[Jurinjo]

It is seriously the best free translator. EVER.
Here's a link. Have fun!

Considering how proliferate google is I'm sure y'all have used it before. Somewhat recently though (well it's new to me) I can scroll over translations and see where they got it from. It's awesome, I only wish I were in a foreign language class at the moment. For now I can satisfy myself with things like Spanish and German songs. =)

[Echo-chan713]

I like the fact that you can beatbox on google translate

[Jurinjo]

Beatbox? Please explain! =O

[Echo-chan713]

1) Go to Google Translate
2) Set the translator to translate German to German
3) Copy + paste the following into the translate box: pv zk pv pv zk pv zk kz zk pv pv pv zk pv zk zk pzk pzk pvzkpkzvpvzk kkkkkk bsch
4) Click “listen”
5) Be amazed

It used to worked now you can't translate from German to German so there would be this computer lady spelling out the words, it's annoying >.<

[SilverPhoenyx]

I believe Google does a better job than Babelfish.

[Echo-chan713]

I use google translate to read other language fanfics

[Sadrain]

I sometimes have to use Google translate to help with my German homework... And believe me, if it is a harder sentence, when the translation is double checked with dictionary, it makes NO effing sense. And from Latvian <-> English it does not make ANY sense at all, in 80% of cases.
I wouldn't trust the translations of fan fictions that come from it.

[Echo-chan713]

I get confused on the fanfics translated so I stopped doing it >.< b ut that means that I may miss out on good fanfics

[Sadrain]

True, but there aren't that many not-English ones anyways, from what I have noticed.

[Coda]

Google Translate does a pretty bad job with Japanese, too. It gets the relationships between words wrong a lot and sometimes misses negatives, so the sentence may look readable but the meaning is all mixed up.

[Sadrain]

Yup. Besides, it does only literal transaltion, it doesn't catch the scent of sentence, the double meanings, etc. It picks the simplest version of words, etc.
This is why electronic translators won't put regular ones out of job for quite a while still. P= At least till artificial intelligent on level of a grown up adult is created, gone stable and then some time more.
And I still think regular translators will have work. Not everything will always get automatized.

[Ashy]

yeah also screws up words with multiple meanings, though you can change it to the word that fits it better

[Coda]

Originally Posted by Sadrain

Yup. Besides, it does only literal transaltion, it doesn't catch the scent of sentence, the double meanings, etc. It picks the simplest version of words, etc.
This is why electronic translators won't put regular ones out of job for quite a while still. P= At least till artificial intelligent on level of a grown up adult is created, gone stable and then some time more.
And I still think regular translators will have work. Not everything will always get automatized.

Actually, on the languages Google Translate IS good at, it DOES pick up on figures of speech and such.

[Sadrain]

And what language are those? it doesn't work for English <-> Russian, English <-> German, English <-> Spanish, apparently English <-> Japanese... Those are some of the most used languages in the whole world.

[Coda]

English, French, German, and Spanish are their best languages, since they have the largest databanks. Formal text in these languages will generally be translated very well and informal text does reasonably well. It can handle idioms and figures of speech because its databanks are built from statistical correlations of not just individual words but phrases, sentences, and contexts.

The big problem comes when you bring in languages that have different structure than these four languages. BECAUSE Google Translate uses statistical correlations instead of structural rules, it doesn't have any protection to make sure that the structure of the resulting translation matches the structure of the original sentence.

Japanese is particularly bad because it uses the negative inflection of a verb in many places where European languages would use a positive one. For example, in English you might say "I must go to school." In Japanese, the equivalent statement ("gakkou e ikanakute wa ikemasen") is written as a double negative ("It is unacceptable to not go to school"). Google Translate doesn't seem to be aware of this particular idiom -- it understands that "~te wa ikemasen" is an imperative structure but it doesn't know that it's a NEGATIVE, then it translates the other part of the phrase literally, so it comes out as "Do not go to school."

Ironically, one of the "casual" forms of that phrase ("gakkou e ikanakucha") DOES translate correctly ("Gotta go to school"), showing how Google Translate can handle idioms and casual speech.

(Edit: Side note: I work for a translation company as one of my side jobs, so it's my job to know these things. :P )

Edit 2: In Google Translate's defense, it does offer "Must" as an alternative to "Do not" if you click on it. It just, for whatever reason, considers that a less-likely translation.

[Sadrain]

I have tried to put simple things in google translate English <-> German, which has both large word banks as you say, and it fails, EPICLY fails. Not only sentences get messed up, but also word meanings, whole meanings of sentences... it loses whole point.
So, I still think that electronic translators have long way to go before they even pose smallest of threats to people who translate.