groups.
Multidimensional Quality Metrics (MQM) Issue Types: DRAFT 2018-10-04
Copyright
Based on a work at http://qt21.eu/mqm-definition.
Derivative works that change the content of this specification MUST attribute the contributions from this work but MUST NOT claim to be “Multidimensional Quality Metrics” or “MQM”. Derivative works MUST therefore use a distinct name that does not imply endorsement of changes. However, implementations of MQM as set forth in this document may state that they implement or use MQM without any special permissions.
This version does not contain updates made in the activities of ASTM F43, which will be added in the next posted version
Editors
Arle Lommel (DFKI)
Aljoscha Burchardt (DFKI)
Attila Görög (TAUS)
Hans Uszkoreit (DFKI)
Alan K. Melby (LTAC Global)
Acknowledgements
Special thanks are due to the following individuals for their contributions:
Serge Gladkoff (Logrus)
Leonid Glazychev (Logrus)
Kim Harris (text&form)
Dale Schultz (IBM)
Jean-François Vanreusel (Adobe)
Document status
This document contains a list of the MQM issue types. This version is a stable version and can be used for implementation.
Feedback
Feedback on this document should be submitted to info@qt21.eu.
Overview
This document defines the issue types used by the Multidimensional Quality Metrics (MQM) framework. It contains a description of the issue types.
1. MQM Issue types
MQM defines a total of over 100 issue types, as defined in this section. They are derived from an examination of major quality assessment systems, both ones based on automatic detection of issues and ones based on manual assessment by reviewers. As quality assessment systems differ considerably in the issues they check, the MQM issue types represent a (non-strict) superset of issues found in translations (as product, as opposed to process). The superset is non-strict because it represents an abstraction of various systems and, in some cases, is less granular than actual systems. For example, an existing system might distinguish between four kinds of issues related to whitespace, but MQM would categorize all of them as Whitespace (whitespace). Information on extending MQM is available in the MQM definition.
In this document MQM issue types are referred to by name followed by the MQM ID value in parentheses on a gray background, e.g., Issue name (issue-name). The issue ID values are linked to the full description of the issue below.
MTM issues exist in a hierarchy, with more specific issues lower in the hierarchy constituting “subtypes” of their parents. For example the issue type Mistranslation (mistranslation) is a subtype of the more general issue type Accuracy (accuracy). Because the issues exist in a hierarchy, rather than as a flat list, MQM can be realized at any level of granularity. At one extreme an MQM-compliant metric could check only two high-level issues, Accuracy (accuracy) and Fluency (fluency); at the other extreme a metric could check all issues defined in MQM. In most cases the number of issues checked will be somewhere between these extremes. Guidance on selecting issue sets can be found in MQM definition. As a general rule, metrics should check the fewest number of issues possible to achieve the requirements of users.
This section presents the hierarchy of MQM issues, followed by the detailed description of each issue type.
At the top level, MQM issues are grouped into eight major branches or “dimensions”: Accuracy (accuracy), Fluency (fluency), Terminology (terminology), Locale convention (locale-convention), Style (style), Verity (verity), Design (design), and Internationalization (internationalization). It also contains Other (other), used for issues that cannot be assigned elsewhere, and Compatibility (Deprecated) (compatibility), a branch that contains deprecated issues that are retained for compatibility with legacy systems, notably the LISA QA Model. These seven dimensions represent the top level in the MQM hierarchy and themselves may serve as issue types in cases where no further granularity is needed.
These dimensions may be graphically represented as follows (dimensions in bold are in the “MQM Core”):
Issue type names are not case-sensitive (i.e., “Mistranslation”, “MISTRANSLATION”, “mistranslation”, and “MiStRaNsLaTiOn” are all equivalent). The ID values, however, are case sensitive (and are always lower-case) and do not contain spaces. As a result, implementers should ensure that they do not confuse the two, even though in most cases they are nearly identical.
1.1. Hierarchical list of issue types
The following list of issue types presents the full list of MQM categories in hierarchy. Clicking on any issue type name in the lists will take the reader to the definition of the issue type in the next section. The list is separated into sections by dimension. For those dimensions where current sub-issues are defined, a “mind map” shows the hierarchy of the dimension. Clicking on the embedded image will open and SVG version in a new window. Issues in bold in the graphics or the list are part of the “MQM core”. The graphical versions include both the issue name, which might be localized or displayed in some other fashion in an application, and the ID, which MUST remain as given to provide an unambiguous reference to a particular issue type.
1.1.1. Accuracy
Accuracy issues address the relationship of the target text to the source text and can be assessed only by considering this relationship. Changes in intended meaning, addition and omission of content, and similar issues are considered in it.
Accuracy (accuracy)
Addition (addition)
Improper exact TM match (improper-exact-tm-match)
Mistranslation (mistranslation)
Ambiguous translation (ambiguous-translation)
Date/time (date-time)
Entity (such as name or place) (entity)
False friend (false-friend)
Mistranslation of technical relationship (technical-relationship)
Number (number)
Overly literal (overly-literal)
Should not have been translated (no-translate)
Unit conversion (unit-conversion)
Omission (omission)
Omitted variable (omitted-variable)
Over-translation (over-translation)
Under-translation (under-translation)
Untranslated (untranslated)
Untranslated graphic (untranslated-graphic)
1.1.2. Compatibility (Deprecated)
The Compatibility dimension includes issues taken from legacy metrics that are not considered appropriate for general use in MQM (because they are related to areas not covered by MQM, such as deadlines, software functionality, or physical production). They are included only for compatibility with these older metrics and should not be used for new MQM metrics.
Compatibility (Deprecated) (compatibility)
1.1.3. Design
Design includes issues related to the physical presentation of text, typically in a “rich text” or “markup” environment.
Design (design)
Graphics and tables (graphics-tables)
Call-outs and captions (call-outs-captions)
Missing graphic/table (graphics-tables-missing)
Position of graphic/table (graphics-tables-position)
Hyphenation (hyphenation)
Length (length)
Local formatting (local-formatting)
Font (font)
Bold/italic (bold-italic)
Font, single/double-width (CJK only) (single-double-width)
Wrong size (wrong-font-size)
Leading (leading)
Kerning (kerning)
Paragraph indentation (paragraph-indentation)
Text alignment (text-alignment)
Hyphenation (hyphenation)
Markup (markup)
Added markup (added-markup)
Inconsistent markup (inconsistent-markup)
Misplaced markup (misplaced-markup)
Missing markup (missing-markup)
Questionable markup (questionable-markup)
Missing text (missing-text)
Truncation/text expansion (truncation-text-expansion)
Overall design (layout) (overall-design)
Color (color)
Footnote/endnote format (footnote-format)
Global font choice (global-font-choice)
Headers and footers (headers-footers)
Margins (margins)
Page breaks (page-breaks)
Widows/orphans (widows-orphans)
1.1.4. Fluency
Fluency includes those issues about the linguistic “well-formedness” of the text that can be assessed without regard to whether the text is a translation or not. Most Fluency issues apply equally to source and target texts.
Fluency (fluency)
Ambiguity (ambiguity)
Unclear reference (unclear-reference)
Character encoding (character-encoding)
Coherence (coherence)
Cohesion (cohesion)
Corpus conformance (corpus-conformance)
Duplication (duplication)
Grammar (grammar)
Function words (function-words)
Word form (word-form)
Agreement (agreement)
Part of speech (part-of-speech)
Tense/mood/aspect (tense-mood-aspect)
Word order (word-order)
Grammatical register (grammatical-register)
Inconsistency (inconsistency)
Inconsistent abbreviations (inconsistent-abbreviations)
Images vs. text (images-vs-text)
Inconsistent link/cross-reference (inconsistent-link)
Inconsistent with external reference (external-inconsistency)
Index/TOC (index-toc)
Index/TOC format (index-toc-format)
Missing/incorrect TOC item (missing-incorrect-toc-item)
Page references (page-references)
Link/cross-reference (broken-link)
Document-external link (document-external-link)
Document-internal link (document-internal-link)
Nonallowed characters (nonallowed-characters)
Offensive (offensive)
Pattern problem (pattern-problem)
Sorting (sorting)
Spelling (spelling)
Capitalization (capitalization)
Diacritics (diacritics)
Typography (typography)
Punctuation (punctuation)
Unpaired quote marks or brackets (unpaired-marks)
Whitespace (whitespace)
Unintelligible (unintelligible)
1.1.5. Internationalization
Internationalization covers areas related to the preparation of the source content for subsequent translation or localization. Internationalization issues may be detected through problems found in the target (particularly from those included in Locale convention (locale-convention)), but an Internationalization audit is generally conducted separately from a general assessment of translation quality.
Internationalization (internationalization)
Concatenation (concatenation)
Confusable security (confusable-security)
Embedded string (embedded-string)
Embedded string in code (embedded-string-in-code)
Embedded string in graphic (embedded-string-in-graphic)
Functional (functional)
Case folding (case-folding)
Character set support (character-set-support)
Fixed collation (fixed-collation)
Hard-coded keyboard command (hard-coded-keyboard-command)
Input validation (input-validation)
Missing fall-back text (missing-fall-back-text)
String matching (string-matching)
Text corruption (text-corruption)
Text indexing (text-indexing)
Time zone support (time-zone-support)
Writing system support (writing-system-support)
Bi-di support (bi-di-support)
Font rendering engine (font-rendering-engine)
Keyboard support (keyboard-support)
Graphical aspects (graphical-internationalization)
Color internationalization (color-internationalization)
Culture-specific graphic (culture-specific-graphic)
Hard-coded graphic (hard-coded-graphic)
Language-dependent logic (language-dependent-logic)
Language-specific tool support (language-specific-tool-support)
Grammar checker (grammar-checker)
Hyphenator (hyphenator)
Spell checker (spell-checker)
Localization support (localization-support)
Address internationalization (address-internationalization)
Calendar internationalization (calendar-internationalization)
Currency internationalization (currency-internationalization)
Date internationalization (date-internationalization)
Measurement internationalization (measurement-internationalization)
Name internationalization (name-internationalization)
Number internationalization (number-internationalization)
Shortcut key internationalization (shortcut-key-internationalization)
Telephone internationalization (telephone-internationalization)
Time internationalization (time-internationalization)
Paper/envelope size (paper-envelope-size)
Resource externalization (resource-externalization)
Sequence (sequence)
Text expandability (text-expandability)
User interface internationalization (ui-internationalization)
Complexity (complexity)
Fixed dialog/UI size (fixed-dialog-ui-size)
Non-dynamic UI (non-dynamic-ui)
Non-reversible UI (non-reversible-ui)
1.1.6. Locale convention
Issues in Locale convention relate to the formal compliance of content with locale-specific conventions, such as use of proper number formats. If content is otherwise correctly translated and fluent but violates specific locale expectations (as defined in the translation specifications), it is addressed in this dimension. This dimension does not cover issues related to whether the content itself is appropriate for the locale (these issues are covered under Verity (verity).
