What are Machine Translators?

Automatic translation is when you use tools to automatically change the language of a given
text. Thus, it is possible to avoid having to translate word by word.

It is a form of translation that can be very useful at times when it is necessary to quickly
translate short and unique sentences. Or for the translation of texts that you do not need or do
not intend to read completely, because it is possible to understand the general message of the
material.

Furthermore, it can be carried out using online translators such as the famous Google
Translate.

What are Translation Assistance Software?

Translation assistance software are systems developed to make the translation process more
agile and ensure terminological consistency. Known by the acronym CTA — Computer-Assisted
or Computer-Aided Translation tools, unlike automatic translators, they do not perform the
translation in an automated manner.

In short, they work as follows: as the translation of a customer’s document is conducted, the
program generates a database with the translations that had already been completed and, as
such, the more translations are inserted, the more information goes into the database.
Translation companies often call these databases a “translation memory”, which are nothing
more than files that store the work that has already been done, organizing the segments and
containing the original text and the translation performed.

The greatest advantage of this practice is undoubtedly the gain in productivity, the final quality
and the deadlines that can often be even reduced.

Therefore, automatic translation can even be used as an assistance resource in some cases,
but there will always be a need to rely on a translation company to translate the most varied
texts/documents. This includes not only the translation itself, but also the revision of the
material.

A ‘translation memory’ (TM) is a database that stores “segments”. These segments can be
previously translated phrases, paragraphs or textual units (headers, titles or elements in a list),
which serve to assist translators. Translation memory stores the source text and its
corresponding translation in language pairs called “translation units”. Individual words are
processed on a terminological basis and are not within the scope of the TM.
Software programs that use translation memories are often known as translation memory
managers (TMM).

Translation memories are typically used with a specific computer-assisted translation tool (CAT
Tool), word processing programs, terminology management systems, multilingual dictionaries,
or even raw automatic translation results .

Research indicates that many companies that work with multilingual documentation use
translation memory systems. In a survey with language professionals in 2006, 82.5% of the 874
participants said they used a TM.