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MT vs. TM

MT, short for “Machine Translation,” is computer-based translation. Utilizing MT is a quick way to generate translations because the accompanying procedure doesn’t rely on further human labor and may be helpful to get the gist of a text at no additional cost or based on a fixed investment. With the advent of rapidly improving genAI, MTs can now be produced at a much faster pace and are now much better than they used to be, even better than what human translators could come up with at times. Despite the increase in both quality and quantity, however, MT still has its inconsistencies, and thus an additional phase of manual translation and review by human translators, known as postediting, is very much vital to establish that that human touch is still there, and we will continue to offer these services to ensure ease of mind for all those involved, from the translators to the customers.

TM, short for “Translation Memory”, is a database of human translations that a computer creates, updates, and maintains with every translation job where it’s needed. The TM helps the human translators limit the tedious, repetitive aspects of the work process, especially where either parts or a whole of a certain sentence or phrase may be repeated in manuals and similar documents. These manuals and documents may also be updated from time to time when the products they describe are also updated, and the TM is a reliable way of recycling translated portions of the text that remain unchanged between updates, an essential step for the translators to ensure a consistent style and terminology. Our linguists will employ TMs as needed or when specifically requested by our clients.

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