Locale convention (locale-convention)
Address format (address-format)
Postal code (postal-code)
Calendar type (calendar-type)
Currency format (currency-format)
Date format (date-format)
Locale-specific punctuation (locale-specific-punctuation)
Quote mark type (quote-mark-type)
Measurement format (measurement-format)
Name format (name-format)
National language standard (national-language-standard)
Number format (number-format)
Shortcut key (shortcut-key)
Telephone format (telephone-format)
Time format (time-format)
1.1.7. Style
Style issues relate to what is commonly known as “Style”, defined both formally (in style guides) and informally (e.g., a “light style” or an “engaging style”). These issues are closely related to fluency, but are often treated separately by tools and quality processes and so are grouped as a separate dimension in MQM.
Style (style)
Register (register)
Variants/slang (variants-slang)
Awkward (awkward)
Company style (company-style)
Inconsistent style (inconsistent-style)
Third-party style (third-party-style)
Unidiomatic (unidiomatic)
1.1.8. Terminology
Terminology issues relate to the use of domain- or organization-specific terminology (i.e., the use of words to relate to specific concepts not considered part of general language). Adherence to specified terminology is widely considered an issue of central concern in both translation and content authoring. Issues in this branch should not be used for general language mistranslation (e.g., translations that would not be considered correct under reasonable circumstances), and should be reserved for issues related to terminology (e.g., a translation is reasonable but incorrect in the context of specific technical domain or for a particular organization).
Terminology (terminology)
Inconsistent with termbase (termbase)
Company terminology (terminology-company)
Third-party termbase (terminology-third-party)
Inconsistent with domain (domain-terminology)
Inconsistent use of terminology (term-inconsistency)
Multiple terms for concept in source (multiple-terms-for-concept)
Multiple translations of same term (multiple-translations-of-term)
1.1.9. Verity
Verity issues relate to the suitability of content for the target locale and audience. They do not relate to fluency or accuracy since content may be fluently written and accurately translated and still be inappropriate for the target locale or audience. For example, if a text translated for Germans in Germany refers to options available only in the UK, these portions will likely be problematic. For more details on Verity, see the discussion below.
Verity (verity)
Completeness (completeness)
Incomplete List (incomplete-list)
Incomplete procedure (incomplete-procedure)
Culture-specific reference (culture-specific)
End-user suitability (end-user-suitability)
Legal requirements (legal-requirements)
Locale-specific content (locale-specific-content)
As Verity (verity) is a relatively new concept in translation quality assessment, some examples may help clarify its usage and how it differs from general Accuracy (accuracy) or Fluency (fluency). Note that issues in this branch may be checked in separate processes relating to market compliance before translation begins or may be subject to discussion and negotiation between the requester and the provider.
The examples are:
An computer advertisement written in the U.S. directly compares a computer’s features with those of a competitor to conclude that the advertiser’s computer is better that its competitor’s. While this sort of advertisement is perfectly acceptable in U.S., it is illegal under German law. As a result an accurate and fluent translation of the advertisement would subject the maker to potential legal penalties. The appropriate German version would therefore highlight strengths of the computer in absolute terms without reference to a competitor. Note: The necessary changes in such a case are often included under the rubric of transcreation. This issue is classified under Legal requirements (legal-requirements)
A user guide for a wireless Internet base station is translated, but includes unnecessary legal notifications from the source text and omits needed notifications for the target locale. This issue is classified under Legal requirements (legal-requirements)
A Hungarian-language novel being translated into Quebec French includes references to Hungarian popular culture and music. When translated in a way that would be appropriate for a French speaker living in Hungary who is familiar with Hungarian culture, these references are unintelligible to the target audience in Quebec. As a result the text includes Verity errors and the appropriate translation for the specifications involves substituting in appropriate Quebecoise pop culture and musical references. These issues can be categorized under Culture-specific reference (culture-specific)
A text is written in a conceptually complex fashion that makes it inaccessible for its intended audience of high-school students (even though the overall register is appropriate). The suitability does not depend on the locale or whether or not the text is translated. It can be categorized as End-user suitability (end-user-suitability).
An automobile service manual for a British automobile assumes a right-hand drive automobile and includes descriptions of parts for that drive system. When the manual is used in the United States, these references are no longer appropriate to the automobile and must be modified to reflect the use of left-hand drive systems in the U.S., including swapping left and right in physical descriptions of some parts. These issues can be categorized as Locale-specific content (locale-specific-content).
A document translated from German to U.S. Spanish includes references to European type electrical plugs (which would be appropriate for the product when sold in Spain). These references must be changed to match the physical characteristics of the product as sold in the U.S. This would be classified under Locale-specific content (locale-specific-content).
A service manual omits needed steps from the description of a technical process, making it impossible to complete the process as written. (Note: this is an example of a monolingual Verity problem that exists independently of the whether the text is translated or not.) This issue is categorized as Incomplete procedure (incomplete-procedure).
A text written for an audience of college-educated agriculture managers is translated for use in another country where the local managers are trained on the job and cannot be assumed to have the same education. As a result, the text contains references to knowledge and background that cannot be assumed in the target audience. This problem is an example of the type End-user suitability (end-user-suitability). Here the text must be changed and clarified for the intended audience.
In a fictional work, an individual sees people dressed in black and thinks of a funeral, but when translated in a covert translation (i.e., a translation that should appear as though it were written in the target locale and language) this association does not work because black is traditionally worn in weddings rather than funerals in the target locale. This would be classified as Culture-specific reference (culture-specific).
A verification form for password security requests users to provide the name of the street they grew up on. However, in some countries there are no street names, and addresses refer to “colonies” and blocks within a colony instead. As a result, the question does not make sense to the target audience. This issue would be categorized as Culture-specific reference (culture-specific).
1.1.10. Other
This dimension is used for issues which cannot be otherwise classified into a dimension of MQM. In cases where an unforeseen issue can be classified as belonging to a dimension, it should be classified in that dimension under the top level or using a custom issue type. In practice Other should be used extremely rarely.
Other (other)
1.2. Detailed listing of MQM issue types
This section lists all MQM issue types in alphabetical order, with the following information:
Name
The name is the English name for the issue type. This name may be localized in other languages or may be changed in a UI to reflect application-specific preferences. (For example, if an existing system is being converted to use MQM categories and already has an issue type called Terminology problem that corresponds to Terminology (terminology), the UI may display the existing name but refer to the ID value terminology internally for mapping purposes. For new English-language implementations, however, it is recommended to use the existing name to prevent confusion.)
ID
An XML identifier for the category. This ID is used to refer unambiguously to each issue type and does not change, even if a UI may display other names for the category.
Definition
A definition of the issue type
MQM Core?
(yes|no) Specifies whether the issue is in the MQM core (see the definition of the MQM Core) or not.
Automatable?
(yes|no) Informative: Indicates whether the issue may be automatically detected. Users interested in fully automatable subsets of MQM may wish to limit themselves to issues marked with “yes”. This specification does not provide any guidance on how to check issues automatically and detection may require language-specific modules or development. Success in detecting issues depends on factors outside the scope of this specification and individual systems may be able to identify issues not identified as automatable in this specification.
Parent
The parent of the issue type in the hierarchy. Each issue can be understood as a type of its parent.
Children
A list of any children to the current issue type.
Applies to
Whether the category applies to target, source, or both
Example(s)
One or more illustrative examples of the issue type
Note(s)
Any notes on usage for the issue type.
Accuracy
ID
accuracy
Definition
The target text does not accurately reflect the source text, allowing for any differences authorized by specifications.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
Children
addition, improper-exact-tm-match, mistranslation, omission, over-translation, under-translation, untranslated
Applies to
target
Example(s)
Note(s)
Most cases of accuracy are addressed by one of the more specific subtypes listed below.
In Machine Translation literature, this category is typically referred to as “Adequacy”.
Added markup
ID
added-markup
Definition
The target text has markup added with no corresponding markup in the source.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
markup
Children
none
Applies to
target
Example(s)
A source segment has no formatting tags, but the target has a set of italic tags.
Note(s)
Addition
ID
addition
Definition
The target text includes text not present in the source.
MQM Core?
yes
Automatable?
yes
Parent
accuracy
Children
none
Applies to
target
Example(s)
A translation includes portions of another translation that were inadvertently pasted into the document.
Note(s)
Address format
ID
address-format
Definition
Content uses the wrong format for addresses.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
locale-convention
Children
postal-code
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
An online form translated from English to Hindi requires a street number even though many addresses in India do not include a house number.
Note(s)
Very often this issue indicates an underlying internationalization problem.
Address internationalization
ID
address-internationalization
Definition
An inport form, database, or other software component does not properly support international address formats
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
localization-support
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
A form enforces a US model of street addresses that does not apply in many target languages and does not support notation of districts or other important features of addresses in some countries.
Note(s)
Corresponds to address-format in locale-convention.
This is used to mark engineering problems in the source content, not specific problems in the target.
Agreement
ID
agreement
Definition
Two or more words do not agree with respect to case, number, person, or other grammatical features
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
word-form
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A text reads “They was expecting a report.”
Note(s)
Ambiguity
ID
ambiguity
Definition
The text is ambiguous in its meaning.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
fluency
Children
unclear-reference
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A text reads “I cannot recommend this too highly.” (The meaning can be that the speaker cannot make a good recommendation or that it is highly recommended.)
Note(s)
This issue is distinguished from ambiguous-translation by its focus on monolingual ambiguity. In cases where the translation process has introduced ambiguity, ambiguous-translation should be used instead, if it is included in a metric. However, any ambiguity in a source text would be classified under this issue.
