Google Translate - Free Online Translation

[dano]

If you travel a lot this might be useful.

http://translate.google.com

[Master]

thanks but how bout spending a buck on a book? its a lot easier to carry around.

[dsc]

http://www.ectaco.com

[Master]

hahahaha. the server is down.

[dsc]

The Ectaco site works for me..

[Winston]

thanks but how bout spending a buck on a book? its a lot easier to carry around.

But it's not easier to translate online text and emails, which is what Google Translator is for.

If I get a letter, do you want me to look up every letter in a dictionary? No way. Copy and paste is easier.

Also, you can get electronic dictionaries at Costco for around $30, when they have them in season. It will translate between 10 languages. A real bargain.

[dsc]

Also, you can get electronic dictionaries at Costco for around $30, when they have them in season. It will translate between 10 languages. A real bargain.

That's neat.

I wasn't aware Costco carried them.

[WakingUp]

But it's not easier to translate online text and emails, which is what Google Translator is for.

If I get a letter, do you want me to look up every letter in a dictionary? No way. Copy and paste is easier.

Be careful with Google Translator!

When my ex-wife got into my e-mail account, she found some correspondence I had going with a French dominatrix.

I had e-mailed her asking what videos she had been in. My e-mail was entirely composed of Google-translated, English-to-French.

Unfortunately, she misunderstood my question. She thought I asked her how much her sessions were.

So, she responded accordingly. And my ex, being from Canada, understood her reply. She was too angry to read the prior e-mails to see that I had not actually asked for such information...

[MrPeabody]

I frequently used the Google translator when I lived in the Netherlands. Since my bills and other correspondence received in the mail were in Dutch, I would put words and phrases into the translator until I understood what they were trying to communicate. Also, it has the ability to translate entire web pages to the language of your host country.

[Winston]

Google Translate now has an IPhone app.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-t ... 06506?mt=8

It also has an Android app, which you can find in the Google Play Store.

http://play.google.com/store

If you can do language translation on an IPhone or Android, then wouldn't that render portable electronic translators obsolete?

This one has a speech translator.

http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2011/0 ... p-for.html

Some even work without internet access.

http://mashable.com/2011/12/15/language ... tion-apps/

But I guess if you have wifi, you can just go directly to http://translate.google.com as well.

[Jester]

If you travel a lot this might be useful.

http://translate.google.com

Thanks!

[Winston]

If any of you have the Google Translation app on your smart phone, it has greatly improved in that it now allows you to translate entire sentences and paragraphs offline without any wifi or data connection. All you have to do is push the options button and select "Offline Language" and then select the language pack you want. The files are big, but they go into your SD card (if you have one). Once you download the language pack, the app can now translate offline.

You may need to download an update to the app first though. Go to My Apps and see if you need to update it.

The new version also has a thing that takes a picture of a foreign language writing and tries to match it. So if you see a street sign in Chinese, you can take a photo of it with Google Translate and it will try to match it. But this only works if you are connected online or you have a data connection. The speech to text function also only works with a data connection.

You can also enlarge the translated text to full screen to show people you're trying to communicate with.

To get the Google Translation App, go to Google Play Store on your smart phone and search for it.

[Winston]

A tip when using online translation programs or mobile translation apps to minimize translation errors:

- Try to use simple sentences containing words without double meanings.

For example, if you say "I have a date tonight" the word "date" has more than one meaning, and you don't know which meaning will be translated. Therefore, it's better to say "I have an appointment tonight".

Or, rather than saying "It is close to you" say "It is near to you" since "close" has more than one meaning.

And rather than saying "The story was made up" say "The story was fabricated" because "made up" may not be translated correctly.

- Try to make sentences short and efficient, with as little ambiguity as possible.

Hope that helps.

[Ghost]

.

[Winston]

I don't understand something. How does a translation program like Google Translate know what to do when you enter a word with more than one meaning?

For example, if I say "What race are you?" how does it know whether I'm referring to ethnicity or to a contest to see who will get there faster? Also, the word "like" can be used in multiple ways, so how can it be translated accurately by a program? How will the program know which meaning to use?