do you trust these online translators????

Question

To be quite honest they are crap. I am part greek and once in a while i see someone post a question asking how to translate that into english or into greek. I understand what they are saying but the translator won't interprent it well. Last time someone asked to translate something into greek i nearly cringed at one of the people said thr online translator typed.


So now i am wondering can you trust really trust an online translator? why?

Answer 1

Machines are still machines! Never trust them!

Answer 2

The important thing to remember is that an online translator is an "unthinking" computer program. If someone has absolutely no knowledge of the languages they are trying to translate between, then there will likely be some misinterpretations.

As the Spanish teacher that I work with told me once, the computer works just one word at a time, so it does not use the proper conjugations. Translating something from English to another language can be especially tricky, because English is so complex, with words that have multiple meanings, and some words that don't really even exist in other languages.

The bottom line is you can use an online translator, but don't expect it to be perfect. It is not 100% reliable on its own.

Answer 3

You can do a few experiments to prove the point to yourself: take a few simple sentences in a language which you speak well and try to translate them into English. I have gotten many a good laugh at the results!
The online translators seem to work well if you need specific vocabulary words or phrases. The problem occurs with grammar and syntax. And forget about colloquial terms, jargon or slang altogether!
There are so many good websites now which can assist a person who is interested in learning a language that it makes the online translators practically superfluous.

Answer 4

I find online translators a great help BETWEEN TWO LANGUAGES WITH SIMILAR STRUCTURES. I understand only elementary French, but with the help of online translator, I can usually figure things out - at least to the extent where I can judge if I need to havet the text translated by a good human translator.

On the other hand, between English and Japanese (my mother tongue), they simply don't work. And it is very annoying that some people seem to blindly trust them, because they don't know any better.

Answer 5

I always said they are crap. They can be helpful to get an idea of the content of a text, but they are extremely far from being accurate, because they can't interpret what is in the text. To test this, simply take a paragraph from a text and translate it via an online-translator and translate it back to the original language.

I translated a part of your question into German via babelfish:

"Um ziemlich ehrlich zu sein sind sie Mist. Ich bin das Teil, das griechisch ist und hin und wieder sehe ich jemand, eine Frage bekanntzugeben fragend, wie man das ins Englische oder in Griechen übersetzt. Ich verstehe, was sie sagen, aber der Übersetzer nicht interprent es gut wird. Letztes Mal bat jemand, etwas in Griechen zu übersetzen, den ich fast bei einem des Leute besagten geschriebenen thr on-line-Übersetzers zurückschrak."

A germanophone would understand what you meant, more or less. Now let's translate it back:

"Ton quite hone they acres crap. I at the part greek and once i lake someone post office A while in A question asking how ton translate that into english or into greek. I and-purchased what they acres saying but the translator won't interprent it waves. Load time someone asked ton translate something into greek i nearly cringed RK one OF the people said thr on-line translator typed."

Now this is complete gibberish.

Answer 6

When it comes to online translation, more isn't necessarily better. You shouldn't count on an online translators in any case.

The best that can be said of the online translators is that they're fast — the translation comes almost as quickly as the page can be loaded with a dial-up connection. Most of the translation sites let you translate an entire Web page merely by pasting in its URL, and most also allow you to paste in a limited amount of text.

Answer 7

Frankly? No. I don't trust them. Especially not with Japanese. In fact, don't even trust them with single words in Japanese.

I know very little French but I have a slight idea of the structure and of the structure of Spanish.

If I have to translate with an online translator...
First I translate English to French. Then I translate the French back into English. Then if something looks really wrong (like words not making any sense) try synonyms, try rewording it. Try and make complex sentences into simple sentences.
Like... "I like cats; they're so soft and cuddily."
I'd try "I like cats. Cats are very soft and cuddily."

Sure, it's choppy six year old French but it makes sense!

Keep translating back and forth with your sentences. This can take anywhere from two to six times through, maybe more if its really bad.
Once you can translate it and translate back into English with it making sense, you're in the ballpark. For all communication purposes this should be close enough.

Answer 8

I agree with you. There is crappy and the same happened to me, I am Spanish speaker and I was trying Babel and the translation was so poor that nothing make sense. It is better to ask somebody here and it will be a perfect translation that you can trust, here we have Spanish or other languages speakers, teachers, etc., that could help anybody that needs help!! I don't trust the online translator.

Answer 9

Trust....

haha

Well they are good at translating one / two words at a time.
But for example if the word you are translating has two meanings, the online translator will only give one.
Where as Microsoft Office Word gives you all options.

But for a whole sentence.... no thank you. They are horrific - they translate too literally. Word for word.

check it out spanish to english.

Confidence....

Ha ha

It has has Then two words are good to translate one simultaneously.
But for example if the two word that you are translating has meaning, the translator in line will give only one.
On the other hand Microsoft Office Word gives all the options you.

But for a whole oration.... nonthanks. They are horrible - they translate too much literally. Word by word.

he hee that wasn't as bad as I expected....

Answer 10

I trust yes. Many times I see un text in English who I do not understand, and bablefish helps me very. Other languages, as the German and the Chinese, who I do not understand nothing, the translators translate razoalvemente well, as much that I am capable to understand the text.

Answer 11

if you're translating singular, common words, then i think they're pretty dependable. if you're translating anything else, like phrases or sentences, they tend to get them wrong. this is my experience, anyway. so no, i don't trust them. unless you're using online translation services as dictionaries (looking up each base word, and you know some basic language structures to be able to link each word together), then i wouldn't say they are dependable at all.