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DNTs

A Do Not Translate (DNT) is a series of characters that should not be translated. Lilt Translate can be set up to automatically recognize and protect DNTs, which will prohibit changes to the DNTs during translation and review. Project managers can make use of this DNT protection to keep DNTs from being accidentally translated, saving on overall translation time.

When Lilt recognizes DNTs (determined by special formatting set up on an account basis), the DNTs will be displayed in gray boxes to indicate to translators and reviewers that these items are not to be translated.

DNTs can be used in a wide range of applications, such as:

  • numbers
  • formulas
  • code
  • email addresses
  • currency
  • proper names

Lilt does not currently support a standardized DNT format. However, Lilt can enable custom DNT pattern-matching rules for your account. Reach out to your account representative for more information about enabling custom DNT rules. Note that DNTs will not be recognized in documents uploaded before this feature is enabled on your account; DNT matching only works for documents uploaded after your account is enabled with DNT pattern matching.

Using DNTs in Lilt Translate

If a segment contains DNTs, the DNT items are displayed inside gray boxes in the source text field. The suggestion field also displays any DNTs in gray boxes.

Once a segment is confirmed, DNTs are automatically projected into the target text field using Contextual AI. DNTs may not always be projected into the correct positions; therefore, it is good practice to check the positioning of DNTs after confirming a segment. Once DNTs are added to the target text field, they can be moved around, but cannot be edited or deleted. Note that DNTs can be moved even after the segment is confirmed.

If you want to add DNTs to the target text field before confirming a segment, you can manually project DNTs at any time by clicking on the gray boxes in the suggestion field.

When Pretranslating, for any segments with 100% TM matches available, any DNTs will be carried over into the target text. In addition, when selecting the Pretranslation option to Use Contextual AI for unmatched segments, DNTs in the source text will be projected into the target text using Contextual AI. Projecting DNTs using Pretranslation provides more accurate results than projecting DNTs within Lilt Translate.

There are two types of DNTs discussed in the sections below: standalone DNTs and paired DNTs.

Standalone DNTs

Standalone DNTs appear on their own and are not related to any other DNT item in the segment. Standalone DNT examples:

  • HTML tags:
  • <br>
  • <img>
  • Variables in software strings, such as:
  • "String with one variable {0}"
  • "String with one variable {0}"

As an example, if your Lilt account is configured to recognize text within two curly braces as DNTs, then an English to French document containing {{small}} will not be translated to{{pétit}}, but will instead to preserve it as {{small}} when it is projected to the target text field.

Paired DNTs

A paired DNTs item is an element of a tag pair. Lilt currently supports paired DNTs in this format:

  • <strong> … </strong>

Using paired DNTs in this format causes Lilt to treat them as tags within Lilt Translate. This means they are not protected like with standalone DNTs, and must be projected into the target text field using the Project target tags option under the Tags tab. For information on how to use tags, see the Tags & Formatting article.

Paired DNTs can be nested (and can encompass standalone NTs):

  • This sentence uses <b>bold and <i>italics</i> together {{0}}</b>.

Lilt does not currently support paired DNTs in any other formats, such as:

  • {strong} … {strong}
  • [bold] … [/bold]
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