First off, some data:
According to COCA word-for-word has 60 usages, 3 of them are "word-for-word translation". Word-by-word has 26 usages, none of them are "word-by-word translation" (but some with "transcription").
The definition of word-for-word:
Oxford: In exactly the same or, when translated, exactly equivalent words
Merriam-Webster: being in or following the exact words, verbatim
The Free Dictionary: one word at a time, without regard for the sense of the whole
Only the last dictionary contains a definition for word-by-word, too:
The Free Dictionary: one word at a time
The definitions given by The Free Dictionary are, obviously, identical to each other.
Google hits:
Word-for-word ~21m
Word-for-word translation ~318k
Word-by-word ~3.8m
Word-by-word translation ~95k
According to usages and dictionaries word-by-word is, at least, less popular. And assuming that there may be a lot of usages from non-natives among the Google hits, this could be an indicator for word-by-word being even utterly wrong.
In another forum I found the following statement:
When I translate something "literally," (wörtlich) it still follows the main rules of the language I'm translating into. What you mean is "word-by-word" (wortwörtlich) to me.
I assume that this was written by a German but I don't know it. However, if this would be true a "word-by-word translation" would be a translation where I keep, for instance, the order of the words, disregarding if it makes sense in the target language.
Some examples:
Original: word-by-word
Word-by-word translation: Wort bei Wort (That's a terrible translation!)Original: It is critical to know…
Word-by-word translation: Es ist kritisch zu wissen… (That's a terrible translation!)Original: Ich glaub, ich spinne.
Word-by-word translation: I think I spider. (I guess only Germans understand this.)
A "word-for-word translation", however, would be an attempt to keep the word-choice as close as possible but following the rules of the target language (e.g. order of words) and also considering if the statement still makes sense in the other language. Here are better translations for the examples above:
Wort für Wort
Es ist wichtig zu wissen…
I think, I'm going nuts. (Actually, this is not a word-for-word translation but rather a sense-for-sense translation.)
So, my questions again:
- As neither Oxford nor Merriam-Webster have any entries for word-by-word in their dictionaries: is word-by-word actually valid?
- If yes, is there any difference between "word-by-word translation" and "word-for-word translation"? If yes again, what is it specifically?
Best Answer
The standard idiom word for word doesn't particularly relate to "translation" contexts at all. It's about accurately copied/reported words, as in the book title...
In a translation context, such as this page explaining the French expression...
...we're much more likely to describe the "exact" translation as literal, not word-for-word.
There are no dictionary definitions for word by word, because it's not an idiom as such - it's just one possible form of the X by X construction (a succession of consecctive X's)...
It's perfectly possible to translate "word by word" or "word for word". Of those two, the second is about ten times more common, but I see no reason to suppose there could ever be a difference in meaning. Overall though, there are far more written references to "literally translated" and similar variations.