Abstract: A computer-implemented technique can include receiving, at a computing system including one or more processors, a translation model including a plurality of aligned pairs of phrases in first and second languages. The technique can include determining, at the computing system, one or more features for each of the plurality of pairs of phrases based on linguistic differences between the first and second languages to obtain a plurality of sets of features. The technique can include associating, at the computing system, the plurality of sets of features with the plurality of pairs of phrases, respectively, to obtain a modified translation model. The technique can also include performing, at the computing system, statistical machine translation from the first language to the second language using the modified translation model.