Free Text Tool · 50+ Languages · MyMemory API · Auto-Detect · Translation Memory
Text Translator
Translate text between 50+ languages using the MyMemory free translation API. Auto-detect source language, swap languages with one click, view match confidence scores and keep a session-based translation history. Combines machine translation with the world's largest translation memory database.
How to Use the Text Translator
Enter your text in the source panel, select your source and target languages, and click Translate. The tool sends your text to the MyMemory free translation API and returns the result instantly. Furthermore, swap languages with one click, copy the translation to your clipboard, and view your translation history for the current session.
- Enter your textType or paste up to 500 characters of text in the source panel.
- Select languagesChoose the source language or leave it on Auto-Detect. Select the target language from 50+ options.
- Click TranslateThe tool calls the MyMemory API and displays the translation with a match confidence score.
- Copy the resultClick Copy to save the translated text to your clipboard for use anywhere.
- Swap and repeatClick the swap button to reverse languages. The source and translated text swap automatically.
What Is Machine Translation?
Machine translation uses algorithms to automatically convert text from one language to another. Modern systems use statistical models and neural networks trained on billions of translated sentence pairs. Furthermore, the field originated in the 1950s during the Cold War when the US government funded research into automated Russian-to-English translation.
This tool uses the MyMemory Translation API, which combines machine translation with a massive translation memory database. Translation memory stores previously translated text segments. Furthermore, when a new sentence matches a stored segment, the human-verified translation is returned instead of a machine-generated one. This hybrid approach produces more accurate results for common phrases and sentences.
Supported Languages
The Text Translator supports over 50 languages spanning all major language families. European languages include English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Czech, Swedish and more. Furthermore, Asian languages include Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Bengali, Thai, Vietnamese and Indonesian.
| Language family | Languages | Quality level |
|---|---|---|
| Romance | Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian | Excellent |
| Germanic | German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian | Excellent |
| Slavic | Russian, Polish, Czech, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Croatian | Very good |
| East Asian | Chinese, Japanese, Korean | Good to very good |
| Indo-Aryan | Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Nepali | Good |
| Dravidian | Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada | Moderate to good |
| Semitic | Arabic, Hebrew | Good |
| Turkic | Turkish | Very good |
| Austronesian | Indonesian, Malay, Filipino | Good |
| Other | Thai, Vietnamese, Swahili, Persian, Amharic | Moderate to good |
How Translation Memory Works
Translation memory (TM) is a database that stores source text segments alongside their verified translations. When a translator or translation tool encounters a new segment, the TM searches for matches. Furthermore, exact matches return the stored translation directly. Fuzzy matches (partial overlaps) suggest translations that the user can edit.
MyMemory claims the world's largest translation memory with over one billion translated segment pairs. These segments come from professional translators, EU and UN documents, and collaborative translation projects. Furthermore, the match confidence score displayed after each translation indicates how closely the input matched a stored segment. Higher confidence scores indicate translations backed by human-verified data rather than pure machine output.
Machine Translation vs Human Translation
| Dimension | Machine translation | Human translation |
|---|---|---|
| Speed | Instant (milliseconds) | Hours to days per document |
| Cost | Free or very low | $0.05 to $0.30 per word |
| Accuracy (common text) | 85 to 95 percent | 98 to 100 percent |
| Idioms and nuance | Often mistranslated | Accurately conveyed |
| Cultural context | Not considered | Adapted for target audience |
| Legal validity | Not accepted | Certified translations accepted |
| Best for | Quick reference, drafts, gisting | Official documents, marketing, literature |
Tips for Better Translation Results
Write clear source text
Machine translation produces better results from simple, clear sentences. Avoid idioms, slang, abbreviations and complex sentence structures. Furthermore, short sentences (under 20 words) translate more accurately than long compound sentences. Split complex ideas into multiple simple sentences before translating.
Specify the source language
Auto-detect works well for most texts. However, short texts or texts with words common to multiple languages may be misidentified. Furthermore, selecting the source language manually eliminates detection errors and often produces faster results.
Review and edit the output
Never use machine translation output as final text without review. Check the translation against your knowledge of the target language. Furthermore, if you do not speak the target language, have a native speaker review the output before publishing or sending it.
Privacy and Data Handling
This tool sends your text to the MyMemory Translation API at api.mymemory.translated.net for processing. The API returns the translation and the text exchange occurs over HTTPS. Furthermore, LazyTools does not store, log or retain any text you enter or receive. The translation history shown in the widget exists only in your browser session and is lost when you close the tab.
For sensitive or confidential text, consider whether third-party API processing is acceptable. MyMemory may store submitted translations to improve their translation memory database. Furthermore, for confidential documents, use offline translation tools or professional translators with non-disclosure agreements.
The History of Machine Translation
Machine translation research began in 1954 with the Georgetown-IBM experiment, which demonstrated automatic translation of 60 Russian sentences into English. The ALPAC report of 1966 concluded that machine translation was not yet practical. Furthermore, research funding declined for two decades until statistical methods revived the field in the 1990s.
The breakthrough came in 2016 when Google introduced Neural Machine Translation (NMT). NMT uses deep learning to translate entire sentences at once rather than word by word. Furthermore, NMT reduced translation errors by 60 percent compared to the previous statistical approach. Today, all major translation services including Google Translate, DeepL and Microsoft Translator use neural architectures.
When to Use Professional Translation
Use professional human translators for legal documents (contracts, patents, court filings), medical documents (patient records, clinical trials), marketing content (advertising, branding, localisation), published content (books, academic papers) and any text where errors carry significant consequences. Furthermore, certified translations are required for immigration documents, academic transcripts and official government submissions.
Machine translation is appropriate for personal communication, understanding foreign language content, drafting translations for later review, internal business communication where approximate meaning is sufficient, and research where you need to quickly scan foreign-language sources. Furthermore, many professional translators use machine translation as a first draft and then edit the output, a workflow called post-editing.