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+--- Thread: Google translate features / bugs (/thread-3169.html)
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Google translate features / bugs - ReneZ - 26-04-2020
The use of line breaks in a text can really mess up a translation.
Here is a recent line from the news, in German, which is translated quite well into English:
Now, if I insert a line break after each line, the original text looks identical to the previous one, but the English text has become, well, worse:
RE: Google translate features / bugs - DONJCH - 26-04-2020
I have only a small smattering of German yet often talk with German people, which is fun when their English is not so good!
This post is therefore very interesting to me.
It seems that to put the line break in an unnatural spot forces the error. The translator in example 2 clearly does not know what to do with the "App" and so .....ignores it altogether!
Among many questions I could ask, why the random use of Capitals such as for "Normalitaet" yet not for "australischen"?
RE: Google translate features / bugs - Koen G - 26-04-2020
Sometimes even just adding a full stop after a sentence will change the translation
RE: Google translate features / bugs - davidjackson - 26-04-2020
IIRC, the translator uses pattern matching - it looks text matches in documents and tries to work out the translation from there. The idea is that it translates the whole sentence, not word by word.
So when you break the patterns, Google gets lost.
I suppose they can't remove line breaks, as that would break the patterns in normal text.
RE: Google translate features / bugs - -JKP- - 26-04-2020
I don't use Google Translate very often, unless I'm stuck on a language I don't know (and even then I take the translation with a grain of salt). Part of the problem is that the languages are modern usage, not medieval usage.
Instead, I try to find the words or phrases in context-sensitive dictionaries where they give you a list of classical and medieval texts that include the words. This way you can see where they were used in sentences at particular points in history. Often there are four or five example sentences by different writers.
These are excellent language resources.
If I can't find the words or phrases in context-sensitive dictionaries, then I go to Google Books and set the time frame to books published before 1600 or 1550 or 1500 (it depends on the subject matter) and I search within books.
I've discovered there are many words used by a variety of authors that aren't catalogued in language dictionaries but appear to have been common in a certain time or place.
RE: Google translate features / bugs - -JKP- - 26-04-2020
(26-04-2020, 06:00 PM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Sometimes even just adding a full stop after a sentence will change the translation
Adding commas can dramatically change the translation as well.
They didn't use commas very much in the middle ages, at least not in the less formal manuscripts, but if you can figure out the basic structure of the sentence and add them in the correct places, you often get a better translation.
RE: Google translate features / bugs - ReneZ - 26-04-2020
(26-04-2020, 03:07 PM)DONJCH Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Among many questions I could ask, why the random use of Capitals such as for "Normalitaet" yet not for "australischen"?
In German, all nouns are written with a capital...
RE: Google translate features / bugs - DONJCH - 26-04-2020
(26-04-2020, 08:08 PM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.In German, all nouns are written with a capital...Ah thanks for that, I should not have wasted your time with such a small thing. Your talk with Torsten is very interesting!
RE: Google translate features / bugs - voynichbombe - 27-04-2020
I recommend You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.. For Latin to German, PONS: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
RE: Google translate features / bugs - Aga Tentakulus - 27-04-2020
I use deepl too.
Also with pons for Latin, only one word translation . none for whole sentences.
What's worse, all this waiting forever because of the commercials.