Machine TranslationWhat?! • How?? • When? • Why..? • Where?

Machine Translation =A piece of text which has been written again automatically from one language to another by a machine*.

* In this context ’machine’ is basically the same as computer.

What?!

BATwo Types of Machine

TranslationMachine translator can utilize certain language related rules, like grammar and conjugation, with the help of a separate dictionary. These rules and dictionaries are integrated to the translator by human. Then the machine translator tries to read the dictionary and to apply the rules to the text that is being translated.

Machine translator can use a database as a source for all the information it needs for translating. Machine translator uses the information in the database to determine which words have similar meanings in different languages, which expressions are most used, which words are synonyms, etc. Typically these kind of machine translators count probabilities to find out the best translation.

What?!

BAThe Difference

in QualityThe quality is more controlled if one teaches all the rules to the machine translator. This method is quite laborious and it requires accuracy. Only if the groundwork is done properly, the machine translator produces good quality. These rules should be updated and reviewed to maintain the quality.

A translator which uses a database can learn from it, especially if more data is automatically collected. Although a bigger database usually improves the quality, the quality of the database is extremely important. No matter how huge the database is if it contains only bad examples.

What?!

Post-editing » First translate with machine and then proofread the automatic translation.

Measuring translation quality » Evaluate the quality of machine translation to determine whether the raw automatic translation has good enough quality for the case.

Modifying the original text » Write your original text in a way that machine can translate it better.

Customizing machine translator » Modify the machine translation to equal your translation needs.

4 Ways to ImproveMachine Translation

How??

Guidelines for Writing Text That Machine Can Translate

How??

Correct spelling mistakes. Spelling mistakes and missing spaces between words are common and they have a huge impact on the machine translation. Always use spell check if you have one.

Cut long sentences into pieces. This advice not only ease the machine translation but also makes the original text easier to read.

Write full, grammatically correct sentences.Don’t leave words or marks out of your sentences and avoid complicated sentence structures.

Keep your language simple. Use common vocabulary and avoid words that have several meanings.

Overuse commas. Separate different parts of sentences with commas to help machine translators to combine the right subject with the predicate.

When?

Machine Translation is Easy-to-use.

Why..?

In its easiest form, one just puts the original text in and the machine gives the translation.

Professional translation is not available as easily. First of all, finding the right person to do the translation requires some effort. Then one should negotiate about the prices and schedule and other relevant things. For someone who has never bought a translation before this task may feel overwhelming.

It’s in the human nature to avoid stepping out of the comfort zone. When machine translation is just few clicks away, it becomes easily the most tempting option.

Machine Translation is Fast.

Why..?

There are situation when “now and here” beats “later and better”.

If a customer sends you a message by email or through social media and you don’t understand his language, there is no time to send it to a professional translator. Even the biggest language service providers cannot be faster than a machine. Communication between humans takes always time, and it would cost A LOT to have a translator ready for unexpected situations all the time.

The pace of living is fast nowadays, and people are not used to wait too long. Machine Translation can give you understandable translation in minutes or even seconds.

Machine Translation is Cheap.

Why..?

Money is also one reason for using machine translation. Machine translation offers very good price-quality combination.

It is good that professional translators are proud of their profession and want to produce the best translation quality. However, the best quality is not always needed. Sometimes good enough translation quality is the goal or even mediocre quality can be enough to be able to understand the message.

Today some professional translation service companies proofreads machine translated texts with half the price of a complete professional translation. For less crucial translations a machine definitely produces good enough quality with the most competitive cost.

Where?

Machine Translation in software and document localization: Multilizer Localization tools

Machine Translation in PDF translation: Multilizer PDF Translator

Machine Translation is widely available in the online world.

The more people are interacting between each others all over the world, the more there is demand for machine translation. Today some

browsers translate web pages, Facebook translates comments and content, Google and Bing translate pieces of text, etc.