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This lesson shows how to use Amazon Translate to convert text between languages. It covers the console workflows for:
  • Real-time (interactive) translation
  • Single-file document translation
  • Batch translation jobs using Amazon S3
  • Creating and applying custom terminology to preserve product names and other domain-specific phrases
These workflows let you choose the right approach depending on whether you need a quick translation, a one-off document conversion, or bulk processing with consistent terminology.

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Real-time translation (Console)

The Amazon Translate console includes a real-time translation UI for quick, interactive translations. It’s ideal for chat snippets, UI strings, messages, or testing translations before integrating them in code. Steps (console):
  1. Open the Amazon Translate console and navigate to the Real-time translation UI.
  2. Choose the source language or leave it set to Auto (Translate will attempt to detect the source language).
  3. Choose the target language.
  4. Paste the text to translate — the console returns the translation immediately.
If Auto is selected, Amazon Translate will attempt to detect the language of the input text; for best results with short or ambiguous inputs, specify the source language explicitly.
Example: a short English sentence translated to French.
Tip: switch the target language (for example, to Spanish) to see the translated text update live.

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Document translation (Console)

Use the Document tab in the console to translate single files such as plain text, HTML, or Microsoft Word (DOCX) directly—no batch job required. Steps (console):
  1. Open the Document tab in Amazon Translate.
  2. Select the source and target language.
  3. Upload the document and set the file type (text, HTML, or DOCX).
  4. Submit to translate; the translated document is returned in the console or provided as a downloadable file.
Supported single-file formats: Use this option when you need to translate one-off documents without creating a batch job.

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Batch translation jobs (Amazon S3)

For bulk translation of many files, use a batch translation job and let Amazon Translate process the contents in an S3 input location and write results to an S3 output location. Required inputs (console): Example S3 URIs:
How it works:
  • The job processes all supported files found under the input prefix.
  • Translated files are written to the output prefix, maintaining file names and basic structure where possible.
  • You can run multiple target languages in the same job; Translate will create one translated output per target language.
Useful links:

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Example: Literal translation of technical terms

Machine translation can sometimes render technical terminology too literally. For example, given this English paragraph:
A literal Spanish translation might render “virtual private clouds” word-for-word, which can be awkward or misleading in technical contexts:
To avoid this, apply custom terminology so that product names, acronyms, or domain-specific phrases are left unchanged or translated in a controlled way.
Custom terminology ensures selected words or phrases are translated (or preserved) in a consistent way across translations.

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Custom terminology (CSV / TMX / TSV)

Custom terminology lets you define how specific source phrases should be translated into one or more target languages. Import terminology as CSV, TMX, or TSV. Example: a simple CSV that keeps the source phrase identical in translations (header row first):
  • en,fr,es are the language column headers (English, French, Spanish).
  • Each subsequent row maps the source phrase to its translation in each language.
Create and apply custom terminology (console):
  1. In Amazon Translate, go to Custom terminology and choose Create terminology.
  2. Enter a name (for example: AWS-terms) and upload your CSV/TMX/TSV file.
  3. Choose directionality: one-way (source -> targets) or multi-directional.
  4. Save the terminology.
Apply terminology to real-time translations:
  • Open the real-time translation UI and paste your text.
  • Under Additional settings, enable Custom terminology and select your terminology set (e.g., AWS-terms).
When enabled, translated output will use your terminology mappings so phrases like virtual private clouds remain as you defined.

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Summary

  • Use the real-time translation UI for quick, interactive translations and testing.
  • Use the Document tab to translate a single file (plain text, HTML, DOCX) directly in the console.
  • Use batch translation jobs with Amazon S3 for bulk processing of many files.
  • Use custom terminology to preserve product names, acronyms, trademarks, and internal jargon consistently across translations.
Amazon Translate combines real-time, document, and batch features with custom terminology to give you flexible, reliable, and consistent translation outcomes.

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