Translator cover letter example
A translator’s cover letter is read as a writing sample, so keep it short and exact. Give the post and your language pair, the documents you translate and how many words, how you get the terms right, and offer the test translation most employers set.
Read the letter as text
Imogen Thornley
Bristol · [email protected] · 07700 900256
15 October 2026
Ms Sarah Penhaligon
Head of Translation
Marlow Penrose LLP
9 Redcliffe Quay
Bristol BS1 6ZX
Dear Ms Penhaligon
Application for Legal Translator (French and German to English)
I am applying for the Legal Translator post at Marlow Penrose. I translate French and German into English and have seven years’ experience with legal and business documents, five of them freelance. I hold the Chartered Institute of Linguists’ Diploma in Translation with the Law option.
Most of my work is contracts, terms and conditions and compliance policies, about 40,000 words a month for six language service providers and three direct clients. I keep a glossary and translation memory for every regular client and check legal terms against each country’s own references, not only a dictionary.
I also review other translators’ work and post-edit machine translation for two agencies, so I know where machine output goes wrong in a contract. Translating your firm’s cross-border employment and commercial work from French and German is exactly where I want to specialise.
I would be glad to complete a test translation. My CV is attached. Thank you for considering my application.
Yours sincerely
Imogen Thornley
Fictional letter from Imogen Thornley, the applicant in the translator CV example. Every person and employer in it is invented.
Why each paragraph is there
I am applying for the Legal Translator post at Marlow Penrose. I translate French and German into English and have seven years’ experience with legal and business documents, five of them freelance. I hold the Chartered Institute of Linguists’ Diploma in Translation with the Law option.
The post, your language pair and the qualification a legal team checks first.
Most of my work is contracts, terms and conditions and compliance policies, about 40,000 words a month for six language service providers and three direct clients. I keep a glossary and translation memory for every regular client and check legal terms against each country’s own references, not only a dictionary.
The documents, the volume and how you get the terms right.
I also review other translators’ work and post-edit machine translation for two agencies, so I know where machine output goes wrong in a contract. Translating your firm’s cross-border employment and commercial work from French and German is exactly where I want to specialise.
The quality checking the team will rely on, then why this firm.
I would be glad to complete a test translation. My CV is attached. Thank you for considering my application.
Offer the test, then the CV.