Shoutbox

They're not really reliable but heres another one:
http://babelfish.altavista.com

Thanks

I'll try it

hey thank zahid. that babalfish thingy looks good. many languages. i hope it translates good.

How reliable is it Zahid?

There are no automated translation services that are reliable enough for you to (for example) write a letter in Lanuage A, and then get it translated into proper Language B to send to a native Language B Speaker.

However, most translation sites are used by people who (for example) receive a letter in Language B, and want to read it, so translate it into Language A.

The translations are usually nowhere near gramatically correct, and a lot of the time read in the wrong word order. However, with a bit of ingenuity, you are able to understand what they are saying.
The reason they are like that is because they just translate it word for word, even though all languages have different word orders (e.g. voulez vous in French, and do you want in English), some also have words where others don't (see previous example). French, for example, has a different verb form when talking to someone politely, wheras English doesn't, a computer can't pick this up. And sometimes words just aren't in the computer's dictionary.

Oh
Damn,

quote:

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Originally posted by saralk
There are no automated translation services that are reliable enough for you to (for example) write a letter in Lanuage A, and then get it translated into proper Language B to send to a native Language B Speaker.

However, most translation sites are used by people who (for example) receive a letter in Language B, and want to read it, so translate it into Language A.

The translations are usually nowhere near gramatically correct, and a lot of the time read in the wrong word order. However, with a bit of ingenuity, you are able to understand what they are saying.
The reason they are like that is because they just translate it word for word, even though all languages have different word orders (e.g. voulez vous in French, and do you want in English), some also have words where others don't (see previous example). French, for example, has a different verb form when talking to someone politely, wheras English doesn't, a computer can't pick this up. And sometimes words just aren't in the computer's dictionary.

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thats what i meant. and then you get those dodgy google translations

Here is an example of Google translator's troubles:

I asked to to translate this:

quote:

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hey there, stuff like this will not be translated correctly. The translation only translates words it knows.

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The result into French was:

quote:

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    hé là, la substance comme ceci ne sera pas traduite correctement. La traduction traduit seulement des mots qu'elle sait.

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After translating back:

quote:

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hé there, the substance as this will not be translated correctly. The translation translates only words which it knows.

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Longer pieces of text turn out worse

I always use this one because i find it usually gives a good result and there are many language translation options.

I tried that one
I typed:
Hi i am testing this to see what its like
I got given(in french):
Salut j'essaie ceci pour voir ce que son aimé
Lol. and retyped it and got(french to english):
Good day I try this to see this that his liked one