Clarify a confusing post
Stepho143 wrote, "if you get a paper in english and you have to translate the english to spanish and you type it in at the top and it gives you 3 results is all three of them right like i typed we understand the question and it gave me the three answers how do i know which one is right?"
And people did not understand.
What he was asking was, when you translate something into the translation box, how do you know which one is right since there are three different translations?
Anyway, I just wanted to clarify that since the post was closed before I could respond.
Gracias a todos.
3 Answers
Well, one thing I do know is they might all be right, or none of them are right. That is because you are typing it into the computer, which is a machine. It can only translate to a degree. Like translating certain phrases we use in English don't always come out the same. Some of the things we say, the way we word things, isn't always how it is worded in Spanish. It is a machine, so sometimes I'll get things translated literally.
There is no substitute for good teachers and native speakers.
What you can do sometimes is to pick a word in Spanish from the options that the traslator presents, traslate that word from Spanish to English and then watch if any of the options expresses the idea that you want to communicate.
Other possibility is look for the definition in Spanish of the word that you think is the appropiate for the situation, or pay attention to the expamples presented by the dictionary.
The three positions means the same, just written in different words, but have the same meaning, you can choose the one you want.
