11. A machine translation system comprising: one or computers; and one or more storage devices storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to implement the machine translation system configured to perform operations comprising: receiving first original text in a source language and data identifying a target language; 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 associated with the machine translation system 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 associated with the machine translation system that maps each of a plurality of terms in the bridge language to respective alternative terms in the target language; determining that a first candidate translation is a dictionary translation obtained for a particular bridge language translation and that the particular bridge language translation is a dictionary translation obtained for the first original text; determining that the first candidate translation is obtained for two or more distinct bridge language translations, wherein the two or more distinct bridge language translations comprise the particular bridge language translation and one or more phrase table translations that are distinct from the particular bridge language translation; and selecting the first candidate translation as a preferred translation of the first original text from the source language to the target language for the machine translation system.
11. A machine translation system comprising: one or computers; and one or more storage devices storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to implement the machine translation system configured to perform operations comprising: receiving first original text in a source language and data identifying a target language; 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 associated with the machine translation system 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 associated with the machine translation system that maps each of a plurality of terms in the bridge language to respective alternative terms in the target language; determining that a first candidate translation is a dictionary translation obtained for a particular bridge language translation and that the particular bridge language translation is a dictionary translation obtained for the first original text; determining that the first candidate translation is obtained for two or more distinct bridge language translations, wherein the two or more distinct bridge language translations comprise the particular bridge language translation and one or more phrase table translations that are distinct from the particular bridge language translation; and selecting the first candidate translation as a preferred translation of the first original text from the source language to the target language for the machine translation system. 12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the two or more distinct bridge language translations further comprise one or more dictionary translations for the first original text that are distinct from the particular bridge language translation.