Ambiguous translation
ID
ambiguous-translation
Definition
An unambiguous source text is translated ambiguously
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
mistranslation
Children
none
Applies to
target
Example(s)
A text that means that someone is highly recommended is translated as “I cannot recommend this too highly.” (The meaning can be that the speaker cannot make a good recommendation or that it is highly recommended.)
Note(s)
This issue is distinct from ambiguity in that it is limited to issues where the translation process has introduced the ambiguity.
Awkward
ID
awkward
Definition
A text is written with an awkward style
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
style
Children
none
Applies to
target
Example(s)
A text is written with many embedded clauses and an excessively wordy style. While the meaning can be understood, the text is very awkward and difficult to follow.
Note(s)
Bi-di support
ID
bi-di-support
Definition
The software cannot support bi-directional scripts, such as Arabic and Hebrew
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
writing-system-support
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
Text in Arabic is displayed left-to-right rather than right-to-left.
Note(s)
Bold/italic
ID
bold-italic
Definition
Bold or italics are used incorrectly.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
font
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A book title should have been italicized, but the italics were omitted.
Note(s)
Calendar internationalization
ID
calendar-internationalization
Definition
Software does not support one or more calendar types needed for some locales.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
localization-support
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
A task-management system designed in the U.S. displays Sunday as the first day of the week, while many countries list it as the last day of the week.
A website displays all dates according to the Gregorian calendar, but the target audience in much of the Middle East prefers to use the Islamic calendar.
Note(s)
This issue does not apply to cases where dates are displayed in the wrong format, but according to the right calendar system.
Corresponds to calendar-format in locale-convention.
This is used to mark engineering problems in the source content, not specific problems in the target.
Calendar type
ID
calendar-type
Definition
Content uses the wrong type of calendar.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
locale-convention
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A tourism text translated from Arabic English gives a year as 1435, but it should have been converted from the Islamic calendar to the Gregorian calendar year 2014.
Note(s)
Very often this issue indicates an underlying internationalization problem.
Call-outs and captions
ID
call-outs-captions
Definition
There are issues with call-outs (text within a graphic that identifies parts) or captions.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
graphics-tables
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
During localization the location of numbers used for call-outs has been shifted and the call-outs are no longer usable.
Note(s)
Capitalization
ID
capitalization
Definition
Issues related to capitalization
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
spelling
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
The name John Smith is written as “john smith”
Note(s)
Case folding
ID
case-folding
Definition
Text casing routines do not support needed languages
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
functional
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
In Turkish the upper-case form of i is İ and the lower-case form of I is ı. As a result case-changing algorithms that are not internationalized and aware of Turkish will change the case of these characters incorrectly.
Note(s)
This issue may also impact text-indexing and string-matching if case-insensitive indexing or matching is used.
Character encoding
ID
character-encoding
Definition
Characters are garbled due to incorrect application of an encoding.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
fluency
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A text document in UTF-8 encoding is opened as ISO Latin-1, resulting in all “upper ASCII” characters being garbled.
Note(s)
Character set support
ID
character-set-support
Definition
Software does not support character sets needed for specific locales
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
functional
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
A database application cannot process or produce text stored in ISO Latin 6 (Nordic) encoding and so cannot interface with needed legacy systems in Norway.
Note(s)
Coherence
ID
coherence
Definition
The text is not coherent
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
fluency
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
While individual sentences of the text are all perfectly fluent, the text as a whole does not make sense and is inconsistent with itself.
Note(s)
Since coherence applies above the segment level, this issue type would generally be assessed with a holistic metric rather than an analytic one, although any claims that a text is not coherent should be able to point to specific portions and problems. Often these specific problems can be classified as coherence or inconsistency issues in an analytic metric.
Cohesion
ID
cohesion
Definition
Portions of the text needed to connect it into an understandable whole (e.g., reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction, and lexical cohesion) are missing or incorrect.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
fluency
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
An English text is missing conjunctions and particles (e.g., “thus”, “therefore”, “but”, and “however”) needed for the logic of the text to be clear.
Note(s)
Cohesion applies at the local level to incorrect or missing elements needed for the intended meaning of the text to be clear. Cohesion problems at the local level may contribute to coherence problems for the text as a whole.
Color internationalization
ID
color-internationalization
Definition
Use of colors is fixed and not adaptable to other locales
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
graphical-internationalization
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
A UK-based website uses a red, white, and blue color scheme and hard-codes these colors into graphical assets and inline styles. When translated for China, these colors are inappropriate but cannot be changed because of the way they are encoded into the site.
Note(s)
This issue type does not apply merely to the use of culture-specific colors, but rather to cases where the colors are not made accessible to the localization process and so cannot be changed.
Color
ID
color
Definition
Colors are used incorrectly
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
overall-design
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
Headings should be blue but are green instead.
Note(s)
Company style
ID
company-style
Definition
The text violates company/organization-specific style guidelines.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
style
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
Company style states that passive sentences may not be used but the text uses passive sentences.
Note(s)
Company terminology
ID
terminology-company
Definition
The text violates company/organization-specific terminology guidelines as specified in a termbase.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
termbase
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
Company-specific terminology guidelines specify that a product be called the “Acme Turbo2000™”, but the text calls it the “Acme Turbo” or the “Turbo200”.
Note(s)
Should be used when it is necessary to distinguish company-specific terminology issues from more general termbase issues.
Compatibility (Deprecated)
ID
compatibility
Definition
The Compatibility extension contains items which may be used for compatibility with legacy metrics even though they would otherwise not be included in MQM. Most of these issue types are taken from the LISA QA Model documentation.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
Children
The following issue types (presented without definition) are included in the Compatibility branch:
Application compatibility
Bill of materials/runlist
Book-building sequence
Covers
Deadline
Delivery
Does not adhere to specifications
Embedded text
File format
Functional
Output device
Printing
Release guide
Spines
Style, publishing standards
Terminology, contextually inappropriate
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A quality process checks the LISA QA Model issue “Book-building sequence” and it is included for compatibility with legacy processes
Note(s)
Use of these categories is not recommended and these issue types are to be considered deprecated. They are included only for compatibility with legacy processes.
Since compatibility is not a coherent category, use of this category itself is not recommended in any circumstance, although the children categories listed above may be used for compatibility purposes.
Completeness
ID
completeness
Definition
The text is incomplete
MQM Core?
yes
Automatable?
no
Parent
verity
Children
incomplete-list, incomplete-procedure
Applies to
source
Example(s)
A process description leaves out key steps needed to complete the process, resulting in an incomplete description of the process.
Note(s)
completeness refers to instances in which needed content is missing in the source language. For cases where material present in the source language is not present in a translation, omission should be used instead.
Complexity
ID
complexity
Definition
Different cultures expect different levels of complexity and presentation of information in user interfaces. If the amount of information is too much or too little for a culture, users will perceive the user interface negatively
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
ui-internationalization
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
A user interface developed in Sweden has a minimalist aesthetic, but when localized into China, Chinese users expect to find information in the UI that is normally hidden under various options. As a result they may find it frustrating and difficult to use.
Note(s)
Solving this problem may involve extensive adaptation of localized versions and may not be solvable by simple internationalization steps.
Concatenation
ID
concatenation
Definition
Text is concatenated in ways that will not function properly when the text is translated
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
internationalization
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
A localizable string contains the following: "You have found the ".$item.". Do you wish to pick it up?". When translated this string will cause problems because the article before the item and the equivalent of “it” will both need to be changed to reflect the content of the variable $item.
Note(s)
Confusable security
ID
confusable-security
Definition
Software does not provide any security protection against easily confusable character such as Latin-script A, Greek Α, and Cyrillic А, thus allowing users to impersonate other users’ names.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
internationalization
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
Users can select user names with any valid, non-control Unicode characters. As a result a user creates the user name Тоny (with the first two letters in Cyrillic) to impersonate an administrative user with the name Tony (all in Latin script).
Note(s)
This issue has emerged with the advent of pervasive Unicode support that allows multiple scripts to be combined in input. Solving this problem requires careful parsing of input.
Corpus conformance
ID
corpus-conformance
Definition
The content is deemed to have a level of conformance to a reference corpus. The non-conformance type reflects the degree to which the text conforms to a reference corpus given an algorithm that combines several classes of error type to produce an aggregate rating.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
fluency
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A text reading “The harbour connected which to printer is busy or configared not properly” is flagged by a language analysis tool as suspect based on its lack of conformance to an existing corpus.
Note(s)
One example of this issue type might involve output from a quality estimation system that delivers a warning that a text has a very low quality estimation score.
Culture-specific graphic
ID
culture-specific-graphic
Definition
Graphics embed cultural assumptions or references and cannot be changed
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
graphical-internationalization
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
A graphic depicts a “road trip” by showing sights familiar to a German audience that would be unknown in other locales.
Note(s)
If graphics can be easily changed in the localization process, this issue does not apply.
Culture-specific reference
ID
culture-specific
Definition
Content inappropriately uses a culture-specific reference that will not be understandable to the intended audience
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
locale-convention
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
An English text refers to steps in a process as “First base”, “Second base”, and “Third base”, and to successful completion as a “Home run” and uses other metaphors from baseball. These prove difficult to translate and confuse the target audience in Germany.
An marketing text in Greek includes reference to popular Greek music. When translated into English these references are not understandable to the target audience.
Note(s)
In the cases of texts that were written with the intention that they be translated, this issue may indicate a broader conceptual or Internationalization problem.
Currency format
ID
currency-format
Definition
Content uses the wrong format for currency.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
locale-convention
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A text dealing with business transactions from English into Hindi assumes that all currencies will be expressed in simple units, while the convention in India is to give such prices in lakh rupees (100,000 rupees)
Note(s)
Very often this issue indicates an underlying internationalization problem.
Currency internationalization
ID
currency-internationalization
Definition
A system does not support multiple currencies or specific currencies needed for individual markets
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
localization-support
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
An online commerce form displays all amounts in euros, but customers use the form in countries that use other currencies.
Note(s)
Corresponds to currency-format in locale-convention. This is used to mark engineering problems in the source content, not specific problems in the target.
