translates

Translates is the third-person singular present tense of the verb translate. Translate means to render written text or spoken speech from a source language into a target language, aiming to preserve meaning, style, and cultural nuances as much as possible.

Two broad approaches exist. Human translation is performed by individuals with language expertise and often domain knowledge; machine translation uses computer algorithms and large datasets. Human translators consider context, tone, and audience, while machine systems rely on statistical or neural models. Translational accuracy is often discussed in terms of equivalence: literal (word-for-word) equivalence prioritizes form, while dynamic (functional) equivalence prioritizes meaning and readability in the target language. Localization further adapts content for a specific locale, including measurements, conventions, and imagery.

Translating presents challenges such as idioms, cultural references, polysemy, and ambiguity. Quality is judged by fidelity to the source, naturalness in the target language, and suitability for the intended readership. Evaluation methods include human review, task-based testing, and, in machine translation, automated metrics such as BLEU or newer neural evaluation approaches.

Beyond language translation, translates can denote equivalence of meaning in bilingual dictionaries, for example a word translates to a specific term in another language. In computing, translation can also refer to code translation between programming languages, a process sometimes called transpilation or cross-language translation.