R4 [crosstalk] Mas nem tudo lá é mais barato, hein.
R2 [crosstalk] Não, tudo não, mas…
[crosstalk] Not everything there is cheaper, though.
[crosstalk] No, not everything, but…
Split it: each voice gets its own line, both at 00:41:16.
Focus groups get loud. The transcript still says who said what.
At 00:41:16 two shoppers talk at once, and the software gives both lines to one of them.
Put six people around a table with a new product and they’ll talk over each other. Speaker-separation software often gives those overlapping lines to the wrong person, so a native speaker goes back through the draft, listens again wherever it reads wrong, and corrects the labels before anything is translated. Where two people speak at once, the transcript says so.
We do this for focus groups and in-depth interviews (IDIs) in Brazilian Portuguese, and the English verbatims are written to be quoted in your debrief.
Example study: household shopping habits · group 2 · clean verbatimverbatim†
M = moderator · R1 to R5 = respondents
No audio plays. The timeline shows where each voice falls in the excerpt.
E a compra do mês, vocês fazem onde?
And the big monthly shopping trip, where do you do it?
SPEAKER_00 is the moderator.
Translator’s note Compra do mês: the once-a-month stock-up trip many households make, often timed around payday.
Eu faço no
machine draft: atacado e jácorrected: atacarejo. Compensa muito mais, cê leva o fardo e sai bem mais barato.I do it at the atacarejo. It’s much better value, you buy by the case and it works out a lot cheaper.
Atacarejo: one word, the store format.
Translator’s note Atacarejo (atacado + varejo, wholesale + retail): warehouse-style stores that sell in bulk to businesses and households alike. Kept in Portuguese: warehouse clubs are the nearest US format, but an atacarejo needs no membership.
[crosstalk] Mas nem tudo lá é mais barato, hein.
[crosstalk] Not everything there is cheaper, though.
Two voices here. Split and mark where they overlap.
[crosstalk] Não, tudo não, mas…
[crosstalk] No, not everything, but…
O óleo mesmo, eu achei mais caro que no mercadinho aqui do bairro. Tem que ficar esperta.
Cooking oil, for one. I found it pricier than at the little grocery store here in the neighborhoodneighbourhood. You have to stay sharp.
Translator’s note Ficar esperta: stay alert, don’t get caught out. The feminine ending (esperta, not esperto) shows a woman speaking about women, possibly herself; the English “you” can’t mark that.
E na hora de pagar, como é que vocês pagam essa compra?
And when it’s time to pay, how do you pay for all that?
No cartão, parcelado. Se der pra dividir em três sem juros, eu divido.
On the credit card, split into payments. If I can spread it over three months with no interest, I do.
Translator’s note Parcelado (sem juros): a card purchase the store splits into monthly payments, often interest-free. Common in Brazil for everyday purchases as well as large ones.
Eu prefiro o Pix, porque aí eu vejo o dinheiro saindo na hora. No cartão eu me perco.
I’d rather use Pix, because then I see the money go out right away. With the card I lose track.
Translator’s note Pix: Brazil’s instant payment system, run by the Central Bank; money moves in seconds.
[inaudible 00:41:44] …e a marca própria também, que melhorou muito.
[inaudible 00:41:44] …and the store brand too, it’s gottengot a lot better.
Labels and terms checked: nine turns, six voices, one merged block split into three, one word fixed. Over to translation.
† The draft and the pen marks are drawn to show the kind of fixes a reviewer makes. They aren’t real software output, and the focus group is one we wrote.
Some shopping words don’t travel
The translator’s notes from the fictitious group above, shortened. Each slip links back to the line it came from.
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M 00:41:07, go to this line in the sample
E a compra do mês, vocês fazem onde?
Compra do mês: the once-a-month stock-up trip, often timed around payday.
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R2 00:41:10, go to this line in the sample
Eu faço no
machine draft: atacado e jácorrected: atacarejo.Atacarejo: wholesale + retail. Warehouse-style stores for businesses and households alike, no membership needed. Kept in Portuguese.
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R4 00:41:19, go to this line in the sample
…Tem que ficar esperta.
Ficar esperta: stay sharp. The feminine ending shows a woman speaking about women, possibly herself; English “you” can’t mark that.
-
R1 00:41:30, go to this line in the sample
No cartão, parcelado.
Parcelado sem juros: a card purchase split into interest-free monthly payments, common in Brazilian stores.
-
R5 00:41:37, go to this line in the sample
Eu prefiro o Pix, porque aí eu vejo o dinheiro saindo na hora.
Pix: Brazil’s instant payment system, run by the Central Bank; money moves in seconds.
Your client’s concept stays under NDA
An NDA is in place before any recording or stimulus material reaches us, and files travel through a private upload link set up for the project. To quote, we only need counts, lengths, and the debrief date. What the concept is can wait until the NDA is signed.
How respondent recordings are handled, step by step · Questions agencies ask about files and schedules
Focus group transcription, planned back from your debrief
Turnaround is agreed per project. Send us the debrief date and we work the schedule back from it; the quote comes with that timeline.
The discussion guide and screener go into Brazilian Portuguese before recruitment, so the moderator can read the guide aloud as written (how we translate them). Recordings reach us during fieldwork through a private upload link. Then come the transcripts, with the moderator and each respondent labeled and a timestamp at each change of speaker; the English verbatims, beside the Portuguese or on their own; and SRT files timed to the recording, so the video team can cut the highlight reel. In-depth interviews go through the same steps with two voices instead of six.