| Online Translators - Machine Translation |
| Do online translators really work, or are they more trouble than they're worth? |
Machine translation refers to any kind of automatic translation, including translation software, hand-held translators, and online translators. While machine translation is an interesting concept and considerably cheaper and faster than professional translators, the reality is that machine translation is extremely poor in quality. Language is simply too complicated for machines to understand all of the vocabulary, grammar, context, and nuances in the source and target languages. The technology is improving, but the fact is that machine translation will never offer more than a general idea about what a text says. When it comes to translation, a machine simply cannot take the place of a human.
Online translators, which can be used to translate webpages, emails, or a pasted-in block of text, are no exception. To demonstrate some of the problems inherent in machine translation, I've run three sentences through the top four online translators. In order to check the accuracy, I then ran each translation back through the same translator (reverse translation is a common verification technique of professional translators). I've also provided my own translation for each sentence. Keep reading to find out how the online translators held up.
Remember that translation is an inexact science - there are always numerous acceptable possibilities.
Sentence 1: I love you very much, honey.
This is a very simple sentence - beginning students could translate it with little difficulty.
Online Translator Translation Reverse Translation Systran Je t'aime beaucoup, miel. I love you much, honey. Reverso Je vous aime beaucoup, le miel. I like very much you, the honey. FreeTranslation Je vous aime beaucoup, le miel. I like you a lot, the honey. InterTran Je vous aime beaucoup , miel. I love you a lot , honey.
All four automatic translators took the word "honey" literally, rather than as a term of endearment, and two of them compounded the error by adding the definite article. Everyone but Systran translated "you" as vous, which doesn't make much sense, given the meaning of the sentence. Reverso did particularly badly with its reverse translation - the word order is atrocious.
My translation: Je t'aime beaucoup, chéri.
Sentence 2: How many times did he tell you to write it?
Let's see if a subordinate clause causes any trouble.
Online Translator Translation Reverse Translation Systran Combien de fois vous a-t-il dit de lui écrire? How much time does it have says you to write to him? Reverso Combien de fois vous a-t-il dit de l'écrire ? How many times did he tell you to write it? FreeTranslation Combien de fois a-t-il dit que vous écrivez il? How many times he says that you write it? InterTran Que de nombreuses fois a-t-il ajouté dit vous à écrivons le? As many times has t - he added tell you at are writing him?
Systran inexplicably decided that "it" was an indirect object, rather than the direct object it is, which completely changed the meaning. In its reverse translation, it mistakenly translated the passé composé's auxiliary verb and main verb separately. FreeTranslation did even worse, with a grammatically incorrect French translation. And InterTran's translation is completely bizarre. I don't know why the nous form of "écrire" showed up, and I particularly like how in the reverse translation, it couldn't figure out what to do with the t- inversion. Reverso's translation and reverse translation are both excellent.
My translation: Combien de fois (est-ce qu'il t'a dit) or (t'a-t-il dit) de l'écrire ?
Sentence 3: Every summer, I drive up to the lake house and cruise around with my friends.
A longer and more complicated sentence.
Online Translator Translation Reverse Translation Systran Chaque été, je conduis jusqu'à la maison et à la croisière de lac autour avec mes amis. Each summer, I lead to the house and to the cruising of lake around with my friends. Reverso Chaque été, je conduis(roule) jusqu'à la maison de lac et la croisière autour avec mes amis. Every summer, I lead(drive) (run)((drive)) up to the house of lake and the cruise all around with my friends. FreeTranslation Chaque été, je conduis jusqu'à la maison de lac et jusqu'à la croisière environ avec mes amis. Every summer, I drive to the house lake and to the cruise about with my friends. InterTran Tout été , Je conduis en haut aux lac villa et être en maraude autour de à mon amis. All been , I am driving up at the lake cottage and cruise about the one mine amigos.
All four translators were fooled by the phrasal verbs "drive up" and "cruise around" - they all translated the verb and preposition separately. The pairing "house and cruise" caused problems - InterTran is the only one that knew that cruise was a verb rather than a noun, but it had a number of other serious problems: it didn't conjugate être and it had a terrible time with "my friends" - it didn't make "mon" plural to agree with "amis," and then in the reverse it incorrectly translated "mon" as "mine," not to mention "amis" into Spanish! Less shocking but still incorrect is the four programs' translation of drive as conduire - the latter is a transitive verb, but drive is used here intransitively.
My translation: Chaque été, je vais en voiture à la maison de lac et je roule avec mes amis.
Common Problems in Machine Translation
Though a small sample, the above translations offer a pretty good idea of the problems inherent in machine translation. The inability to use context is obviously the biggest flaw of machine translation - automatic translators are unable to use surrounding language (not to mention simple logic) in order to choose the correct translation of a noun with several meanings, as in the case of honey => miel/chéri. Excessively literal translations are common, and incorrect grammar plays a role too.
All in all, online translators can give you some idea about the meaning of a sentence, but their numerous flaws make it impossible for them to ever replace professional translators. If you're just after the gist and don't mind decoding the results, you can probably get by with an online translator. But if you need a translation that you can count on, hire a translator. What you lose in money you'll more than make up for in professionalism, accuracy, and dependability.
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Online Translators
Online Translation - French Class Project |
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