merece y vale la pena y digno

Question

Hola, me llamo Lina Rozano

I need your help to understand spanish. In SpanishDict I learned about the word 'no merece lapena' means 'it's not worth it'. But when I looked at google translate, google not recognized the word 'merece' the google machine show me the word 'vela la pena' and in yahoo translate 'digno'.

My question is :
1. Why it is happen?
2. Is there any differences?
3. How can I understand that?

Thank you for answering my question and help me to understand spanish more. I really apreciate it.

Regards,
Lina Rozano

Answer 1

As a general rule: never trust a machine translation (MT) unless it is translating into your own language. It's not that it will do a better translation into your own language but that, if it produces nonsense/garbage (as is often the case), you will, at least, be able to recognize that the result is not good. If it's translating into a language that you don't know, you will have no way of telling if the result is sensible or not. Another general rule: The simpler the sentence you're trying to translate, the more likely you are to get a correct translation (from MT). However, there's a problem with the second rule, viz. your notion of "simple" may not correspond to the computer's notion of "simple".

Answer 2

Translator machines are doubtful. I only use them if I am in a hurry, but that is because I have some knowledge of grammar and I am not so afraid of putting my putting my foot in it. More or less, I can guess when something is wrong.

For example; now I had a doubt. I did not remember how the expression "meter la pata" (to put my foot in it) was. Then I looked up the word "pata" in the dictionary. And how it is a good dictionary, there were a lot of examples with the word "pata". Finally, I have found the phrase. Pay me attention. Look for a good dictionary with a lot of examples. When something is more difficult is useless to use the translator, specially if it is an expression with several words.

Answer 3

I learned about the word 'no merece lapena' means 'it's not worth it'.

It is not a word, but four words, or, if you prefer, it is a phrase.

But when I looked at google translate, google not recognized the word 'merece' the google machine show me the word 'vela la pena' and in yahoo translate 'digno'.

The phrases "merecer la pena" and "valer la pena" mean the same thing. "Merece y vale la pena" is redundant, something like "It is worth and worth".

1. Why it is happen?

Machine translators are useless.