Machine translation

1.

What?! • How?? • When? • Why..? • Where?

2.

What?!
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.

3.

What?!
Two Types of Machine
Translation
Machine 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.

4.

What?!
The 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.
The Difference
in 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.

5.

How??
4 Ways to Improve
Machine Translation
First translate with machine and then
proofread the automatic translation.
Write your original text
in a way that machine can translate it better.
Evaluate the
quality of machine translation to determine whether the raw
automatic translation has good enough quality for the case.
Modify the
machine translation to equal your translation needs.

6.

How??
Guidelines for Writing Text That
Machine Can Translate
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.
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.

7.

When?

8.

Why..?
Machine Translation
is Easy-to-use.
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.

9.

Why..?
Machine Translation
is Fast.
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.

10.

Why..?
Machine Translation
is Cheap.
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.

11.

Where?
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.
Machine Translation in software and document localization:
Multilizer Localization tools
Machine Translation in PDF translation:
Multilizer PDF Translator