Machine Translation or Computer-aided Translation?

Terms like “machine translation” and “computer-aided translation” (CAT) are often confused – but the differences can be huge.

What is machine translation?

A computer will automatically translate your documents. Just like using Google translate, there is no human intervention or editing.

What is computer-aided translation?

A human translator manually translates your documents and is assisted by CAT software. The core technology is translation memory – the automatic storage of the source text and the target text. Therefore, when the same vocabulary or phrases are encountered again, the computer will automatically translate the text in exactly the same way – saving a huge amount of time.

Summary

So the next time your translator refers to machine translation or computer-aided translation, you will know the differences and can decide which you prefer.