This guide to citing your own translation of a quotation is published by EdCitation, whose tools look every reference up in the publisher's record and never write one. The short version: cite the original you read, give the page, and mark the English as yours. APA 7 treats your translation as a paraphrase, without quotation marks. MLA 9 adds "my trans." and Chicago adds "my translation". Harvard, IEEE and Vancouver have no published rule that we could read.
Every rule here was read at the style's publisher in September 2026; APA Style's site put up a bot check, so its posts were read in archived copies from that month. Cite Them Right, the Chicago manual's sections and the MLA Handbook are not free to read, so we used the publishers' free Q&A pages and say where we could go no further. EdCitation's free Cite a source builds the original's reference from its DOI or ISBN, and Verify references checks the list; we ran both on the sources below.
How do you cite a quotation you translated yourself?
Cite the work you read, in its own language, and mark the English as your translation. The reference is the usual one for a source in another language, covered in our guide to citing a non-English source; this guide is about the passage in your text.
Styles differ on quotation marks, on printing the original, and on the words that say the translation is yours. Most examples below use one sentence from a Colombian study of how students see plagiarism, on its page 128 (López-Gil & Fernández-López, 2019):
Los estudiantes temen a las consecuencias negativas, aunque no tienen mucho conocimiento sobre las sanciones.
In our translation: students fear the negative consequences, although they know little about the sanctions.
How does APA 7 treat your own translation?
As a paraphrase. Adams (2022), writing for APA Style, explains that a passage you translate yourself is not a direct quotation, so it takes no quotation marks: you give the author and year, and the page is recommended, for anyone who reads the original language. No translation matches its original word for word, so quotation marks would claim too much.
López-Gil and Fernández-López (2019) found that students fear the negative consequences of plagiarism, although they know little about the sanctions (p. 128).
Three details matter:
- No original required. APA's post prints the French original to show its example, but does not ask you to include it.
- Translate for meaning. The post warns against patchwriting, changing a few words while keeping the original's shape, which APA counts as plagiarism.
- Short passages only. The advice covers a passage or two; larger sections raise copyright (Publication Manual Sections 12.14 to 12.18).
The APA pages we read say nothing about a long translated passage; the 40-word block rule is written for direct quotations.
How do you mark your own translation in MLA 9?
With "my trans." at the end of the parenthetical citation. The MLA Style Center, citing section 6.75 of the MLA Handbook, gives the original in quotation marks, then your English in quotation marks inside the parentheses, then the page, then "my trans." (Modern Language Association, 2025). From a German-language study of how students experience academic writing:
Dreo and Huber begin with a plain claim: "Schreiben ist an Hochschulen allgegenwärtig" ("Writing is everywhere in higher education"; 107; my trans.).
No mark is needed for an easy word or short phrase, a translated term that is not a quotation, prose that has already told the reader you translated, or a title you render yourself. A dictionary you used is not cited either (Modern Language Association, 2021b).
Long quotations in MLA
An MLA answer written for the eighth edition says that when the original runs to four lines or fewer, both it and your translation stay in the running text, even if together they are longer (Modern Language Association, 2021a). A longer original is covered in the handbook, which we could not read.
How does Chicago author-date say "my translation"?
In the citation, after a semicolon. The Chicago Manual's own Q&A, answered under the 18th edition, gives "(Zelner 2004; my translation)" for a German book quoted in an English thesis, and adds that one note saying all translations are yours will do (University of Chicago Press, n.d.-b). Following that pattern, with the page:
Students "fear the negative consequences, although they know little about the sanctions" (López-Gil and Fernández-López 2019, 128; my translation).
Unlike APA, Chicago lets your English stand in quotation marks. When you quote the original, another Q&A says, the English goes where your readers need it: in the text or a note, as a block after a long block quotation, or in parentheses when short (University of Chicago Press, n.d.-c).
