Real-time translation using the API

Amazon Translate provides the following real-time translation operations to support interactive applications:

• TranslateText – translates a block of text.

• TranslateDocument – translates the contents of a file (plain text, HTML, or .docx).

These synchronous operations return the translation result directly to your application. If you use auto language detection with these operations, you may incur a charge. For more information, see Automatic language detection.

Translate text

Use the TranslateText operation to translate a single block of text.

Translate text using the command line

The following example shows how to use the TranslateText operation from the command line. The example is formatted for Unix, Linux, and macOS. For Windows, replace the backslash (\) Unix continuation character at the end of each line with a caret (^).

At the command line, enter the following command.

aws translate translate-text \
            --region region \
            --source-language-code "en" \
            --target-language-code "es" \
            --text "hello, world"

The command responds with the following JSON:

{
    "TargetLanguageCode": "es",
    "TranslatedText": "Hola, mundo",
    "SourceLanguageCode": "en"
}

Translate text using a JSON file

This example shows how to use a JSON file to translate a longer text block. You can specify the source and target language on the command line, or you specify them in the JSON file.

Note

The example JSON file is formatted for readability. Reformat the "Text" field to remove line breaks.

The example is formatted for Unix, Linux, and macOS. For Windows, replace the backslash (\) Unix continuation character at the end of each line with a caret (^).

To translate text using a JSON file

1. Copy the following text into a JSON file called translate.json:

   {
       "Text": "Amazon Translate translates documents between languages in 
       real time. It uses advanced machine learning technologies 
       to provide high-quality real-time translation. Use it to 
       translate documents or to build applications that work in 
       multiple languages.", 
       "SourceLanguageCode": "en", 
       "TargetLanguageCode": "fr"
   }

2. In the AWS CLI, run the following command:

   aws translate translate-text \
               --region region \
               --cli-input-json file://translate.json > translated.json

   The command outputs a JSON file that contains the following JSON text:

   {
       "TargetLanguageCode": "fr", 
       "TranslatedText": "Amazon Translate traduit les documents entre 
       les langue en temps réel. Il utilise des technologies 
       avancées d'apprentissage de la machine pour fournir 
       une traduction en temps réel de haute qualité. Utilisez-le 
       pour traduire des documents ou pour créer des applications 
       qui fonctionnent en plusieurs langues.", 
       "SourceLanguageCode": "en"
   }
   

Translate document

Use the TranslateDocument operation to translate a text, HTML, or Word (.docx) document and return the translation result directly to your application.

Real-time document translation supports translations from English to any supported language, and from any supported language to English. You can specify the source language code or use auto detect.

Translate document using the command line

The following example shows how to use the TranslateDocument operation from the command line. The example is formatted for Unix, Linux, and macOS. For Windows, replace the backslash (\) Unix continuation character at the end of each line with a caret (^).

At the command line, enter the following command.

aws translate translate-document \
            --region region \
            --source-language-code "en" \
            --target-language-code "es" \
            --document-content fileb://source-lang.txt 
            --document ContentType=text/plain 
            --query "TranslatedDocument.Content" 
            --output text | base64 
            --decode > target-lang.txt

The command responds with the following JSON:

{
    "SourceLanguageCode": "en",
    "TargetLanguageCode": "es",
    "TranslatedDocument":{
      "Content": blob
    }
}