Google translate will ensure you fail in Latin

[Nikolaos]

... kind of like automatic and accurate translation

 

[Nikolaos]

Google has just improved their service - they now include a link to find professional translators on the web. Maybe this will make at least some (even if not many) people think twice before entrusting their flesh to GT.

 

[Lucius Aelius]

Google has just improved their service - they now include a link to find professional translators on the web. Maybe this will make at least some (even if not many) people think twice before entrusting their flesh to GT.

Or even thinking once before doing it would be nice.

 

[Iohannes Aurum]

Google has just improved their service - they now include a link to find professional translators on the web. Maybe this will make at least some (even if not many) people think twice before entrusting their flesh to GT.

That would be a major improvement (though not translation-wise), but it is a very good reminder that Google Translate is not 100% accurate, especially for those wanting tattoos.

 

[Iohannes Aurum]

To the mods:

Can you sticky this thread in the English-to-Latin forum? When it is moved and stickied, the title should be "Why Google Translate is not Your Friend?" It is extremely important, since there are many people who insist that Google Translate is their friend. It is not.

 

[cinefactus]

To the mods:

Can you sticky this thread in the English-to-Latin forum? When it is moved and stickied, the title should be "Why Google Translate is not Your Friend?" It is extremely important, since there are many people who insist that Google Translate is their friend. It is not.

John, I don't think it will make any difference. These people do not bother to read the stickies anyway. But just for you

Seeing as I made it a sticky, I edited your first post to make it more obvious that it doesn't work.

 

[Iohannes Aurum]

John, I don't think it will make any difference. These people do not bother to read the stickies anyway. But just for you

Seeing as I made it a sticky, I edited your first post to make it more obvious that it doesn't work.

Even though most people are unwilling to read important stuff, thank you for helping me bring this very common issue. The new title is so much better than my suggestion.

 

[Imber Ranae]

It keeps changing, so it must be still learning. The Lorem translations are new, so it is obviously learning errors amongst other things.

I think that the fundamental idea is good. It will probably take a few iterations to get to an acceptable level though.

I very much doubt it will reach an "acceptable" level any time soon. The state of AI at the moment just isn't advanced enough for a machine to assimilate a language (the way a child does) to such a level that it can actually understand and utilize the grammar. I fear it is hopeless. Maybe if they try again in 40 years they'll get somewhere.

 

[Schatzl]

I know this is a late post, and I'm not supporting google translate, but I did a comparison between the two by typing in the first few lines of the Our Father (it's one of the few things that I know rather well in Latin), up to "on earth as it is in heaven" and this is what I got. Google translate got it right, but I guess someone changed it so that it got that part right. Intertran was another story. It got it all wrong:

"Nostrum Abbas quisnam professio in Olympus , sanctio per thy nomen. Thy Regnum adveho thy ero perfectus , in Terra ut is est in Olympus."

The reason I posted this is I found it rather funny that they would get a famous phrase like this wrong. Feel free to delete this post if anyone feels it's off topic in any way.

 

[Adrian]

I know this is a late post, and I'm not supporting google translate, but I did a comparison between the two by typing in the first few lines of the Our Father (it's one of the few things that I know rather well in Latin), up to "on earth as it is in heaven" and this is what I got. Google translate got it right, but I guess someone changed it so that it got that part right. Intertran was another story. It got it all wrong:

"Nostrum Abbas quisnam professio in Olympus , sanctio per thy nomen. Thy Regnum adveho thy ero perfectus , in Terra ut is est in Olympus."

The reason I posted this is I found it rather funny that they would get a famous phrase like this wrong. Feel free to delete this post if anyone feels it's off topic in any way.

The reason why google scored better is the "core methodology of translation process" i.e. google translator is based on "statistical method"; intertran on "mechanical translation".

 

[Iohannes Aurum]

Statistical method or mechanical method, the human method is better, when it comes to translating, and despite their speed, online translators are never as good as a professional translator.

 

[Alexius]

Does it translate "et tu Brutus" loooooooooool... I just checked and says "you Brutus." What did it do with the and lol, and if you put brutus, it says "you stupid" HAHAHA

 

[M. Callidus]

Does it translate "et tu Brutus" loooooooooool... I just checked and says "you Brutus." What did it do with the and lol, and if you put brutus, it says "you stupid" HAHAHA

"Brute"?

 

[Gaia]

"Google Translate stultissimus te amicosque interficit." apparently means "Google Translate stupidest friends kills you."

My translation: Google Translate is rather fun to mess with but sad to be trusted as a translator.

 

[novus]

I use it as a English to Latin dictionary for single words, which it does quite nicely, and allows me to verify that the correct definition fits. For anything more than 1 word it is pointless.

 

[Paulus Pastor Rufus]

Love the emoticon!

 

[Paulus Pastor Rufus]

I decided to give this a chance with an incredibly simple phrase:

Agricola filiam amat.

GOOGLE TRANSLATION:
The daughter of Agricola, he is loving.

Audivisne de venditore ambulante et agricolae filia iocum?

 

[Pacifica]

I use it as a English to Latin dictionary for single words, which it does quite nicely, and allows me to verify that the correct definition fits. For anything more than 1 word it is pointless.

It's better to have a dictionary that gives you a little more information than just "word of language X = word of language Y" (it's not that simple, the correspondance is almost never just full and perfect, in all possible meanings, between a Latin and an English word, or the few options Google will give you without any precisions), but also some more precise information on the various senses of the word, how it is used, in what contexts, what constructions it's found with, if there are particular idioms, examples, etc. You should rather try this.

Audivistine de venditore ambulante et agricolae filia iocum?

Ego non novi. Narra si vis.

 

[LVXORD]

Enough said...

 

[Pacifica]

Enough said...