If I use Google Translate to help me understand sources, do I need to create a works-cited-list entry for it?

Note: This post relates to content in the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook. For up-to-date guidance, see the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook.

No, but if you are relying on Google Translate, we recommend that you alert your instructor as early as possible. If you are unable to talk with your instructor, indicate in an endnote in your paper that you have used Google’s translation tool.

Keep in mind, though, that Google Translate does not always translate accurately. As the Princeton University professor Simon Gikandi notes, “When I ask Google to translate ‘Call an ambulance’ into Swahili, it suggests ‘beat up the vehicle that carries sick people’” (qtd. in Jaschik).

Work Cited

Jaschik, Scott. “Computer Science as (Foreign Language) Admissions Requirement.” Inside Higher Ed, 27 Nov. 2017, www.insidehighered.com/
admissions/article/2017/11/27/should-computer-science-fulfill-foreign-language-admissions.