Date format
ID
date-format
Definition
A text uses a date format inappropriate for its locale.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
locale-convention
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
An English text has “2012-06-07” instead of the expected “06/07/2012.”
Note(s)
Date internationalization
ID
date-internationalization
Definition
Date formats are not properly internationalized
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
localization-support
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
A system displayes all dates as "Dd/Mm/Yy", resulting in dates that cannot be understood correctly in much of the world.
Note(s)
Corresponds to date-format in locale-convention. This is used to mark engineering problems in the source content, not specific problems in the target.
Date/time
ID
date-time
Definition
Dates or times do not match between source and target.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
mistranslation
Children
none
Applies to
target
Example(s)
A German source text provides the date 09.02.09 (=February 9, 2009) but the English target renders it as September 2, 2009.
An English source text specifies a time of “4:40 PM” but this is rendered as 04:40 (=4:40 AM) in a German translation.
Note(s)
Design
ID
design
Definition
There is a problem relating to design aspects (vs. linguistic aspects) of the content.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
Children
graphics-tables, hyphenation, length, local-formatting, markup, missing-text, truncation-text-expansion, overall-design,
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A document is formatted incorrectly
Note(s)
Design issues may exist either in documentions in isolation (e.g., a second-level heading is formatted as a first-level heading) or in relationship between source and target (e.g., headings are formatted differently between source and target).
Diacritics
ID
diacritics
Definition
Issues related to the use of diacritics
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
spelling
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
The Hungarian word bőven (using o with a double acute (˝)) is spelled as bõven, using a tilde (˜), which is not found in Hungarian.
Note(s)
Document-external link
ID
document-external-link
Definition
A link or cross reference points to an incorrect or nonexistent location outside of the same document within which it occurs
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
broken-link
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A link in an HTML document points to a U.S. government URL that has moved and no longer exists.
Note(s)
Document-internal link
ID
document-internal-link
Definition
A link or cross reference points to an incorrect or nonexistent location within the same document within which it occurs.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
broken-link
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
An internal link refers to the location “#section5” but there is no anchor “section5” in the document.
Note(s)
Duplication
ID
duplication
Definition
Content has been duplicated (e.g., a word or longer portion of text is repeated unintentionally).
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
fluency
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A text reads “The man the man whom she saw…”
A paragraph appears verbatim twice in a row.
Note(s)
Embedded string in code
ID
embedded-string-in-code
Definition
String references are embedded in computer code rather than externalized to resource files. As a result the string content is accessible only by manipulatin the source code of the application.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
embedded-string
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
Error messages for a product are stored as variables directly in the source code of a software product and are therefore not localized when UI strings are sent for translation.
Note(s)
Embedded string in graphic
ID
embedded-string-in-graphic
Definition
A graphics contains embedded text as an image that cannot be edited
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
embedded-string
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
A service manual contains an image of a mechanical system with part labels stored in the “flattened” graphic. As a result the localization process cannot produce localized versions of the graphic
Note(s)
Solving this problem generally requires access to original application files used to produce graphics initially rather than to rendered down-stream versions use for web display, display in software UIs, or embedding in word-processing applications.
Embedded string
ID
embedded-string
Definition
Textual content is embedded in other elements in ways that make it inaccessible during the localization process.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
internationalization
Children
embedded-string-in-code, embedded-string-in-graphic
Applies to
source
Example(s)
The UI of an industrial system includes graphical images of text that cannot be edited as text.
Note(s)
The subtypes of this issue comprise the most common examples.
End-user suitability
ID
end-user-suitability
Definition
The content is not suitable for use by the end user, excluding problems related to suitability for the target locale.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
verity
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A text describes a process to repair a device, but following the instructions leads to serious damage to the device and potential injury.
A text assumes that the reader has knowledge of advanced particular physics, but the target audience does not generally have this knowledge.
Note(s)
If the issue relates to the applicability of the content to users in a particular locale, locale-specific-content should be used instead.
End-user suitability generally applies to issues present in the source text, regardless of the target locale, but may apply in cases where there are distinct differences in audience or purpose between source and target.
Entity (such as name or place)
ID
entity
Definition
Names, places, or other “named entities” do not match
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
mistranslation
Children
none
Applies to
target
Example(s)
The source text refers to Dublin, Ohio, but the target incorrectly refers to Dublin, Ireland.
Note(s)
False friend
ID
false-friend
Definition
The translation has incorrectly used a word that is superficially similar to the source word.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
mistranslation
Children
none
Applies to
target
Example(s)
The Italian word simpatico has been translated as sympathetic in English.
Note(s)
Fixed collation
ID
fixed-collation
Definition
A collation (text sorting) routine does not support locale-specific collation sequences
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
functional
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
The sort routine in a spreadsheet does a simple sort by Unicode code-point sequence, and does not support needed collation sequences for various markets.
Note(s)
Specific results of this problem will often be classified under sorting.
Fixed dialog/UI size
ID
fixed-dialog-ui-size
Definition
Dialog boxes or other UI components are fixed in size and cannot adapt to different amounts of content in other languages.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
ui-internationalization
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
A section for displaying errors in a UI is limited to 200 pixels in width and cannot expand to accommodate longer error messages in another language.
Note(s)
Many UI frameworks automatically support dynamic width adjustment. Home-built UIs are particularly prone to this problem.
Fluency
ID
fluency
Definition
Issues related to the form or content of a text, irrespective as to whether it is a translation or not.
MQM Core?
yes
Automatable?
no
Parent
Children
ambiguity, character-encoding, coherence, cohesion, corpus-conformance, grammar, grammatical-register, inconsistency, index-toc, link-crossreference, non-allowed-characters, pattern-problem, sorting, spelling, style, typography, unintelligible
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A text has errors in it that prevent it from being understood.
Note(s)
If an issue can be detected only by comparing the source and target, it MUST NOT be categorized as fluency or any of its children.
Font rendering engine
ID
font-rendering-engine
Definition
Fonts for one or more scripts are not rendered properly
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
writing-system-support
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
Arabic text entered into a system does not display appropriate contextual variations (ligatures) and instead uses only medial character forms, rendering the result unreadable.
Note(s)
Font-rendering problems are extremely common in software that has not previously been adapted to support “complex” scripts.
Font, single/double-width (CJK only)
ID
single-double-width
Definition
Single-width characters are used when double-width are intended, or vice versa.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
font
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A Japanese text includes カタカナ (full-width kana) when specifications required ｶﾀｶﾅ (half-width kana) instead, due to a limited display size.
Note(s)
Font
ID
font
Definition
Issues related to local font usage (i.e., font choices that impact a span of content rather than the global choice of the document).
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
local-formatting
Children
bold-italic, single-double-width, wrong-font-size
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
Warning texts are set in sans-serif, but one of them appears in a serif font.
A portion of Japanese text is set with an obliqued face (corresponding to italics in the source text) when dot accents should have been used with a non-oblique face.
Note(s)
Footnote/endnote format
ID
footnote-format
Definition
Footnotes or endnotes are placed inappropriately or use incorrect in-text symbols
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
overall-design
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
Specifications state that endnotes should be used with roman numerals but footnotes were used with in-text symbols (*, †, ‡, etc.).
Note(s)
Function words
ID
function-words
Definition
A function word (e.g., a preposition, “helping verb”, article, determiner) is used incorrectly.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
grammar
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A text reads “Check the part number as given in the screen” instead of “…on the screen”.
A text reads “The graphic is then copied into an internal memory” instead of “The graphic is copied to internal memory.”
Note(s)
Functional
ID
functional
Definition
Functional errors introduced by lack of support for languages, scripts, or other locale-specific features
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
Children
case-folding, character-set-support, fixed-collation, hard-coded-keyboard-command, input-validation, missing-fall-back-text, string-matching, text-corruption, text-indexing, time-zone-support, writing-system-support
Applies to
source
Example(s)
The French version of a software package fails to function as expected because it was engineered with assumptions based on American English.
Note(s)
If child issues are included, most issues in this category would be assigned to them.
Global font choice
ID
global-font-choice
Definition
The overall font chosen is incorrect or inappropriate.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
overall-design
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A English source text uses a normal-weight serif font for body text but the Japanese translation uses a heavy-weight “gothic” (roughly, sans-serif) font appropriate for headlines only.
Note(s)
While this issue may apply to both source and target, it is most likely to apply to the target.
Grammar checker
ID
grammar-checker
Definition
A needed grammar checking is missing or does not support the required language.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
language-specific-tool-support
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
The grammar checker in a word processor sold in Germany supports English only.
Note(s)
Grammar
ID
grammar
Definition
Issues related to the grammar or syntax of the text, other than spelling and orthography.
MQM Core?
yes
Automatable?
yes
Parent
fluency
Children
function-words, word-form, word-order
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
An English text reads “The man was seeing the his wife.”
Note(s)
Grammatical register
ID
grammatical-register
Definition
The content uses the wrong grammatical register, such as using informal pronouns or verb forms when their formal counterparts are required.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
accuracy
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A text used for a highly formal announcement uses the Norwegian du form instead of the expected De.
Note(s)
For cases of general stylistic formality that do not involve the incorrect use of grammatical markers of formality, register should be used instead.
Graphical aspects
ID
graphical-internationalization
Definition
Graphical aspects of the content cannot be easily changed to match locale-specific expectations.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
internationalization
Children
color-internationalization, culture-specific-graphic, hard-coded-graphic
Applies to
source
Example(s)
A piece of software being localized for the Swedish market contain images of products available only in the U.S. market.
Note(s)
This issue and its children apply only to cases where cultural aspects of graphics are not accessible to the localization process and so cannot be adapted.
Graphics and tables
ID
graphics-tables
Definition
Issues related to the formatting of graphics and tables.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
design
Children
call-outs-captions, graphics-tables-position, graphics-tables-missing
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A graphic is garbled and the wrong version is shown
Note(s)
Hard-coded graphic
ID
hard-coded-graphic
Definition
Computer code contains “hard-coded” graphics that cannot be accessed or changed during the localization process.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
graphical-internationalization
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
A website uses inline base64-encoded representations of some graphics to speed up load times for the page, but these graphics are thus not accessible for localization.
