A translation apparatus capable of producing an optimal translation of an input sentence is provided. A template in a first language and a template in a second language include a fixed portion consisting of a prescribed word/phrase and a variable portion replaceable by any of a predetermined plurality of words/phrases at corresponding positions, and the translation apparatus includes: a determining unit for determining, for a plurality of templates in the first language, whether or not a word/phrase included in the input sentence in the first language matches any of the prescribed word/phrase and the predetermined plurality of words/phrases; a selecting unit for selecting at least one of the plurality of templates based on the result of determination; and a replacing unit for replacing, if a template including a variable portion replaceable by the matched word/phrase is selected, the variable portion corresponding to the variable portion replaceable by the matched word/phrase of the template in the second language corresponding to the selected template, by a word/phrase in the second language corresponding to the matched word/phrase.