google translate

[2times]

Is it a good idea to use Google Translate to translate full sentences? Because I was just wondering if some of the words that they use are wrong or something?

[003]

No, it's not a good idea to use a Google translate translating your sentences. Sentences have their own though produced by combining the words that are in that sentence. These thoughts only humans can understand. Google translate doesn't understand these thoughts, and so they are not able to accurately translate the sentence. I only use Google translate when I am translating single words, when I am only looking for the meaning. That's all.

[daisyt]

Unless if you're looking for a single word, Google Translate is pretty much never a good idea. I've seen people put their homework through it and it just looked grotesquely bad, and I've heard of people not even putting in enough effort to translate into the correct language.

[justinp]

There are times when it is ok to use google translate, but you should not use it for translating full sentences; it will not give an accurate translation. I use it if I am totally clueless as to what a sentence could mean, and it will give me context clues to try to figure out the sentence myself. Google translate can be used to translate individual words, or to make the meanings of words more clear, but keep in mind that it might not be completely accurate, or that it might give you a word that is only related to it's translation.

Google translate is also very bad at grammar. You need to know the grammar conventions of the language you are learning well before you attempt to use google translate to understand sentences in foreign languages.

It is also important to keep in mind that idioms do not translate well without context.

[Hemikune]

  G.T. (Don't you just love abbreviations? Come to think of it, why is 'abbreviate' such a long word?)

  I'll start again, I must be getting sleepy.  :wacky:

  Google Translate. I used to try and give my Thai girlfriend translations of certain things I was too lazy to explain sometimes, and it always made things infinitely worse. She would wind up being either completely confused, or angry because of the way G.T. translated something into Thai. Stick to single words at all costs!

[RicardoRodrigues]

The problem are not the words they use but the way they use them and the context they are used in. It usually mistranslates some.

[Shearah]

No, never full sentences. Only individual words and they are also often wrongly translated.

[lei / Latifa]

No. Use something else because Google translate messes up. Sometimes, grammar matters in language because it changes the meaning and word choices. I used google translate for a French project and failed because google translator is not good for forming sentence...it's okay if you want to know what a single word is though.

[raytalks]

I have used google translate on numerous occasions, and upon verifying the translations with others who have a knowledge of the language, realized that they are not an exact translation. True meaning of a sentence is not translated accurately. It may be used for just words, but for sentences you may need more help. Meaning may be translated, but structure isn't, so you may end up something that doesn't necessarily make sense.

[SpringBreeze]

No. Google translate is off so many times. I remember one time handing in an essay that I basically copied and pasted from a free online translation site. I had never gotten so many corrections in my life. Hahaha, lesson learned!

The only time you should use it is if you have a basic proficiency in the language and can therefor sense if your sentence looks right or not. Also, if you write very simple sentences -- using simple words, simple sentence structures, and simple tenses, you can get good responses. An example is: I hit a car.

[Holunderminze]

Google translate is not very good to translate long texts, usefull to get the idea of things but not too reliable.

[PixelBaebee]

You have to have partial knowledge of the language you're translating it to if you want to translate full sentences.

It's not a bad idea to use google translate to translate things, but as a computer, it won't get the full meaning of your original text, so you'll have to know how to read and reason beyond what the computer knows.

[Onfroi]

Only sometimes it gives you an accurate translation. But if you are to translate full sentences with Google Translator, make sure to ALWAYS capitalize the first letter of the sentence and use periods, for some reason these make a difference in the translation of your sentences.

[RealSugar]

Nothing good ever comes out of Google Translate. It gives you an awkward word-by-word translation that means nothing to someone who speaks the intended language. I recommend, when in doubt, ask someone who knows.

[chigreyofthenorns]

No. Google translate is very unreliable. I found out about this when I was talking to my friend who can speak French. Also, my boyfriend tried translating English to Filipino and vice-versa because he wanted to understand that things that were posted on my Facebook. Needless to say, it was really awkward and wrong. Never use Google Translate for whole sentences.

[Baburra]

I think it has gotten a bit better recently, but still not at all accurate enough to be depended on for full translations. If you only need it to gains rough understanding of certain sentences then it is good enough, but I would never use it to show a native speaker expecting it to be accurate.

[TDev]

In my experience, Google Translate does a reasonable job when translating to/from the most widely spoken languages. There's a feature that's not very widely known that I find very useful: you can click over the individual words of the translated text to see alternative translations. I often find that the alternatives are better than the default.

[thewakeupcall]

It's not very useful to use Google Translate, because some of their words are wrong. Plus, if you try to translate something English to another language, it may be wrong and you may look like a fool.

[TEFL-Commando]

Google translate is a useful service for translating the odd sentence or phrase here and there, but most of the time it is not a 'true' translation. Often lacking in syntax and missing the colloquialisms which native speakers would use all the time. I'd recommend using it as a reference tool more than anything else.

[Hexahedron]

Google Translate is kind of decent when translating to/from some major languages. Translating whole sentence though on it is really spotty, like everyone above has mentioned, the syntax and some specific expressions are lost when translating with Google Translate. However, I have little trick when using it which makes it more accurate: Google Translate is pretty good for translating single words, which is useful when you are learning a language and only need to double-check a few words.

[ariana4]

My sister uses Google Translate almost exclusively for her Spanish homework, and she is currently studying 4th year Spanish. It is usually extremely accurate, at least for Spanish. I can't say how accurate it is for slang/colloquial Spanish, but it works for textbook examples.

[zabina12]

I have tried Google translate several times when I was looking to translate some words I cannot really understand online. I think it is effective to use on translating per words but not much effective when translating phrases. It seems not that accurate.

[snowfairy]

I wouldn't suggest using google translate for translating phrases or sentences. First because not all languages have the same sentence structures and google translate have a tendency to translate words literally according to the order of the words of the originating language. So the result of the tranlation will be jumbled up on the language you're translating it too. Second, there are words that have two or more meaning so you won't be sure if the word in was translated it too is accurate or not. This is base from my own experience.

[elenamarie]

Greetings! To answer your question.. no. I tried google translate from other language to english and the result is incoherent. My online friend from India used it too, he tried to chat with me in filipino using google translate and it absolutely doesn't make any sense. I started laughing then he answered "google is not reliable". It is proven, so use it at your own risks and make sure the spellings are correct too. Sometimes they do make sense if the spelling and grammar are correct.

[AureliaeLacrimae]

Google translate is quick and effective only when it's used as a dictionary. Translating sentences can be very awkward. There is always something that the machine fails to recognise, especially if there are collocations and idioms used or sentence fragments. These can be very tricky. It's better to type the sentence in the search engine and wait - maybe something useful pops out.