The Principal Differences Between Machine Translation Software and Human Translations

• By Milos Milosevic
• 19-04-2022
• Software

Did you know that many translators spend up to a third of their time fixing errors made by machine translation tools? Yes, machine translation software promises fast (and in most cases free) translation, but the results rarely meet quality standards for accuracy and consistency. Why? Because machine translation tools don’t have cultural competency skills human translators do. But that’s just one of the reasons.

In this post, we’ll be looking at the differences between machine translation and human translation, highlighting the role and importance of each one, and explaining why human translation won’t be replaced by computer software any time soon!

What Exactly is Machine Translation Software?
Machine translation (also referred to as MT) is a translation performed by a computer. The computer performs the translation through an artificial neural network. Many refer to this as the neural machine translation process. Machine translation delivers word-for-word direct translations from the source to the target language. But MT doesn’t understand the nuances and cultural aspects of languages like a human translation professional does.

Here’s a quick example:
Look at this Chinese set phrase 吃醋 (= to be jealous; literally “to eat vinegar”), and machine translation gets it right. But if we use this phrase in a sentence… 你还会吃前女友的醋吗？ Oops! This awkward moment when “Are you still jealous of your ex?” turns into “Will you still eat the vinegar of his ex-girlfriend?”

Machines don’t have the kind of self-awareness and insight you need to adapt a message during the translation process.

Why Do People Use Tools Like Google Translate?

Machine translation might have some shortcomings, but there are still many situations where machine translation software can serve a good purpose. You can also use computer-assisted translation together with human translation. Here's a look at some scenarios when it's acceptable to use machine translation options like Google Translate.

When Speed Matters More than Accuracy
Human translation simply cannot compete with the pace of machine translation. It’s not uncommon to see businesses resort to machine translation when there’s a lot of content that must be translated in a short amount of time. The benefit of speed, however, comes at a price, and that’s accuracy.

Scenarios Where Consistency is Key
We’ll admit that machine translation is pretty consistent when it comes to wording and style. However, machine translation software can’t replace words with more acceptable phrases when there are cultural nuances at play. So it lack the ability to judge the meaning of the content within the context.

The Budget Doesn’t Cater for Professional Translations
Machine translation is somewhat customizable and able to deliver quick turnaround times. And this can really help companies save on the cost of translation services. Machine translation services also don’t charge a fee to rework content, so it’s cheaper than human translation services.

When is it Okay to Use Computer-Assisted Translation Software?
If you only need a section of your content translated.

When you’re exploring the idea of an expansion or testing a market, and you’re not 100% ready to bring a human translator on board yet.

You generally have basic (not creative) content that covers guidelines and directions.

Why Human Translations Trump Machine Translations
When it comes to accuracy and excellence, machine translation software doesn’t even compare with professional human translation services. Human linguists use a systematic process for translation projects and are fluent in the source and target language they work with. A professional translator also boasts focused expertise, which makes human translation the obvious choice when your content needs to be 100