Online translation, woo hoo
_53 mentioned a new translation website, http://www.tranexp.com:2000/Translate/result.shtml and said I might find it interesting. Sure enough, it was interesting! This is how I would sum up the program: “It’s better than nothing.” But not much more. I first tested it out by translating something from English to Spanish...
English:
“I am sitting here in my room testing out this new translator thing. I highly doubt that it will work, because Babel Fish was so terrible.”
Spanish result:
“Soy sentada aquí en my cuarto comprobación afuera esto nuevo traductor cosa. YO altamente incertidumbre ese estará trabajo , porque Bebé Pez estado así terrible.”
For those who don’t know Spanish, this is something equivalent to, “I am sitting here in my room trial outside this new translation thing. I high uncertainty that will be job, because Baby Fish been so terrible.” To list the errors more specifically: 1) When you say “sitting” in Spanish, you have to specify whether the person is male or female. The program assumed that I was female (which would make feminists happy). 2) It didn’t understand that “testing out this new translator thing” is a subordinate clause, describing what I was doing while sitting. It just translated the word “testing” as “comprobacion,” which is a noun like “trial.” 3) It didn’t recognize that “trying out” is a phrasal verb, so it translated each word separately. “afuera” means “outside,” as in, “The children were playing outside.” 4) I don’t think “altamente” is the correct equivalent of “highly,” in the sense of “extremely.” 5) It translated “doubt” as a noun, “uncertainty,” rather than a verb. 5) Likewise, it turned the verb “work” into a noun: “that will be job.” 6) It didn’t know how to use a past-tense verb “was.” Instead it used a past participle “estado,” but didn’t use it with proper syntax. “Ha estado” would have been correct, but not “estado” by itself.
You can see the errors more clearly if we translate Spanish into English. This is a sentence taken at random from the Spanish Wikipedia:
Antes de ese ‘descubrimiento’, Groenlandia ya estuvo habitada por pueblos árticos, aunque estaba deshabitada antes de la llegada vikinga; los ancestros directos de los modernos inuit no llegaron a la isla hasta el 1200.
Before that " discovery Groenlandia at once it was inhabited around communes árticos , although it used to be uninhabited formerly of the coming vikinga ; the ancestral nonstop of the newfangled inuit they didn't arrive at the isle presenting their results 1200.
In real English it should be, “Before this ‘discovery,’ Greenland had already been inhabited by Arctic peoples, although it became uninhabited again before the arrival of the Vikings. The direct ancestors of the modern Inuit did not arrive on the island until 1200.” So, if you only want to get the most general sense of what a passage is talking about, you could use a site like this. But I wouldn’t trust it for any of the specific content!
English:
“I am sitting here in my room testing out this new translator thing. I highly doubt that it will work, because Babel Fish was so terrible.”
Spanish result:
“Soy sentada aquí en my cuarto comprobación afuera esto nuevo traductor cosa. YO altamente incertidumbre ese estará trabajo , porque Bebé Pez estado así terrible.”
For those who don’t know Spanish, this is something equivalent to, “I am sitting here in my room trial outside this new translation thing. I high uncertainty that will be job, because Baby Fish been so terrible.” To list the errors more specifically: 1) When you say “sitting” in Spanish, you have to specify whether the person is male or female. The program assumed that I was female (which would make feminists happy). 2) It didn’t understand that “testing out this new translator thing” is a subordinate clause, describing what I was doing while sitting. It just translated the word “testing” as “comprobacion,” which is a noun like “trial.” 3) It didn’t recognize that “trying out” is a phrasal verb, so it translated each word separately. “afuera” means “outside,” as in, “The children were playing outside.” 4) I don’t think “altamente” is the correct equivalent of “highly,” in the sense of “extremely.” 5) It translated “doubt” as a noun, “uncertainty,” rather than a verb. 5) Likewise, it turned the verb “work” into a noun: “that will be job.” 6) It didn’t know how to use a past-tense verb “was.” Instead it used a past participle “estado,” but didn’t use it with proper syntax. “Ha estado” would have been correct, but not “estado” by itself.
You can see the errors more clearly if we translate Spanish into English. This is a sentence taken at random from the Spanish Wikipedia:
Antes de ese ‘descubrimiento’, Groenlandia ya estuvo habitada por pueblos árticos, aunque estaba deshabitada antes de la llegada vikinga; los ancestros directos de los modernos inuit no llegaron a la isla hasta el 1200.
Before that " discovery Groenlandia at once it was inhabited around communes árticos , although it used to be uninhabited formerly of the coming vikinga ; the ancestral nonstop of the newfangled inuit they didn't arrive at the isle presenting their results 1200.
In real English it should be, “Before this ‘discovery,’ Greenland had already been inhabited by Arctic peoples, although it became uninhabited again before the arrival of the Vikings. The direct ancestors of the modern Inuit did not arrive on the island until 1200.” So, if you only want to get the most general sense of what a passage is talking about, you could use a site like this. But I wouldn’t trust it for any of the specific content!