Oral translation differs from the written translation insofar as the translator does not have a text in front of him that he will translate, and the temporal period for translating the message is drastically shorter with the oral translation. When one works on a written translation, the translation may be changed and touched up anew, whereas with oral translation, once a speaker utters a message, that message can not be changed. The temporal distance between the decoding of a language message uttered in the source language and its coding into destination language is a lot shorter too.

Under decoding is meant the understanding of the language message, whereas under coding is meant the use of the language instruments with a purpose of constructing meaningful sentences and their connection into a coherent whole. It is just the difference in duration of this temporal distance which makes the most important difference between the two forms of oral translation - consecutive and simultaneous.

Consecutive translation may be thought of as a more direct equivalent of the written translation in relation to simultaneous translation. The reason why, while translating, translator first of all hears out one segment of the language message – it is usually several sentences – and he/she translates them thereafter. In that temporal interval, translator first of all decodes the language message which he then codes into destination language and then speaks it out. However, in parallel with the message decoding process, the translator remembers the quintessence of the uttered message, which he then codes with the language instruments of the language the message is translated into. That means that the translator must master the skills of processing and retaining of the message in the short-term memory. Whereas the memorizing skills may be mastered by both laymen and the professional translators more or less successfully, the process of the language message processing directly depends upon the knowledge of the source language and destination language, namely, the formal education and training.

In contrast to consecutive translation, when translating simultaneously, translator speaks at the same time as the speaker. In such a way, translator decodes the language message at the same time when he codes that message into destination language, which means that the temporal distance between the decoding and coding of the message takes no more than a few seconds. What is more, in contrast to consecutive translation, which does not require anything but the voice of a translator, simultaneous translation requires certain technical equipment: microphone for the speaker, transferring with its help the voice of the speaker to the translation booth, wherein is the translator, and the voice of translator is transferred with the help of microphone to the listeners, mainly through headphones. It is indispensable that the translation booth is acoustically insulated (soundproof), in order to prevent the mixing of the speaker's voice with the voice of translator. Taking that into account, consecutive translation is thought of to be more practical.

Whether it deals with simultaneous or consecutive translation, it is incontestable fact that exercise and perseverance are indispensable for oral translation. Oral translators not only must be excellent connoisseurs of phrasal and sentence structure of the language that they translate into, but in addition they have to know the matter that they will translate. That is why, along with linguistic knowledge, it is indispensable for them to understand the particular terminology and its use in a context of a sentence, thereby facilitating the processing of the language message and you get a translation of a higher quality.