This article outlines the two (only seemingly competing) theoretical approaches operative so far in translation theory to explain text comprehension processes. First, it gives a short description of the hermeneutic approach and the analytic approach. Then, it explains how both approaches can be linked together on the base of the translation-oriented text analysis scheme from Nord. The article ends with an overview of the benefits from this linkage for translation didactics and practice, including CAT-tools and MT.