Note(s)
Hard-coded keyboard command
ID
hard-coded-keyboard-command
Definition
Key-board shortcuts or other commands are hard-coded into the system and do not function when alternative keyboards are selected
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
functional
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
A vital keyboard in the English version command involves pressing the A key, but when the program is run using a Russian keyboard layout, it is unusable because the program is waiting U#0041 (A) for instead of U#0391 (А).
Note(s)
Headers and footers
ID
headers-footers
Definition
Headers or footers are formatted incorrectly
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
overall-design
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
Headers should appear on every page but have been omitted on odd-numbered pages.
Note(s)
Hyphenation
ID
hyphenation
Definition
Text in a layed-out format is hyphenated incorrectly
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
design
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A word processor has been set to use German hyphenation for a Hungarian text. As a result the word mennyi is hyphenated as men-nyi instead of the correct meny-nyi.
Note(s)
Hyphenator
ID
hyphenator
Definition
A hyphenation engine does not support a needed language
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
language-specific-tool-support
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
A desk-top publishing (DTP) tool has a hyphenation engine that does not support Hungarian.
Note(s)
Images vs. text
ID
images-vs-text
Definition
Phrasing/wording is inconsistent between text shown in images and running text.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
inconsistency
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A screen shot shows a button with the text “Open other…” but the text referring to the screen shot tells the user to click on the “Open alternative…” button.
Note(s)
Improper exact TM match
ID
improper-exact-tm-match
Definition
An translation is provided as an exact match from a translation memory (TM) system, but is actually incorrect.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
mistranslation
Children
none
Applies to
target
Example(s)
A TM system returns “Press the Start button” as an exact (100%) match, when the proper translation should be “Press the Begin button”.
Note(s)
This issue type applies only in cases where TM technology is used.
Incomplete List
ID
incomplete-list
Definition
A list is missing necessary items
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
completeness
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A list of items included in a retail package omits a crucial component.
Note(s)
Incomplete procedure
ID
incomplete-procedure
Definition
A procedure is missing necessary steps.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
completeness
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
A document describing a procedure to restart a diesel generator omits a crucial step that must be completed prior to performing additional steps.
Note(s)
In cases where content is missing from the target text that is present in the source text, omission should be used instead
Inconsistency
ID
inconsistency
Definition
The text shows internal inconsistency.
MQM Core?
yes
Automatable?
no
Parent
fluency
Children
inconsistent-abbreviations, images-vs-text, inconsistent-link, external-inconsistency
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
The text states that bug reports should be submitted to a mailing list in one place and via an online bug tracker tool in another.
Note(s)
Inconsistent abbreviations
ID
inconsistent-abbreviations
Definition
The form of abbreviations is inconsistent in the text.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
inconsistency
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A text uses both “app.” and “approx.” for approximately.
Note(s)
Inconsistent link/cross-reference
ID
inconsistent-link
Definition
Links are inconsistent in the text
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
inconsistency
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
An HTML file contains numerous links to other HTML files; some have been updated to reflect the appropriate language version while some point to the source language version.
Note(s)
Inconsistent markup
ID
inconsistent-markup
Definition
Markup elements are inconsistent between the source and target
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
markup
Children
none
Applies to
target
Example(s)
A target text has a set of tags for bold face in the same location where the source has tags for italics.
Note(s)
Inconsistent style
ID
inconsistent-style
Definition
Style is inconsistent within a text
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
style
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
One part of a text is written in a light and “terse” style while other sections are written in a more wordy style.
Note(s)
Inconsistent style often emerges when multiple translators have worked on a single text. Because Inconsistent style applies to larger portions of texts, it would generally be assessed with a holistic metric rather than an analytic one.
Inconsistent use of terminology
ID
term-inconsistency
Definition
Terminology is used in an inconsistent manner within the text.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
terminology
Children
multiple-translations-of-term, multiple-terms-for-concept
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
The text refers to a component as the “brake release lever”, “brake disengagement lever”, “manual brake release”, and “manual disengagement release”.
Note(s)
This issue and its children are used only to address inconsistent use of terminology. In cases where terminology is incorrect for the domain or termbase termbase or domain-terminology should be used instead. If further detail is needed about whether the source or target text is responsible for the inconsistent use terminology, use one of the daughter issues.
Inconsistent with domain
ID
domain-terminology
Definition
A term is used contrary to general domain expectations
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
terminology
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A financial text is translated using “deduct” instead of “debit”. Although conceptually these could be synonyms in general language, “deduct” violated domain conventions.
Note(s)
This issue is used for cases where no term-base is specified yet common domain conventions about terminology use are violated. If a termbase was specified and that term in question violates it, termbase should be used instead, if it is included in the metric (otherwise terminology would be used).
Inconsistent with external reference
ID
external-inconsistency
Definition
The text is inconsistent with a specified external reference
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
inconsistency
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
Translation specifications state that quotes in a text must match the 1957 edition of a book, but the translator used the 1943 edition, which was substantially different.
Note(s)
For inconsistent terminology, options in the Terminology branch should be used instead.
Inconsistent with termbase
ID
termbase
Definition
A term is used inconsistently with a specified termbase
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
terminology
Children
terminology-company, terminology-third-party
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A termbase specifies that the term USB memory stick shold be used, but the text uses USB flash drive.
Note(s)
For obvious reasons, this issue type applies only in cases where a term is specified in a termbase that was specified for use. If general domain conventions for terminology are violated instead, then domain-terminology should be used instead, if it is included in a metric.
Index/TOC format
ID
index-toc-format
Definition
An index/TOC is formatted incorrectly
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
index-toc
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A Table of Content should be formatted with variable (hierarchical) indenting and tab leader characters, but is instead displayed as a “run-in” list.
Note(s)
Index/TOC
ID
index-toc
Definition
Issues related to an index or Table of Contents (TOC).
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
fluency
Children
index-toc-format, missing-incorrect-toc-item, page-references
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A Table of Contents is missing items that should be included.
Note(s)
Input validation
ID
input-validation
Definition
Validation of input does not function properly because it assumes certain parameters that do not apply in all locales
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
functional
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
A form validates names against a regular expression, [A-Za-z']+, but fails when a Japanese user enters a name that does includes characters other than standard Roman characters
Note(s)
Internationalization
ID
internationalization
Definition
There is a problem related to the internationalization of content.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
Children
concatenation, confusable-security, embedded-string, functional, graphical-internationalization, language-dependent-logic, language-specific-tool-support, localization-support, paper-envelope-size, resource-externalization, sequence, text-expandability, ui-internationalization
Applies to
source
Example(s)
A document assumes that all addresses use postal codes conforming to the U.S. “zip+four” convention and includes a verification step for postal codes that does not allow for non-U.S. codes.
A computer program is localized but some content remains untranslated because it was embedded in the program code and not made accessible to the translator.
Note(s)
While internationaliztion errors are generally detected in the target content, they refer to problems in the source that cause problems with translated/localized content. Even in cases where internationalization is not being specifically checked, if problems related to internationalization are encountered, they should generally be reported to the content creators.
As of August 2014, the intention is to expand this branch in the future with more specific issue types.
Kerning
ID
kerning
Definition
Kerning (inter-character spacing) is wrong.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
local-formatting
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
The letters T and A in the word TAMPA are spaced too close together and collide.
Note(s)
Keyboard support
ID
keyboard-support
Definition
Software does not provide support for appropriate local-language keyboards
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
writing-system-support
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
A computer program provides support only for American English keyboards and so does not work properly in Icelandic since users cannot enter text with Icelandic-specific characters.
Note(s)
Language-dependent logic
ID
language-dependent-logic
Definition
Content includes language- or locale-dependent logical assumptions that prevent it from being appropriately localized
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
internationalization
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
A technical text uses a “deductive” reasoning style that cannot be easily adapted to areas expecting an “inductive” reasoning style.
Note(s)
This issue type is common when going between European and Asian markets. In some cases texts that are perfectly clear in one market may be difficult to follow in another due to culture-specific differences in logic.
Language-specific tool support
ID
language-specific-tool-support
Definition
Needed tools that specifically support required languages are missing or do not function as expected
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
internationalization
Children
grammar-checker, hyphenator, spell-checker
Applies to
source
Example(s)
A word processor is released for Kazakhstan but does not contain tools needed to fully support the Kazakh language.
Note(s)
Leading
ID
leading
Definition
Leading (spacing between lines of text) is off
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
local-formatting
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A translated Japanese text has set lines too close together, making the text difficult to read.
Note(s)
Legal requirements
ID
legal-requirements
Definition
A text does not meet legal requirements as set forth in the specifications.
MQM Core?
yes
Automatable?
no
Parent
verity
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
Specifications stated that FCC regulatory notices be replaced by CE notices rather than translated, but they were translated instead, rendering the text legally problematic for use in Europe.
Note(s)
Generally used in cases where the translation does not meet requirements. Cases in which the source text does not meet legal requirements are generally critical errors that will require rewriting the source text.
Length
ID
length
Definition
There is a significant discrepancy between the source and the target text lengths.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
design
Children
none
Applies to
target
Example(s)
An English sentence is 253 characters long but its German translation is 51 characters long.
Note(s)
Link/cross-reference
ID
broken-link
Definition
A link or cross reference points to an incorrect or nonexistent location
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
fluency
Children
document-internal-link, document-external-link
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
An HTML document has an href that points to a file that does not exist.
Note(s)
Local formatting
ID
local-formatting
Definition
Issues related to local formatting (rather than to overall layout concerns)
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
design
Children
font, kerning, leading, paragraph-indentation, text-alignment
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A portion of the text displays a (non-systematic) formatting problem (e.g., a single heading is formatted incorrectly, even though other headings appear properly).
Note(s)
Locale convention
ID
locale-convention
Definition
The text does not adhere to locale-specific mechanical conventions and violates requirements for the presentation of content in the target locale.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
Children
address-format, calendar-type, currency-format, date-format, locale-specific-punctuation, measurement-format, name-format, national-language-standard, number-format, shortcut-key, telephone-format, time-format
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
An incorrect format for currency is used for a German text, with a period (.) instead of a comma (,) as a thousands separator.
A text translated into Japanese uses Western quote marks to indicate titles rather than the appropriate Japanese quote marks (「 and 」). (Note: this example would be categorized as quote-mark-type if the metric includes it.)