"Translation mine" is the other form writers use. The manual's section 11.16, "Crediting the translation of a quoted passage", sits behind a subscription (University of Chicago Press, n.d.-a), and the Q&As we could read say "my translation". Pick one phrase and keep to it. Of Chicago's two systems, EdCitation builds author-date.
How do you show an author's own translation in Harvard?
Ask your module leader, because Cite Them Right, the Harvard version EdCitation builds, sits behind a subscription we do not have, and the university pages we read disagree. The University of Warwick's manufacturing department says Cite Them Right shows when to treat a translation as a paraphrase (WMG, 2026). That is APA's approach, with the page and no quotation marks:
Students fear the negative consequences of plagiarism, although they know little about the sanctions (López-Gil and Fernández-López, 2019, p. 128).
Bournemouth University's own Harvard, in its archived 2024–25 guide, goes further: the reference names the language and you as translator (Bournemouth University, 2026). Neither page sets a wording such as "my translation" or "author's translation" for the citation. Whatever you use, use it throughout, and say once, in a note, that the translations are yours.
What do IEEE and Vancouver say about translating a quotation?
Nothing that we could find.
IEEE
The IEEE Reference Guide lists a published translation with "trans." before the translator's name, and points to a page as in [3, pp. 5–10] (IEEE, 2025); the IEEE Editorial Style Manual for Authors says nothing on translated quotations (IEEE, 2024). Say in the sentence that the translation is yours:
In our translation of López-Gil and Fernández-López, students fear the negative consequences of plagiarism, although they know little about the sanctions [1, p. 128].
Vancouver
NLM's Citing Medicine covers the reference list, not quotations; for a published translation it names the translator after the title, as in "Burgdorf WH, translator." (Patrias, 2007). University guides such as York's put a quotation's page after the citation number (University of York, 2026). Say in the sentence that the translation is yours.
How do the six styles compare?
Two styles have a label, one calls it a paraphrase, and three leave it to you.
| Style | How to mark your own translation | In-text example | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| APA 7 | A paraphrase: no quotation marks, page recommended | (López-Gil & Fernández-López, 2019, p. 128) | APA Style blog |
| MLA 9 | Original, then "English" in the parentheses, then "my trans." | ("Writing is everywhere…"; 107; my trans.) | MLA Style Center |
| Chicago 18 author-date | "my translation" in the citation, or one note for all | (López-Gil and Fernández-López 2019, 128; my translation) | Chicago Q&A |
| Harvard (Cite Them Right) | Not readable; a paraphrase, as Warwick reports it | (López-Gil and Fernández-López, 2019, p. 128) | WMG, Warwick |
| IEEE | No rule; say so in the sentence | [1, p. 128] | IEEE guides |
| Vancouver | No rule; say so in the sentence | ¹ (p. 128) | University of York |
| Any style | The original's reference, from its DOI or ISBN | Cite a source builds it; Verify references checks it | EdCitation |
What if a machine translation tool did the translating?
Then the translation is not wholly yours. McAdoo et al. (2025), for APA Style, say that when an AI tool translates a source to help you understand it, you cite the original, not the tool; nuance can be lost whatever the method, and a translation your work relies on should be checked by a human translator.
An MLA answer from 2019 says Google Translate needs no works-cited entry, but you should tell your instructor early or say in an endnote that you used it, because it does not always translate accurately (Modern Language Association, 2019). Chicago's Q&A was asked about software and answered "my translation" without drawing a line.
In our view, "my trans." should not stand alone on a machine's output: check it against the original and follow your university's rules. See declaring AI use in an assignment and, when published, machine-translation-in-academic-writing.
When should you quote a published translation instead?
Whenever one exists, because a reader can check it. MLA says to cite the published translation you reproduce (Modern Language Association, 2025), and APA puts a quotation from it in quotation marks, with a reference to the translated version (Adams, 2022).
Some journals publish their own English. Educar em Revista printed a Brazilian study of plagiarism in both languages, with a DOI for each, so you can quote the English: self-plagiarism is "a 'strange figure' when associated with plagiarism" (Lopes et al., 2025, Abstract section).
