- This paper analyses the process of translating by using the conceptual tools involved in two different models of linguistic comprehension: the code model and the inferential model. If communication is described as a process of coding and decoding the same thought in the same code, then translation into a different code becomes impossible. But linguistic communication, instead of a process of coding and decoding, can be considered an inferential practice that involves the human capacity of mind-reading. Once we abandon the explanation of translation as something happening between ideal and abstract entities (the linguistic codes), the real use of language, and translation with it, turns out to be a matter of degree.Keywords: Untranslatability, Code model, Inferential model, Processing effort, Pidgin, Mind-reading.Parole chiave: Intraducibilitŕ, Modello del codice, Modello inferenziale, Sforzo di elaborazione, Pidgin, Lettura della mente.