Provide context and terminology

A translator working without context produces literally correct text that gets your product names, register and industry terms wrong. POM AI supplies context automatically — but only what you have configured.

What accompanies a translation request

Three things travel with the text:

The business short description, from Settings → POM AI → AI Setup. It identifies the business and sector without sending the full writing profile.

Relevant structured guidance, when the translation path supports contextual instructions. Taxonomy terms and navigation items can also receive preferred vocabulary, restrictions and the translation/localization field. Whole-post and whole-product text uses the configured machine-translation path, so protected terminology still requires review.

A short statement of what the item is — for a taxonomy term, for example, which taxonomy it belongs to.

The language pair, expressed as full language names with their region where one is defined, such as Spanish from Spain rather than a locale code. The region matters: it is what distinguishes European from Latin American Spanish, or European from Brazilian Portuguese.

Your prompt is not part of this. There is no prompt field in the translation workflow — the context is the configuration.

Getting the short description right

Because translation depends on the short field, it has to work as a standalone summary. Review it specifically for this purpose:

• Does it name the sector precisely enough that a translator would pick the right vocabulary?
• Does it convey register — a boutique brand and an industrial supplier need different registers?
• Is it in the site's own language, written naturally?

The guidance on screen asks for the type of business, then what you sell, then the value proposition. That shape happens to be exactly what a translator needs.

See Provide useful business context.

Language and region

The site locale determines the language POM AI works in, and the region attached to it. A site set to es_ES produces European Spanish; es_MX produces Mexican Spanish.

If translations come back in the right language but the wrong variety, check the Polylang language definition and the site locale rather than looking for a setting in POM AI.

Terminology you must protect

POM AI provides vocabulary and localization guidance, but it does not enforce a provider-level glossary. Treat the fields as instructions rather than a mechanical term lock.

The things that most often get translated when they should not be:

• product and service names;
• brand names and taglines;
• feature names that are effectively proper nouns;
• technical terms your industry uses in English regardless of language;
• names of legal entities and certifications.

Two ways to manage it:

Record fixed names in Preferred vocabulary and terminology. Keep the business short description readable; use the structured field for exact capitalization and terms that should remain unchanged.

Check and correct after a pilot. Translate ten representative items, list every term that came back wrong, and correct them consistently. On a large run, budget review time for a find-and-replace pass over the fixed terms.

Multilingual descriptions

The short description and every structured profile field are translatable, so a multilingual site can hold a version per language.

That matters more than it sounds. When translating from a language, the short description in that language is what provides context. A site whose description exists only in English gives thin context when translating from Spanish.

Write the description properly in each source language you translate from.

What context cannot fix

• Ambiguity in the source. A sentence that could mean two things will be resolved arbitrarily. Fix the source instead.
• Missing cultural adaptation. Idioms, humour, examples and cultural references translate literally. A campaign built on a pun needs rewriting, not translating.
• Local legal requirements. Terms, disclaimers and consumer-rights wording differ by market and must be written for that market, not translated into it.
• Locale conventions in content. Currency, units, date formats, address formats and phone formats inside the text are translated as text, not converted.

A short pre-flight

Before a large translation run:

• [ ] The short description is accurate and written for the source language.
• [ ] The site locale and Polylang languages specify the right regions.
• [ ] You have listed the terms that must not be translated.
• [ ] You have a reviewer who reads the target language.
• [ ] You have translated a pilot set and read it.

The pilot is the one that saves money. Everything else is preparation for it.