Note(s)
This issue type is distinguished from locale-specific-content in that this category refers only to whether the text is given the proper mechanical form for the locale, not whether the content applies to the locale or not. If text conforms to conventions for the locale, but does not apply to the target locale, locale-specific-content should be used instead.
Locale-specific content
ID
locale-specific-content
Definition
Content specific to the source locale does not apply to the intended target locale, audience, or purpose.
MQM Core?
yes
Automatable?
no
Parent
verity
Children
none
Applies to
target
Example(s)
An advertising text translated for Sweden refers to special offers available only in Germany and therefore is misleading.
A manual for a printer sold in Spain describes features that apply only to versions of the printer sold in Japan and thus may confuse purchasers.
Note(s)
This issue type is distinguished from locale-convention in that this category applies to cases where text corresponds to the conventions of the target locale, but does not apply to the intended audience in the target locale. For example, if the Swedish advertising text mentioned above is properly translated and follows all mechanical locale conventions (e.g., using Swedish kronor instead of euros) but the offer does not apply to Sweden, cocale-specific-content should be chosen. If, however, the text applies to the locale, but does not follow locale conventions (e.g., numbers are formatted incorrectly for the locale), locale-convention should be used instead.
Locale-specific punctuation
ID
locale-specific-punctuation
Definition
The text systematically uses punctuation not appropriate for the specified locale
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
locale-convention
Children
quote-mark-type
Applies to
target
Example(s)
A text translated from English to Japanese maintains European-style punctuation—such as full-stops (.)—instead of using the appropriate Japanese punctuation, such as the Japanese full stop (。).
Note(s)
Localization support
ID
localization-support
Definition
Aspects of how a software product presents locale-sensitive data are not properly internationalized
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
internationalization
Children
address-internationalization, calendar-internationalization, currency-internationalization, date-internationalization, measurement-internationalization, name-internationalization, number-internationalization, shortcut-key-internationalization, telephone-internationalization, time-internationalization
Applies to
source
Example(s)
An online submission form to register for appointments with a product demonstrator does not allow data to be submitted for many countries because it validates data against a US-centric model.
Note(s)
See the subtypes for specific examples. Note that this issue type and its children apply to internationaliztion problems in the source, not to specific instances in a target language, although they may be discovered as problems classified under locale-convention in specific target languages. Although most of the examples of child nodes use specific instances where problems appear, they all refer to engineering problems of the source content.
Margins
ID
margins
Definition
Text margins are incorrect.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
overall-design
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
Specifications called for 4 cm inside margins, but 2.5 cm margins were used instead.
Note(s)
Markup
ID
markup
Definition
Issues related to “markup” (codes used to represent structure or formatting of text, also known as “tags”).
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
design
Children
added-markup, inconsistent-markup, misplaced-markup, missing-markup, questionable-markup
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
Markup is used incorrectly, resulting in incorrect formatting.
Note(s)
Measurement format
ID
measurement-format
Definition
A text uses a measurement format inappropriate for its locale.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
locale-convention
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A text in France uses feet and inches and Fahrenheit temperatures.
Note(s)
Measurement internationalization
ID
measurement-internationalization
Definition
A product does not provide support for needed measurement formats
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
localization-support
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
An engineering software system developed in France supports only the metric system and when localized for use in the United States does not support U.S. measurement formats, rending it unusable when users print bill of parts sheets to order components from U.S. suppliers.
Note(s)
Corresponds to measurement-format in locale-convention. This is used to mark engineering problems in the source content, not specific problems in the target.
Misplaced markup
ID
misplaced-markup
Definition
Markup is present but misplaced.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
markup
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A segment has three sets of paired formatting tags at the end, after the final full stop (.).
Note(s)
Missing fall-back text
ID
missing-fall-back-text
Definition
A program includes a “fall-back” language for content that has not been localized, but the needed fall-back text is missing.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
functional
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
A French-language website has not been fully localized. When the user clicks a link to one of these pages he or she should be taken to the English-language source page, but instead is taken to a blank page with no content.
Note(s)
It is common practice to allow software or websites to fall back on another language if some content is missing. For example, a partially-localized German website might display some content in English for pages that have not yet been localized.
Missing graphic/table
ID
graphics-tables-missing
Definition
A graphic or table is missing.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
graphics-tables
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
An HTML file is missing an tag, so no graphic is shown.
Note(s)
Missing markup
ID
missing-markup
Definition
Markup in the source is missing in the target.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
markup
Children
none
Applies to
target
Example(s)
A source segment has a set of italic tags, but the target text does not have any tags.
Note(s)
Missing text
ID
missing-text
Definition
Existing text is missing in the final laid-out version
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
design
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A translation is complete, but during DTP a text box was inadvertently moved off the page and so the translated text does not appear in a rendered PDF version.
Note(s)
This issue does not refer to omitted text (i.e., text that was present in the source but not present in the translation). Instead it refers only to cases where text is present in some form but does not appear in the laid-out version. It also does not refer to text that has been truncated due to text expansion.
Missing/incorrect TOC item
ID
missing-incorrect-toc-item
Definition
Items in an index/TOC are incorrect or missing
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
index-toc
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A chapter heading is not listed in a Table of Contents.
Note(s)
Mistranslation of technical relationship
ID
technical-relationship
Definition
Content decribing the relationship(s) within a technical description is translated inaccurately with respect to technical knowledge (even if the translation otherwise appears plausible).
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
mistranslation
Children
none
Applies to
target
Example(s)
A physics text describes the interaction of subatomic particles in a medical scanning device. The translation seems plausible, but incorrectly conveys the relationship of two particles and is therefore incorrect.
A source text describes how a piano action (the mechanism connecting a piano key to the hammer that strikes a string) is translated in a way that incorrectly conveys the relationship between two components.
Note(s)
This issue is not used for incorrect use of individual terms, which would be classified in terminology or one of its children. Rather, it is used for cases where a translation might appear to be correct but where it ends up misconveying information about a technical subject.
Instances of this issue may point to confusing source materials or to lack of translator experience in a specialized domain.
Mistranslation
ID
mistranslation
Definition
The target content does not accurately represent the source content.
MQM Core?
yes
Automatable?
no
Parent
accuracy
Children
ambiguous-translation, date-time, entity, false-friend, technical-relationship, number, overly-literal, no-translate, unit-conversion
Applies to
target
Example(s)
A source text states that a medicine should not be administered in doses greater than 200 mg, but the translation states that it should be administered in doses greater than 200 mg (i.e., negation has been omitted).
Note(s)
Multiple terms for concept in source
ID
multiple-terms-for-concept
Definition
A single concept in the source text is expressed with multiple terms for the same concept.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
term-inconsistency
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
A source text inconsistently uses “dog”, “buzzing bridge”, and “buzzer” for the component of a musical instrument.
Note(s)
Do not use this issue for cases where a single source term is translated in multiple ways in the target language content.
Multiple translations of same term
ID
multiple-translations-of-term
Definition
A single source term is translated in multiple inconsistent ways.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
term-inconsistency
Children
none
Applies to
target
Example(s)
A German source text uses one term for a component of a vehicle, but the target text uses “brake release lever”, “brake disengagement lever”, “manual brake release”, and “manual disengagement release” for this term in English.
Note(s)
Applies to target text only since it refers to cases where one term has multiple translations. As with term-inconsistency, termbase or one of its children should be used instead if a termbase contains a specified term for a concept and the text does not use that particular term.
Name format
ID
name-format
Definition
A text uses a name format inappropriate for its locale.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
locale-convention
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A text translated from Hungarian to English presents names with the family name first when the name order should be instead inverted to have family name last.
A web form translated for Indonesia requires users to provide a “last name” even though many Indonesians have only a single name.
A translated text refers to “Pedro Diego Estavez” as “Mr. Estavez” rather than “Mr. Diego”.
Note(s)
Very often this issue indicates an underlying internationalization problem.
Name internationalization
ID
name-internationalization
Definition
Forms, databases, or other functional software components do not provide support for needed personal name formats.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
localization-support
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
An online registration form asks for “last name” and “first name”, resulting in confusion for users where family names are listed first (e.g., China, Japan, and Hungary) or where users have multiple family names (e.g., Spain, Portugal, Brazil) or only one name (e.g., Indonesia).
Note(s)
Corresponds to name-format in locale-convention. This is used to mark engineering problems in the source content, not specific problems in the target.
National language standard
ID
national-language-standard
Definition
A text violates national language standards.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
locale-convention
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A French advertising text uses anglicisms that are forbidden for print texts by the Academie française specifications.
Note(s)
Non-dynamic UI
ID
non-dynamic-ui
Definition
UI components are fixed in position and cannot move to adapt to different locales
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
ui-internationalization
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
A UI has hard-coded positions in a form and when an address box is expanded to three lines to support addresses in certain locales it then overlaps other UI elements, making them unreadable.
Note(s)
Many UI frameworks automatically support dynamic adjustment of the position of UI elements. Home-built UIs are particularly prone to this problem.
Non-reversible UI
ID
non-reversible-ui
Definition
A UI cannot be reversed to support bi-directional languages
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
ui-internationalization
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
A web-form is left-aligned with multiple items per line, but when translated to Arabic the items appear in the wrong order because the UI cannot automatically adjust their layout.
Note(s)
Many UI frameworks automatically support UI adjustment for bi-directional layouts. Home-built UIs are particularly prone to this problem.
Nonallowed characters
ID
nonallowed-characters
Definition
The text includes characters that are not allowed.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
fluency
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A text may not include colons or forward- or back-slashes, which might cause confusion with path names on some computer systems, but it contains these characters.
Note(s)
Number format
ID
number-format
Definition
A text uses a number format inappropriate for its locale.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
locale-convention
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A German text has “123,456” instead of the locale-appropriate “123.456”.
A text translated for India has “100,000” rather than “1,00,000”.
Note(s)
Very often this issue indicates an underlying internationalization problem.
Number internationalization
ID
number-internationalization
Definition
Numbers are displayed in the wrong format (e.g, with wrong delimiters)
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
localization-support
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
An online system displays all numbers with commas to delimit thousands and a full stop (.) to indicate the decimal position. This format is confusing in many locales that use other delimiters or delimit texts using hundreds separators instead of thousands separators.
Note(s)
Corresponds to number-format in locale-convention. This is used to mark engineering problems in the source content, not specific problems in the target.
