An engine interposed between an application translator and UI intercepts string templates populated with string variables and output by the translator. The engine determines translation-resistance of the string template. Such determination can be based upon an existing mark inserted by the translator, a number of string variables in the string template, a comment in the string template, user settings, or syntax rules. Frequently, translation-resistance of the string template is not indicated and the engine simply forwards on the string template to the user. Less frequently, the engine determines the string template to be resistant to translation. Then, the engine causes the string template to be processed according to a prefix and a suffix inserted thereto. The processing can comprise forwarding the string template for machine translation, and/or falling back to a simpler string variant. The modified content resulting from the processing is communicated by the engine to the user.