A translated book names its translator in the reference and takes both years in the citation. APA's examples show the pattern (Adams, 2021); for the MIT Press edition of Umberto Eco's Come si fa una tesi di laurea, that is Eco (1977/2015).
How do you cite your own translation, step by step?
- Look for a published translation, or the publisher's own English version, and quote it if there is one.
- Translate the passage yourself, for meaning, and check any machine output against the original.
- Mark it: no quotation marks in APA; "my trans." in MLA; "my translation" in Chicago; your course's rule, or a sentence saying so, in Harvard, IEEE and Vancouver.
- Give the page of the original.
- Build the original's reference in Cite a source from its DOI or ISBN, and add the English title in brackets if the record has none.
- Compare the authors, their order and the title with the first page of the work.
- Paste the list into Verify references before you hand in.
What does EdCitation build for the original work?
For the reference half of this job EdCitation is the best tool, because the entry comes from the publisher's record rather than being composed the way a chatbot composes one; the runs below show why the record still deserves a check. From a DOI, ISBN, title, PubMed ID or web address, Cite a source gives the entry in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago author-date, Harvard, IEEE and Vancouver, screened for retraction, free and without an account. EdCitation never translates a passage, and no part of a student's paper is ever written by it.
What Cite a source returned
- German, DOI 10.3278/jos1702w107. APA: "Huber, B., & Dreo, K. (2017). Wie Studierende wissenschaftliches Schreiben empfinden - eine quantitative Studie. JoSch - Journal für Schreibwissenschaft, 8, 107–116. https://doi.org/10.3278/jos1702w107". The article's first page names Dreo first, and the record holds no English title to put in brackets.
- Spanish, DOI 10.17533/udea.ikala.v24n01a06. MLA began: "López Gil, Karen Shirley, and María Cristina Fernández López. “Representaciones sociales de estudiantes universitarios sobre el plagio en la escritura académica.” Íkala, vol. 24, no. 1, Jan. 2019, pp. 119–34". The article hyphenates both surnames and prints an English title the record lacks.
- Portuguese, English version, DOI 10.1590/1984-0411.90299-t. APA began: "Lopes, C., Forgas, R. C., & Cerdà-Navarro, A. (2025). Plágio e citação: Percepções de pós-graduandos em educação [Plagiarism and quotation: perceptions of Brazilian graduate students in pedagogy]". A reader of the English version cites the English title alone. The byline reads Rubén Comas Forgas; see names in references across cultures.
- Italian and English books, by ISBN. For 9788845204494, whose Open Library record holds only a title, APA gave "Come Si Fa Una Tesi Di Laurea. (n.d.)." For 9780262527132, APA gave "Eco, U. (2015). How to write a thesis. The MIT Press." and MLA "Eco, Umberto. How to Write a Thesis. The MIT Press, 2015.", with no translators and no original date, though Open Library's record names the translators.
What Verify references returned
We pasted the three articles, corrected, the Eco translation and a 1997 Italian edition. Two articles were verified, each with "The DOI resolves to this record and the title matches.", and the translation with "Title, year and first author match a published record." The German article came back "check this": "The publisher's record lists Huber first, and your entry opens with Dreo. Check the order of the authors." Here the record, not the entry, differs from the article. The Italian edition was flagged "This is the same work as entry 4. A reference list gives each work once."; it is a different edition, and a paper that quotes both keeps both. Cite a source and Verify references cost nothing. For a whole draft, References from a file (Pro, $8 a month) takes the uploaded paper, checks every entry and pairs each in-text citation with its reference.
Quick questions
Do I put my own translation in quotation marks?
Not in APA, which treats it as a paraphrase. MLA and Chicago use quotation marks and add "my trans." or "my translation".
Do I have to include the original language?
MLA's examples give the original first, then the translation. APA does not ask for it. Chicago's Q&A pictures the original with the English beside it, placed as your readers need.
