1. A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving original text in a source language and data identifying a target language; determining that no translations from the source language to the target language are included in a translation data set; obtaining a plurality of bridge language translations for the first original text from the source language into a bridge language, wherein the plurality of bridge language translations comprises one or more dictionary translations obtained from a dictionary that maps each of a plurality of terms in the source language to respective alternative terms in the bridge language and one or more phrase table translations obtained from a phrase table generated by a statistical machine translation system that maps source language terms to bridge language terms; for each bridge language translation, obtaining one or more candidate translations for the bridge language translation into the target language, wherein the candidate translations comprise one or more dictionary translations obtained from a dictionary that maps each of a plurality of terms in the bridge language to respective alternative terms in the target language and one or more phrase table translations obtained from a phrase table generated by the statistical machine translation system that maps bridge language terms to target language terms; determining that a first candidate translation is a dictionary translation obtained for a first bridge language translation and that the first bridge language translation is a dictionary translation obtained for the original text; determining that the first candidate translation is obtained for two or more first distinct bridge language translations, wherein the two or more first distinct bridge language translations comprise the first bridge language translation and one or more dictionary translations for the original text that are distinct from the first bridge language translation; determining that a second candidate translation is a dictionary translation obtained for a second bridge language translation and that the second bridge language translation is a dictionary translation obtained for the original text; determining that the second candidate translation is obtained for two or more second distinct bridge language translations, wherein the two or more second distinct bridge language translations comprise the second bridge language translation and one or more phrase table translations that are distinct from the second bridge language translation; determining that respective parts of speech of the first candidate translation and the second candidate translation match a part of speech of the original text; selecting the first candidate translation and the second candidate translation as preferred translations of the original text from the source language to the target language; and generating a respective score for each preferred translation based at least in part on a combination of a first score obtained for a bridge language translation for which the preferred translation is obtained and a second score obtained for the candidate translation to which the preferred translation corresponds and on a number of distinct bridge language translations for which the preferred translation is obtained.