Terrible machine translations

Question

Bad Translator!

Although we'd like to think that machine translators do a pretty decent job, check out just how much gets lost in machine translation at this website. I've had a lot of laughs from the ridiculous things it outputs.

There are certain concepts that it don't seem to translate well across languages multiple times... set the translation languages to the max and see what I mean.

It makes you think twice about trusting any machine translator! (I personally never use them... I use online dictionaries and cross check with Google!)

Here's what I input:

I really love posting on these forums. I have been learning so much.

52 translations later...

"As can be seen in the scene"

Along the way it became things like:

I like this forum can not. More.

I like this forum more sun.

This stage as a Sun

As presented at this stage

Yes, it's hysterical.... - margaretbl, May 13, 2010

Answer 1

It is unfair to blame this on the computers or the programmers. The simple fact is that we, the people who speak a language, are unable to provide an adequate description (set of rules) that would permit translation.Given a comprehensive set of rules, programmers would have little trouble writing programs to implement them. However, such rules do not exist. Our understanding of how language works is mostly, intuitive, rather than analytic. We are prone to say something like "This doesn't sound right"/"This sounds funny." However, when pressed, we cannot say, why it sounds wrong and resort to such vague (unhelpful) statements as "I would never say this."

This reduces to a complaint that computers/programmers are unable to read our minds; to understand what we mean (even if that is not what we say).

Yes You have made some good points I would also add that there are so many exceptions to grammatical and other rules that only the brain is complex enough to adapt to them all - FELIZ77, May 14, 2010

I majored in linguistics so I know why good machine translation is so difficult, but it doesn't make the results any less funny to me. :) - Luciente, May 15, 2010

Answer 2

The weather is nice -> El tiempo es bonito -> The time is tuna.

Automatic translation will never work. And I write software for a living.

I like having tuna with nice weather :0) - sfrenchie, May 14, 2010

I wish I could, but Im allergic to seafood;( - dinosaurface, May 14, 2010

"The time is tuna..." Far out!! :-) - Gekkosan, May 14, 2010

I think the translator meant: It's time to eat tuna! (a StarKist Tuna ad) - Pajaro44, May 14, 2010

Answer 3

That might explain some troubles I've been having

Answer 4

However, when pressed, we cannot say, why it sounds wrong and resort to such vague (unhelpful) statements as "I would never say this."

Or the even more useless - nobody who speaks (insert language here) would ever say it like that - as though the person speaking actually had a legitimate and accurate sense of the language as a whole that somehow transcended all regional/local idiomatic usages and dialectic variations.

I think grammaticality judgments are really interesting. (When you ask someone "Can you say this? Is it right?" It's really fascinating how unaware people are of the rules governing their native language. :) - Luciente, May 15, 2010