How do I say "my translation" in APA?
APA has no such label. Give the author, year and page, without quotation marks, and the translation reads as your paraphrase.
Can EdCitation translate a quotation for me?
No. EdCitation never translates or writes any part of a paper; Cite a source builds the reference for the original from its DOI or ISBN, free.
Is a Google Translate version my translation?
Not on its own. Check and correct it against the original, and follow MLA's advice and your university's rules on saying you used it.
References
- Adams, A. (2021, July 19). How to cite translated works. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/citing-translated-works
- Adams, A. (2022, November 21). How to cite your own translations. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/cite-your-own-translations
- Bournemouth University. (2026). Translated materials (non-English sources). BU Harvard 24-25 full guide (archived). https://libguides.bournemouth.ac.uk/c.php?g=712360&p=5146150
- Dreo, K., & Huber, B. (2017). Wie Studierende wissenschaftliches Schreiben empfinden: Eine quantitative Studie [How students experience academic writing: A quantitative study]. JoSch – Journal für Schreibwissenschaft, 8, 107–116. https://doi.org/10.3278/jos1702w107
- IEEE. (2024). IEEE editorial style manual for authors. https://journals.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/IEEE-Editorial-Style-Manual-for-Authors.pdf
- IEEE. (2025). IEEE reference guide (Version 3.28.2025). https://journals.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/IEEE_Reference_Guide.pdf
- Lopes, C., Comas Forgas, R., & Cerdà-Navarro, A. (2025). Plagiarism and quotation: Perceptions of Brazilian graduate students in pedagogy. Educar em Revista, 41, Article e90299. https://doi.org/10.1590/1984-0411.90299-t
- López-Gil, K. S., & Fernández-López, M. C. (2019). Representaciones sociales de estudiantes universitarios sobre el plagio en la escritura académica [Social representations about plagiarism in academic writing among university students]. Íkala, Revista de Lenguaje y Cultura, 24(1), 119–134. https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.ikala.v24n01a06
- McAdoo, T., Denneny, S., & Lee, C. (2025, September 9). Citing generative AI in APA Style: Part 1, Reference formats. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/cite-generative-ai-references
- Modern Language Association. (2019, February 26). If I use Google Translate to help me understand sources, do I need to create a works-cited-list entry for it? MLA Style Center. https://style.mla.org/using-google-translate/
- Modern Language Association. (2021a, January 21). If a foreign language quotation and its translation run longer than four lines in my paper when combined, should I style each quotation as a block quotation? MLA Style Center. https://style.mla.org/quotations-and-translations/
- Modern Language Association. (2021b, December 1). If I use a dictionary to translate a source, do I need to cite the dictionary? MLA Style Center. https://style.mla.org/dictionary-to-translate-a-source/
- Modern Language Association. (2025, December 31). When must I indicate that a translation is my own? MLA Style Center. https://style.mla.org/when-to-use-my-trans/
- Patrias, K. (2007). Citing medicine: The NLM style guide for authors, editors, and publishers (D. L. Wendling, Tech. Ed.; 2nd ed.), chapter 2, Books. National Library of Medicine. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7271/
- University of Chicago Press. (n.d.-a). Chapter 11: Languages other than English (contents). The Chicago Manual of Style Online. https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/book/ed18/part2/ch11/toc.html
- University of Chicago Press. (n.d.-b). Citation, documentation of sources (Q&A No. 30). The Chicago Manual of Style Online. https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Documentation/faq0030.html
- University of Chicago Press. (n.d.-c). Manuscript preparation, copyediting, and proofreading (Q&A No. 99). The Chicago Manual of Style Online. https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/ManuscriptPreparation/faq0099.html
- University of York. (2026). Vancouver. Referencing style guides. https://subjectguides.york.ac.uk/referencing-style-guides/vancouver
- WMG. (2026, August 25). Using and citing non-English language material. University of Warwick. https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/wmg/globalcontent/general/opregs/writing/non-englishlanguagematerial