Getting the Most Use Out of Foreign Language Translators Online

That expectation is fair enough, and is really probably all that the online translators are intending to give. They don't intend to give a perfect, word for word - dynamic! - translation, but simply something that can help you get a general idea of what is being said. My question is: If I write something, does a translator give a more accurate translation into some other language if I write in a particular way? For example, if I write something in English and ask the online translator to put it in Chinese, how can I write in English so that the online translator will give a fairly accurate rendering in Chinese?

No apology necessary, Kristin! ^_^ I appreciate your reply. You answered my question correctly. I simply want to improve my understanding. The original meaning is often "lost in translation" with an online translator. Part of the problem is that a single word can have multiple meanings. Part of the problem is also that translating complex sentences requires a specific arrangement of words to retain the original meaning. I suspect that few words translate better than many words. I also suspect that someone can write in a particular way, and the online translator will produce a translation that matches the original meaning. Maybe you are right, and the only way that anyone would know is if they understand both languages perfectly? Thanks again! I appreciate your replies on this discussion! ^_^

sorry for my misunderstanding~ One who is very familiar with English and Chinese can give you a perfect answer.I think it depends on yourself's thoughts of the language which you want to translated to. as I know,there are so many meanings and so many usages of an english word. In my opinion,that kind of translators online which you want is not easy to carry out. Maybe there's something wrong with my words,but I think you could understnd my meaning .If you would like to point it out,that will be very good for me.tks! kristin

Hi, monaliu! (Hope you are well!) Online translators always make many mistakes, you are correct. They are useful for the help that they give so that you can understand what someone is saying in a foreign language. However, you cannot depend on online translator programs to give you an accurate rendering of what you are hoping to say. Otherwise, as you said, the translation sounds funny. ^_^ One thing that sometimes happens is that the translators do not give the right pronouns. Example: "He just choice one word by chance" - would be better rendered: "It just chooses one word by chance". Do you use the translator for many of your posts? I would be curious how amusing I would sound in Chinese translation...

Your English is going to be far superior to my Chinese (LOL), as my only exposure to Chinese is a children's program that my children watch. I have been giving some thought to putting together a program for helping people to learn to write English - I've sent you a private myLot message with my email address. We can correspond via email.

May I have your Email address? Maybe I can help you to translate some if you can trust me and I also would like to. I teach you Chiese and you can teach me English. ha ha...^_^

Thanks for your reply! I suspect that part of the reason that they make all of the online translators only work "so" well is so that people *don't* use them for homework (LOL) -- slackers would find that out really fast if they tried to turn anything in that they picked up from an online translator... For one thing, they don't really smooth out the sentences. If there are idiomatic phrases (she's lost her marbles, sie hat nicht alle Tassen im Schrank) they don't really pick up on those things. They tend to work more along the lines of a multi-tasking dictionary program - laying down translations for individual words, but not always catching the nuances of word order (that one gets frequently lost), tense, case, and some of the other things that play into a smooth translation. Thanks again for your reply!

I find that they'll often screw up tense or things like that.

German was my foreign language in high school, and I took German classes for four years. When I came to college, I was able to test out of the foreign language requirement by taking a German test... but the German that I learned was largely a matter of stockpiling vocabulary words - tenses and cases were a definite weakness for me... which means that today I can speak enough German to be understood (but laughed at for my poor abilities to put these words correctly into sentences)... I remember reading a story in German class about a detective, where there was a bungling American who didn't know German very well. At one point, the American caught the criminal and said, "Haende auf!" - and when the criminal did not put his "hands up", the American shot the criminal... only later to learn that "auf" can mean 'up' but is not the appropriate word to use in that context; "Haende hoch" - or "hands high!" is the appropriate way to say "Stick 'em up!" in German. My guess is that the language translators online wouldn't catch that.