Number
ID
number
Definition
Numbers are inconsistent between source and target.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
mistranslation
Children
none
Applies to
target
Example(s)
The source text specifies that a part is 124 mm long but the target text specifies that it is 135 mm long.
Note(s)
Offensive
ID
offensive
Definition
Content is offensive according to the specifications
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
fluency
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A text contains words generally considered to be profanities outside of a context where they would be allowed
Images in a document depict nudity for a culture where nudity is considered offensive
An American text uses the “OK” symbol (👌) to indicate approval, but this symbol is considered offensive in Brazil.
Note(s)
if offensive is to by used, clear guidelines should be given since content offensive in one context may be acceptable in another.
In many cases offensive content may be detected in a (semi)automatic fashion through the use of lists of unacceptable phrases, often in conjunction with terminology checkers. However, automatic checkers will not be able to identify all potentially offensive content, especially as content considered unobjectionable in one context or culture may be considered highly offensive in another.
Omission
ID
omission
Definition
Content is missing from the translation that is present in the source.
MQM Core?
yes
Automatable?
yes
Parent
accuracy
Children
omitted-variable
Applies to
target
Example(s)
A paragraph present in the source is missing in the translation
Note(s)
Omitted variable
ID
omitted-variable
Definition
A variable placeholder is omitted from a translated text
MQM Core?
yes
Automatable?
yes
Parent
omission
Children
none
Applies to
target
Example(s)
A translated text should read “Number of lives remaining: $lifeNumber” but is rendered as “Number of lives remaining:”, with the variable $lifeNumber omitted
Note(s)
Other
ID
other
Definition
Used for any issues not adequately covered by the MQM core or extensions. This category should be used only if it is impossible to assign an issue to an existing category with sufficient granularity.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A quality process checks for errors generated from speech-to-text generated during conference interpretation. Because this error type is highly specific to the specific situation, it is not included in any predefined issue type elsewhere.
Note(s)
This category should be used only for any issue type that cannot be mapped to one of the issue types listed above. If an issue type can be considered a more granular example of an existing type, it should be categorized as that type, possibly with a custom extension if the additional granularity is needed.
Over-translation
ID
over-translation
Definition
The target text is more specific than the source text
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
mistranslation
Children
none
Applies to
target
Example(s)
The source text refers to a “boy” but is translated with a word that applies only to young boys rather than the more general term
Note(s)
In some cases differences in concept structure between languages may render an apparent over-translation necessary. In such cases this issue should not be considered an error, although the issue may be noted for further consideration.
Overall design (layout)
ID
overall-design
Definition
Issues related to overall layout and design (versus local formatting)
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
design
Children
color, footnote-format, global-font-choice, headers-footers, margins, page-breaks, widows-orphans
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A document is formatted incorrectly (e.g., it should have been set up for a print layout but instead is set up for an online presentation.
Note(s)
Overly literal
ID
overly-literal
Definition
The translation is overly literal.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
mistranslation
Children
none
Applies to
target
Example(s)
A Hungarian text contains the phrase Tele van a hocipőd?, which has been translated as “Are your snow boots full?” rather than with the idiomatic meaning of “Feeling overwhelmed?”.
Note(s)
Page breaks
ID
page-breaks
Definition
Page breaks appear in inappropriate locations.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
overall-design
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
There is a page break between a figure and its caption.
Note(s)
Page references
ID
page-references
Definition
An index/TOC refers to incorrect page numbers
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
index-toc
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A table of contents refers to page numbers from the source document that do not apply to the translated text.
Note(s)
Paper/envelope size
ID
paper-envelope-size
Definition
Systems do not support needed paper or envelope sizes
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
internationalization
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
A printer driver supports only international A paper sizes, and therefore crops data when printing to US Letter paper.
Note(s)
Paragraph indentation
ID
paragraph-indentation
Definition
A paragraph is indented improperly.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
local-formatting
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
The first line of body paragraphs should be indented 4 mm, but some paragraphs were indented 25 mm instead.
Note(s)
Part of speech
ID
part-of-speech
Definition
A word is the wrong part of speech
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
word-form
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A text reads “Read these instructions careful” instead of “Read these instructions carefully.”
Note(s)
Pattern problem
ID
pattern-problem
Definition
The text contains a pattern (e.g., text that matches a regular expression) that is not allowed.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
fluency
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
The regular expression ["'”’][,\.;] (i.e., a quote mark followed by a comma, full stop, or semicolon) is defined as not allowed for a project but a text contains the string ”, (closing quote followed by a comma).
Note(s)
Position of graphic/table
ID
graphics-tables-position
Definition
A graphic or table is positioned incorrectly.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
graphics-tables
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A text refers to Figure 1, but Figure 1 appears six pages after the point where it was referred to.
Note(s)
Postal code
ID
postal-code
Definition
Content uses the wrong form for postal codes.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
address-format
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A translated online form validates all postal codes as consisting of exactly five numbers but the target locale uses a combination of six letters and numbers.
Note(s)
Very often this issue indicates an underlying internationalization problem.
Punctuation
ID
punctuation
Definition
Punctuation is used incorrectly (for the locale or style)
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
typography
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
An English text uses a semicolon where a comma should be used.
Note(s)
In most cases it is not necessary to distinguish this issue type from typography.
Questionable markup
ID
questionable-markup
Definition
Markup is present that appears malformed or inappropriate for its context.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
markup
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A text has opening tags but no closing tags for formatting.
Note(s)
Quote mark type
ID
quote-mark-type
Definition
A text uses quote marks inappropriate for its locale.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
locale-specific-punctuation
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A French text should use guillemets («») but instead systematically uses German-style quotes („”)
Note(s)
Use this issue only if the problem is systematic. Otherwise use Typography or Punctuation, if available.
Register
ID
register
Definition
The text uses a level of formality higher or lower than required by the specifications or general language conventions.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
fluency
Children
variants-slang
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A formal letter uses contractions, colloquialisms, and expressions characteristic of spoken rather than written language, and those comes across as less serious than intended.
Note(s)
Register involves a number of factors, including appropriateness of the discourse for the specific subject field, the level of formality, and the mode of discourse (e.g., written text versus transcribed speech).
The notion of register used in this document is derived from Systemic Functional Linguistics.
For uses of the improper grammatical register that do not otherwise impact style, such as German du vs. Sie, use grammatical-register instead.
Resource externalization
ID
resource-externalization
Definition
Translatable resources have not properly been externalized from functional code.
MQM Core?
yes
Automatable?
yes
Parent
internationalization
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
A legal notice in German uses the informal du instead of the formal Sie.
Note(s)
Standard practice in writing international code is to put all translatable resource into external resources (such as files containing UI strings). Failure to do so is a major cause of problems or failure in software localization tasks.
Sequence
ID
sequence
Definition
Sequences in graphics or text appear in a culture-specific order that does not make sense in other locales.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
internationalization
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
A graphic presents an (implicit) left-to-right ordering of events, but users in the Middle East may follow the steps in reverse order because they expect right-to-left ordering.
Note(s)
Shortcut key internationalization
ID
shortcut-key-internationalization
Definition
Software shortcut keys are set to combinations that do not make sense in all locales and cannot be changed
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
localization-support
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
CTRL-S is used for saving files and cannot be changed, but some locales customarily use other keyboard shortcuts to save files.
Note(s)
Corresponds to shortcut-key in locale-convention. This is used to mark engineering problems in the source content, not specific problems in the target.
Shortcut key
ID
shortcut-key
Definition
A translated software product uses shortcuts that do not conform to locale expectations or that make no sense for the locale
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
locale-convention
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A software product uses CTRL-S to save a file in Hungarian, rather than the appropriate CTRL-M (for mentenni).
Note(s)
Very often this issue indicates an underlying internationalization problem.
Should not have been translated
ID
no-translate
Definition
Text was translated that should have been left untranslated
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
mistranslation
Children
none
Applies to
target
Example(s)
A Japanese translation refers to “Apple Computers” as アップルコンピュータ when the English expression should have been left untranslated.
Note(s)
Sorting
ID
sorting
Definition
A list is not in the appropriately collated sequence.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
fluency
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A listing of items should be in alphabetical order but appears in a random order instead.
Note(s)
Spell checker
ID
spell-checker
Definition
A spell checker does not support a needed language
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
language-specific-tool-support
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
The spell-checking engine used in a presentation tool localized for Korean does not include rules for the Korean language and cannot be used to spell-check Korean text.
Note(s)
Spelling
ID
spelling
Definition
Issues related to spelling of words
MQM Core?
yes
Automatable?
yes
Parent
fluency
Children
capitalization, diacritics
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
The German word Zustellung is spelled Zustetlugn.
Note(s)
String matching
ID
string-matching
Definition
String-matching routines do not properly consider language-specific rules
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
functional
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
A German matching algorithm should recognize that the names Roemer and Römer are the same name (oe and ö are alternative spelling for the same sound) but does not, thus returning only some of the appropriate matches to a query.
Note(s)
This issue may also extend to Unicode characters using different normalization forms if a matching algorthim does not consider canonical equivalence. This issue is closely related to text-indexing
Style
ID
style
Definition
The text has stylistic problems.
MQM Core?
yes
Automatable?
no
Parent
Children
awkward, company-style, inconsistent-style, register, third-party-style, unidiomatic
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
The translation of a light-hearted and humorous advertising campaign is in a serious and “heavy” style even though specifications said it should match the style of the source text.
Note(s)
Telephone format
ID
telephone-format
Definition
Content uses the wrong form for telephone numbers
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
locale-convention
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A German text presents a telephone number in the format (xxx) xxx - xxxx instead of the expected 0xx followed by a group of digits separated into groups by spaces.
Note(s)
Very often this issue indicates an underlying internationalization problem.
Telephone internationalization
ID
telephone-internationalization
Definition
The format of telephone numbers is set in forms, databases, or other functional aspects of software and therefore cannot support telephone numbers that do not match this format.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
localization-support
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
A contact database does not store country codes and fixes all telephone numbers at 10 digits, rejecting any shorter telephone numbers. As a result, it cannot be used outside of a handful of countries that have phone numbers matching these requirements.
Note(s)
Corresponds to telephone-format in locale-convention. This is used to mark engineering problems in the source content, not specific problems in the target.
