This paper deals with the use of corpora in Translation Studies, particularly with the so-called "'ad hoc' corpus" or "translator's corpus" as a working tool both in the classroom and for the professional translator. We believe that corpora are an inestimable source not only for terminology and phraseology extraction (cf. Maia, 2003), but also for studying the textual conventions that characterise and define specific genres in the translation languages. In this sense, we would like to highlight the contribution of corpora to the study of a specialised language from the translator's point of view. The challenge of our particular study resides in combining in a coherent way different linguistic issues with one aim in mind: looking for the best way to help the student acquire and develop their own competence on translation, and that this is reflected in the professional field. [For the complete volume, "New Perspectives on Teaching and Working with Languages in the Digital Era," see ED565799.]