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Google translate?


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Have any of you ever use Google translate to converse with someone in another language or to learn a word in the language you are trying to learn?  I have used the service with Spanish sometimes, but it seems as though the translation comes out wrong.

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I use it all the time for single word translations. It's handy for things like double checking that you're remembering the correct word, of for getting the sense of a sentence where you mostly understand but don't recognize a word or two.

However it is totally lacking in nuance and context, so I'd be very wary of relying on it for anything complex and without checking other sources as well.

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I translated a whole paragraph from Welsh to English on Google translate, while there were some words that were correct many of them and including the grammar was too bad to look at, I also translated an English paragraph from an article into Welsh and found that I could understand what I was reading, just that the grammar was incorrect and some words were wrong.

Google translate is quite handy and I use it if I want to translate a page just to understand what it is about, I also find it handy if I forget words in a foreign language and it helps me a lot with that.

I wouldn't fully rely on it though

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A while ago I was teaching a language on another forum so I made google translate my ally. I'll check words on it from time to time, in order to find synonyms and to be sure I was teaching the right thing.

However, I found out that not only did google translate lacked adequate synonyms for the language, but specific context usage words were missing. With that I concluded google translate isn't good for sentence translation but for words, and the user must know what they're doing otherwise they would be led astray.

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I never used Google Translate to communicate with a friend because I know when it comes with translating a long sentence, it can't really translate it well and sometimes the translation can be awkward.

But I still use it every other day to translate a single word especially when I'm writing.

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I use it all the time for single word translations. It's handy for things like double checking that you're remembering the correct word, of for getting the sense of a sentence where you mostly understand but don't recognize a word or two.

However it is totally lacking in nuance and context, so I'd be very wary of relying on it for anything complex and without checking other sources as well.

This is really the only correct way in using this Google feature. When I find myself needing to create an email in Spanish, I often type in a particular word I am having trouble with in English and get it's Spanish translation.

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Google Translate should never be used to translate whole paragraphs if you're looking for a perfect and error free translation. It lacks coherency when it comes to less popular and "deep" words. I tried using it to translate a whole text just to test it's accuracy and sometimes the translation is too literal to the point that it's erroneous. It's ideal to translate words and common sentences but it should never be used to translate for the sake of conversing with someone. I actually use it mainly to translate the negative feedback of Ebay users against a seller, and it does help me get the "point" even if some of the the translation sounds grammatically wrong.

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I normally use Google Translate when I'm browsing in a Chinese, or Japanese and sometimes a Korean website. However, it totally lacks the proper nuances and context, plus it has really bad grammar, tat I find myself preferring the original untranslated page, rather than the translated page.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I honestly don't think much of Google Translate. As many have said, it is really not reliable when translating long sentences or full paragraphs, since a lot gets lost. You might get the general gist of what is being said, but if you're not careful a single misstranslated word can change the meaning of a whole sentence. But worse than that, I find it unreliable even when translating single words - I've often found that it gave words from the same semantic family but with whole different meanings. In that aspect I think I still prefer the old Babelfish for machine translation.

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I really avoid it at most cases, you will have a bad time if you're trusting it too much. I used it to talk with a spanish friend some years ago, it was sufficient most of the time but some sentences were impossible to understand as GT wouldn't give a correct answer. As Kotro, I find Babelfish a better translator in general too.

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I kinda use it, But like small sentences and single words because their translation is not that good in grammars. It's just pretty good for words and small sentences. You can copy a whole paragraphs and translate it on Google translate but you need to correct the grammars. 

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I took a language class in high school, and I used Google translate a majority of the time for my homework. But I really try not to because the translation isn't quite accurate. I think that using Google translate to translate a couple words is okay. But if you're translating a whole entire sentence or paragraph for an essay or something, then it definitely doesn't work. A friend of mine did this with his homework and he ended up failing the course because the teacher caught him using Google translate. We were specifically told not to use it for SENTENCES and PARAGRAPHS, but were told that a word or two are okay to translate.

Just be careful when you use Google translate. They're often inaccurate with full sentences. I know because I tried translating a sentence from English to my own language, and it turned out to be completely wrong.

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I personally try not to use Google Translate that much. I have found that it isn't very accurate at translating some Spanish words. I have a Spanish to English dictionary that I bought a couple of months back and it is working wonders for me. It even has some pictures that help me remember words a little better.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I frequently use Google Translator but only for very basic phrases and sentences, mostly just words. Anything a little complicated and the translation comes out all wrong. The subtle nuances in a particular language can't be translated. A translator program will work according to strict grammatical and structural rules, which is hardly how we speak in reality. It's not the best way to pick up a language. Just that it comes handy at times.

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I agree with most of the above comments. Google translate can be very helpful as a simple dictionary. But (most of the time) it cannot accurately translate sentences, and to properly translate a full paragraph is out of the question. In translating from English to Russian, I find that it is too literal. Russian grammar and phraseology differ considerably from English. The English to Russian translation would probably be understandable to a native Russian speaker, but certainly wouldn't be the way it would be said in Russian. For example, the sentence "I have a car" can be said exactly the same way in Russian, and Google translate will give you that literal translation. But the common way to express this thought in Russian is "With me there is a car."

And sometimes Google translate uses the wrong word(s) altogether.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I'm using Google translate along with the Pimsleur course and so far it has worked great, not like I have had to study  and guess really hard words and phrases, but so far so good.  Hopefully it will keep on being helpful, luckily I have the boyfriend around to help me out in everything he can :)  Google Translate might not e perfect, but it's better than nothing :)

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I frequently use Google Translator but only for very basic phrases and sentences, mostly just words. Anything a little complicated and the translation comes out all wrong. The subtle nuances in a particular language can't be translated. A translator program will work according to strict grammatical and structural rules, which is hardly how we speak in reality. It's not the best way to pick up a language. Just that it comes handy at times.

That's right, Sora.  But I have noticed some languages seem to be prone to deliver back some mistaken phrases or words, others not so much.  I found this to be very true with Hebrew and arabic.  I rather not use Google translate for long and complicated phrases in any other language tho, but I still believe this is better than nothing!

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I've never relied on it solely because. I've tried using it to translate to English and the result was incomprehensible so I imagine the same type of results would happen for translating from English. I'd maybe rely on it for a word or two but that's about it.

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I've used Google Translate to help me with Spanish homework assignments when I was younger, but for the most part, it's not the best translation tool to use. I've typed in sentences in English, only to get a completely messed up translation in Spanish. I don't even try to use Google Translate when trying to talk to someone in Spanish online. WordReference is a lot more reliable.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Google Translate is really tricky. The trick is to only use it for small translations. Don't use it for anything longer than a short sentence, especially in really foreign languages because it's never perfect and both sides will be left pretty confused.

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I've used it many times. It usually does the job if you write things simply, but it rarely gives good translations. Usually, though, I'm using it to supplement my basic conversations - usually individual words here and there, and sometimes phrases. It seems to be better with Spanish than anything else. It can't do Mandarin at all.

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