Tense/mood/aspect
ID
tense-mood-aspect
Definition
A verbal form displays the wrong tense, mood, or aspect
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
word-form
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
An English text reads “After the button is pushing” (present progressive) instead of “After the button has been pushed” (past passive)
Note(s)
Terminology
ID
terminology
Definition
A term (domain-specific word) is translated with a term other than the one expected for the domain or otherwise specified.
MQM Core?
yes
Automatable?
no
Parent
Children
term-inconsistency, termbase, terminology-domain
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A French text translates English e-mail as e-mail but terminology guidelines mandated that courriel be used.
The English musicological term dog is translated (literally) into German as Hund instead of as Schnarre, as specified in a terminology database.
Note(s)
All issues specifically related to use of domain- or organization-specific terminology are included in this issue and its children.Do not use this issue if a text is simply mistranslated, i.e., if the translation would be a valid translation of the source but simply does not use the particular mandated terminology. For example, if a text translates [river] bank into Spanish as banco (a financial institution) instead of orilla (a river bank), this would be a mistranslation because banco would never be a valid term for the concept of a river bank. However, if a termbase specified that orilla should be used and the translation uses ribera instead, this would be a Terminology error because ribera is a valid term for the concept, but not the specified one.
Text alignment
ID
text-alignment
Definition
A portion of a text is aligned inappropriately.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
local-formatting
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A heading should be left-aligned but was centered instead.
Note(s)
Text corruption
ID
text-corruption
Definition
Text entered into a system is corrupted
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
functional
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
When users enter text with accented vowels using UTF-8 encoding, these are systematically converted to other characters due to an internal text-processing routine that assumes ISO Latin-1 encoding.
Note(s)
Problems with text corruption often emerge when different systems interact with each other without considering the encoding emitted or expected by other systems.
Text expandability
ID
text-expandability
Definition
Insufficient room is left to allow for text expansion
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
internationalization
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
Translation specifications state that all localized versions of a service manual must preserve the same pagination as the English source, but no extra room has been left for languages that text more physical space than the source text, such as German (which may be 30% longer than the English source).
Note(s)
This issue corresponds to truncation-text-expansion in the Design dimension. This issue is used to identify instances in the source where insufficient room has been left in a document or other item containing text while truncation-text-expansion is used for specific cases where text has extended beyond the allowed bounds.
Text indexing
ID
text-indexing
Definition
When text is indexed for retrieval and processing, the indexing does not account for language-specific requirements.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
functional
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
The German name Römer should be indexed for retrieval as “Römer”, “Roemer”, and “Romer”, but the indexing engine uses only the first. As a result, users looking for this name in a database will not find it if they use one of the alternative forms.
Note(s)
This issue is closely related to string-matching
Third-party style
ID
third-party-style
Definition
The text violates a third-party style guide
MQM Core?
yes
Automatable?
yes
Parent
style
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
Specifications stated that English text was to be formatted according to the Chicago Manual of Style, but the text delivered followed the American Psychological Association style guide.
Note(s)
Third-party termbase
ID
terminology-third-party
Definition
The text violates terminology guidelines as specified in a termbase from a third-party.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
termbase
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
Specifications for translation of a software application specify that UI terms be translated according to the public termbases provided by the developers of the platforms upon which it will be deployed, but certain terms are not translated consistently with these specifications.
Note(s)
Should be used only when it is necessary to distinguish terminology issues related to third-party termbases from more general termbase issues.
Time format
ID
time-format
Definition
A text uses a time format inappropriate for its locale.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
locale-convention
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A text written for the U.S. uses a 24-hour time notation rather than AM/PM time.
Note(s)
Time internationalization
ID
time-internationalization
Definition
Forms, databases, display, or other aspects of software do not support needed time formats
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
localization-support
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
A time picker requires users to use AM/PM time even in cases where 24-hour time is the norm.
Note(s)
Corresponds to time-format in locale-convention. This is used to mark engineering problems in the source content, not specific problems in the target.
Time zone support
ID
time-zone-support
Definition
Software does not support multiple time zones or conversions between time zones
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
functional
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
A shared calendar system does not consider timezones and sends out all notifications based on the time on the server’s clock. As a result it does not send out reminders for meetings at the appropriate time.
Note(s)
Truncation/text expansion
ID
truncation-text-expansion
Definition
The target text has insufficient room to display the translated text according to specifications.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
design
Children
none
Applies to
target
Example(s)
The German translation of an English string in a user interface runs off the edge of a dialogue box and cannot be read.
Note(s)
This issue may indicate an underlying internationalization problem.
Typography
ID
typography
Definition
Issues related to the mechanical presentation of text. This category should be used for any typographical errors other than spelling.
MQM Core?
yes
Automatable?
yes
Parent
fluency
Children
punctuation, unpaired-marks, whitespace
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A text uses punctuation incorrectly.
A text has an extraneous hard return in the middle of a paragraph.
Note(s)
Do not use for issues related to spelling.
Unclear reference
ID
unclear-reference
Definition
The text uses relative pronouns or other referential mechanisms that are unclear as to their reference.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
ambiguity
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A text reads “After completing this, move to the next step,” but there are a number of possible referents for this in the text.
Note(s)
Under-translation
ID
under-translation
Definition
The target text is less specific than the source text
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
accuracy
Children
none
Applies to
target
Example(s)
The source text uses words that refer to a specific type of miltary officer but the target text refers to military officers in general
Note(s)
In some cases differences in concept structure between languages may render an apparent under-translation necessary. In such cases this issue should not be considered an error, although the issue may be noted for further consideration.
Unidiomatic
ID
unidiomatic
Definition
The content is grammatical, but not idiomatic
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
style
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
The following text appears in an English translation of a German letter: “We thanked him with heart” where “with heart” is an understandable, but non-idiomatic rendering, better stated as “heartily”.
Note(s)
Unintelligible
ID
unintelligible
Definition
The exact nature of the error cannot be determined. Indicates a major break down in fluency.
MQM Core?
yes
Automatable?
no
Parent
fluency
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
The following text appears in an English translation of a German automotive manual: “The brake from whe this કુતારો િસ S149235 part numbr,,.”
Text appears in a translation that cannot be understood at all.
Note(s)
Unit conversion
ID
unit-conversion
Definition
The target text has not converted numeric values as needed to adjust for different units (e.g., currencies, metric vs. U.S. measurement systems).
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
mistranslation
Children
none
Applies to
target
Example(s)
A source text specifies that an item is 25 centimeters (~10 inches) long, but the source states that it is 25 inches (63.5 cm) long.
Note(s)
Unpaired quote marks or brackets
ID
unpaired-marks
Definition
One of a pair of quotes or brackets—e.g., a (, ) [, ], {, or } character—is missing from text.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
typography
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A text reads “King Ludwig of Bavaria (1845–1896 was deposed on account of his supposed madness,” omitting the closing parenthesis around the dates.
Note(s)
Untranslated graphic
ID
untranslated-graphic
Definition
Text in a graphic was left untranslated.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
untranslated
Children
none
Applies to
target
Example(s)
Part labels in a graphic were left untranslated even though running text was translated
Note(s)
Untranslated
ID
untranslated
Definition
Content that should have been translated has been left untranslated.
MQM Core?
yes
Automatable?
yes
Parent
accuracy
Children
none
Applies to
target
Example(s)
A sentence in a Japanese document translated into English is left in Japanese.
Note(s)
User interface internationalization
ID
ui-internationalization
Definition
A user interface has not been properly internationalized and so displays problems in localized versions.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
internationalization
Children
complexity, fixed-dialog-ui-size, non-dynamic-ui, non-reversible-ui
Applies to
source
Example(s)
A user interface was manually aligned and spaced around English-language UI strings and so, when localized, shows strange spacing in the UI.
Note(s)
Variants/slang
ID
variants-slang
Definition
The text uses words such as slang that are inappropriate for the intended register.
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
register
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A refers to dollars as “clams” in a case when this slang term would be inappropriate.
Note(s)
Verity
ID
verity
Definition
The text makes statements that contradict the world of the text
MQM Core?
yes
Automatable?
no
Parent
Children
completeness, culture-specific reference, end-user-suitability, legal-requirements, locale-specific-content
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
The text states that a feature is present on a certain model of automobile when in fact it is not available.
Note(s)
Verity issues can apply to the source or target text and often emerge during translation when, for example, a factual statement is true in the source locale but not true in the target locale.
Whitespace
ID
whitespace
Definition
Whitespace is used incorrectly
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
typography
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A document uses a string of space characters instead of tabs
Extra spaces are added at the start of a string
Note(s)
Widows/orphans
ID
widows-orphans
Definition
The text has widows or orphans (single or short lines of text that appear on a separate page from the rest of a paragraph).
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
overall-design
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
Specifications state that at least two lines of a paragraph must appear on a page (if the paragraph is more than one line), but a single line starts a page while two appear on the previous page.
Note(s)
Word form
ID
word-form
Definition
There is a problem in the form of a word
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
grammar
Children
agreement, part-of-speech, tense-mood-aspect
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
An English text has becomed instead of became.
Note(s)
Word order
ID
word-order
Definition
The word order is incorrect
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
yes
Parent
grammar
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A German text reads “Er hat gesehen den Mann” instead of “Er hat den Mann gesehen.”
Note(s)
Writing system support
ID
writing-system-support
Definition
A needed writing system is not fully supported
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
functional
Children
none
Applies to
source
Example(s)
A system is localized for China, but required support for the writing systems of Chinese minority languages is not usable.
Note(s)
Wrong size
ID
wrong-font-size
Definition
The font size is incorrect
MQM Core?
no
Automatable?
no
Parent
font
Children
none
Applies to
source and target
Example(s)
A legal notice should be set in a 9 pt size, but was instead set in 7 pt.
Note(s)
----------
This post sent on Multidimensional Quality Metrics (MQM) Community Group
'Multidimensional Quality Metrics (MQM) Issue Types: DRAFT 2018-10-04'
https://www.w3.org/community/mqmcg/2018/10/04/draft-2018-10-04/
Learn more about the Multidimensional Quality Metrics (MQM) Community Group:
https://www.w3.org/community/mqmcg
Received on Thursday, 30 April 2020 14:42:14 UTC