Span!sh D!ct
In replies on the Spanish Dictionary if you put in a phrase you will get 3 replies which I assume are machine generated, but if you put in a single word you will get sample replies, are these created by humans and can one assume they are grammatically correct. Muchísimas gracias
1 Answer
You are correct, the machine translators are often correct for short simple things (although not invariably), but often a bit off for longer things.
I am not sure what you mean by a sample reply- when you put in a single word, you get a dictionary entry- which for many words can be quite long, although less common words not so much.
From what I know, these are contracted from several companies, listed at the bottom of each- and you often get 2-3- I tend to find the Collins the most helpful, and the Velasquez the least. I would say having essentially three dictionaries in one site is very convenient.
Occasional errors have been found in them, and I have noted with less common words sometimes they are not quite what I would say, but mostly they are good. Still one word in Spanish may have multiple meanings, all of which do not overlap with all of the meanings of the English.
Example- if you look up the Spanish word "cal"- it is translated as "lime". But this is only the lime like the powder I put on my yard from time to time, not the fruit. Nowhere in our dictionary does it quite tell you that where I go to in Mexico, if I want a lime as in a fruit, I have to call it a "limón verde". I have seen people blindly translate lime as cal and put it in a list of flashcards for fruits.
If I have doubts, I consult RAE, but that requires that you can read Spanish sufficiently to understand the entries.
There are slang uses that are not consistently anywhere, and new words and usages are generated in the natural evolution of languages.
As Ray says, please fill out your profile.
