Greek to English Translation

This direction is used when a Greek document has to be put before an English-speaking country. The typical applicant holds documents issued in Greece or Cyprus and is applying to a university, an employer or an immigration authority in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada or Australia. The regimes at either end part company with the el|de pair: here the document goes not to a German-speaking country but to an Anglo-Saxon system built on declarations. The document itself is written in the Greek alphabet.

Concrete examples make the direction clear: a student applying for a master’s degree in the United States with a Greek university diploma, the documents of a specialist who worked in Greece and then moved to the United Kingdom, the civil registry records of a family moving to Canada. What they have in common is that the document makes sense within the Greek system but, because of its alphabet, cannot be read directly by the receiving side.

Education files form the backbone of demand; the international standing of Greek higher education keeps diploma and transcript translation in constant demand in this direction. The second group is made up of work and civil registry documents, and the third of family documents.

The shared difficulty with these documents is that the Greek administrative reality is not directly recognisable to an English-speaking authority, and that the Greek alphabet has to be transliterated correctly; the translation resolves these gaps and carries the document into the target system.

Because of the long-established Greek diaspora in English-speaking countries, a file in this direction is often made up of several documents; diplomas, civil registry records and professional documents are submitted together, and all of them are expected to be translated with the same transliteration and consistent terminology. The same name written differently from one document to another weakens the application.

Greek institutional abbreviations are not carried into the English text as they stand; they are unpacked and, where necessary, given in brackets in their original form. Registry, registration and file numbers are not translated, and only the record they belong to is stated.

Greek Orthodox church records (baptism, marriage) are also called for from time to time; because dates and the names of the issuing bodies take a different form in these documents from the ones used in civil records, they are carried across with separate care.

In professional documents the title and the scope of authority are conveyed by function rather than forced into equivalence with an English counterpart; a mistaken match can leave the recognition process in the receiving country open to dispute.

Technical matters peculiar to Greek into English

The first problem in this pair is transliteration from the Greek alphabet into Latin letters. For personal and place names the Latin spelling in the person’s passport is taken as the basis and kept throughout the file; the same name transliterated two different ways on two documents is a ground for refusal. A consistent set of correspondences is used for the particular Greek letters (for example Θ, Χ, Ψ, Ω).

With documents originating in Cyprus it should be remembered that English is also in official use there and that some documents are already drawn up in English; in that case the language of the document is established at the outset. Where only the Greek portions are translated, consistency with the original English wording is maintained.

In Greek civil registry records the father’s name is a separate field, and it is not removed in the English translation but carried across as a separate line. The grading system (usually 0–20) is not equated with an English counterpart; it is explained, and the pass threshold is stated.

The names of institutions and documents are rendered according to their function; registry numbers are not translated but given with a reference to the record. The seal and registration details on the document are preserved in place.

Since the Greek diploma system rests on the European higher education framework, the credit and level information in the transcript is preserved openly; the recognition body assesses on the basis of that data, and a summary rendering slows the process down.

Official Greek style builds long sentences strung together with conjunctions; in the move into English that chain is untied and each condition is set out separately, so that no obligation is lost on the way.

Because dates are given in day-month-year order, the month is written out in words in the English translation. Across documents belonging to the same person, the transliteration of the name and the father’s name are carried across consistently.

Which documents call for this direction

• Diplomas, the αναλυτική βαθμολογία (transcript of marks) and course descriptions
• Birth, marriage and civil registry records
• Employment, service and criminal record documents
• Bank and income documents
• Professional qualification documents

Education files form the backbone of demand; a detailed breakdown of courses and credits is called for. The transliteration and the father’s name are carried across consistently throughout the file.

In work files the service record and the titles are conveyed accurately. In family documents the relationships between relatives are set out openly.

Chain of certification

Because the target is an English-speaking country, the sworn translator system does not come into play: the United States and the United Kingdom ask for a signed statement of accuracy, Canada for a translator registered with a provincial association or an affidavit, Australia for NAATI accreditation. A document arriving from Greece or Cyprus is expected to carry an apostille.

For these differing expectations, look at the certification regime of the target country and the requirements for the document type. Tell us the spelling of the name in the passport and the receiving institution before you send the document.

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