Automated Translation
Discover how to increase productivity by translating faster with machine translation.
Using automated translation as part of the SDL Trados Studio environment, you can translate more content and deliver it faster than before.
SDL Trados Studio extends the capabilities of automated translation to include support for a total of 3 machine translation engines.
What is automated translation?
How does machine translation work?
When would I use machine translation?
What machine translation can I use?
What are the benefits of using machine translation?
What is automated translation?
Automated translation is the translation of text by a computer, with no human involvement. Pioneered in the 1950s, automated translation can also be referred to as machine translation, automatic or instant translation.
How does machine translation work?
There are two types of machine translation system: rules-based and statistical:
Rules-based systems use a combination of language and grammar rules plus dictionaries for common words. Specialist dictionaries are created to focus on certain industries or disciplines. Rules-based systems typically deliver consistent translations with accurate terminology when trained with specialist dictionaries.
Statistical systems have no knowledge of language rules. Instead they “learn” to translate by analysing large amounts of data for each language pair. They can be trained for specific industries or disciplines using additional data relevant to the sector needed. Typically statistical systems deliver more fluent-sounding but less consistent translations.
When would I use machine translation?
When translating with SDL Trados Studio, any segments not leveraged from translation memory can automatically be machine translated for the translator to review, then accept and amend if necessary, or decide to manually translate instead.
As a translator, you can configure how much machine translation is used and which machine translation engines to use.
Respecting client confidentiality
If the projects you work on are commercially sensitive, your customer may require that information is not disclosed to any third parties. Carefully consider how and when to use machine translation as you will be sharing segments of the source with a third party. Audit files are automatically generated by SDL Trados Studio which record the use of machine translation.
What machine translation can I use?
SDL Trados Studio supports 3 machine translation engines that are available over an internet connection – SDL Enterprise Translation Server, Language Weaver, and Google Translate. By default, these provide a free of charge, baseline (untrained) translation for generic rather than specific domains. Language pair support varies by machine translation engine.
With SDL Enterprise Translation Server™ and Language Weaver, it is also possible to use your customer’s trained machine translation systems to deliver even faster.
What are the benefits of using machine translation?
Increased productivity – deliver translations faster
- Use freely available machine translation to pre-translate new segments that are not leveraged from translation memory.
- As a translator, you can connect to and use a customer’s or supplier’s trained SDL Enterprise Translation Server or Language Weaver machine translation system to deliver even faster.
Flexibility and choice – to suit all types of project
- Select from 3 different machine translation engines
- Choose from over 50 languages and more than 2,500 language pairs to suit your project
- Compare rules-based and statistical machine translation engines
