How come when I type something for translation from spanish to english, it comes out different from when I do a translation from english to spanish?

Question

I put in ¿Cómo eres tú? and ¿Qué te gustaría ser? and got How are you? and What do you want to be? But, when I did english to spanish, I got something different for the translation. Why is that? I was looking at the same translation box too.

Answer 1

That is because both English and Spanish are very flexible languages, vocabulary wise at least, and so the translator picks the best translation out of a number of possible ones. When you translate it back, it picks a better translation. So it's very normal to get different translations of the same idea.

Answer 2

I agree with asdfghjkl4 that there are different translations for the same sentence. Also, remember that machine translations are usually not perfect. You will want to apply your knowledge to what the computer tells you in order to get a better sentence. Or if you don't have the knowledge, ask for opinions here on SpanishDict.

For "How are you?" use the verb estar. ¿Cómo estás? o ¿Cómo está usted?

For "What do you want to be?" the translator says: ¿Qué quieres ser? o ¿Qué quiere usted ser? These seem okay to me. They are using querer, meaning to want or to desire.

I'm not sure about the use of gustar in this sentence. Hopefully a native Spanish speaker can help you with that.

Welcome to SpanishDict!

Answer 3

Hi powerkids211 Welcome to the best Spanish site ever

This is a great site to answer any questions you may have about either the Spanish or English language, but dictionaries are still machines and have flaws.

Why don't you post your question on here? Just follow the guidelines and if you have any questions, feel free to click on my avatar and mail me!