3 ms·

I think Google translate already has this. I was translating some text into German a few days ago, and after a few sentences I used a word that made it clear th

by roel_v 9y ago

I think Google translate already has this. I was translating some text into German a few days ago, and after a few sentences I used a word that made it clear that I was talking about a specific type of contract appointment, and it went back and adjusted earlier sentences to use more precise terminology. You only notice this when you a) speak the language you're translating into somewhat; b) actually type/compose the message in the Google Translate text box; and c) are typing something idiomatic enough that such specific phrases can be inferred. So I guess it's just something you wouldn't normally notice. Either way, I was mightily impressed, to the point where my wife had to roll her eyes and say 'yeah yeah I understand it now' to get me to drop it. (I'm just easily excited I guess.)

simias 9y ago
I've found that google translate works decently (as far as these automated translations can be expected to work) from/to English, however translating from a different pair of languages the results are often very off in my experience. In particular it seems it has some sort of internal bias, as if it always an english-like intermediary representation. For instance, if you ask google to translate the Portuguese "báculo" into French it gives you "personnel". It's nonsense as far as I can tell, a báculo is a "crosier of a bishop"[1]. So what's going on here? Well if you translate it from PT to EN it gives you "staff" and suddenly it starts making sense, because while staff means "A long, straight, thick wooden rod or stick, especially one used to assist in walking" (which fits báculo) it can also mean "The employees of a business" which is an accurate definition for french "personnel". And I believe that's how you end up with the nonsensical PT -> FR translation. Similarly Google used to be confused by the tu/vous (informal/formal) distinction that exists in many languages but not in English. At some point the portuguese "tu és" would be translated in french by the formal "vous êtes" instead of the informal "tu es". This appears to have been fixed however, I can't reproduce it at the moment. Conjugations don't fare so well however, for instance imperfect past french "je chantais" is translated into portuguese preterite "eu cantei" even though "eu cantava" would make more sense I think. Obviously with such small phrases I can't really be too harsh on google's bad grammar, they're probably not optimizing for that case. [1] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/b%C3%A1culo https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/b%C3%A1culo
rerx 9y ago
That sounds extremely interesting. I had not noticed that feature before. Do you happen to have some example input at hand that triggers such an adjustment?
- londons_explore 9y ago
  It's likely this tech is released to only a small percentage of users, and at off-peak times. Parsing an entire paragraph for context is expensive...

by roel_v 9y ago

simias 9y ago

I've found that google translate works decently (as far as these automated translations can be expected to work) from/to English, however translating from a different pair of languages the results are often very off in my experience. In particular it seems it has some sort of internal bias, as if it always an english-like intermediary representation. For instance, if you ask google to translate the Portuguese "báculo" into French it gives you "personnel". It's nonsense as far as I can tell, a báculo is a "crosier of a bishop"[1]. So what's going on here? Well if you translate it from PT to EN it gives you "staff" and suddenly it starts making sense, because while staff means "A long, straight, thick wooden rod or stick, especially one used to assist in walking" (which fits báculo) it can also mean "The employees of a business" which is an accurate definition for french "personnel". And I believe that's how you end up with the nonsensical PT -> FR translation. Similarly Google used to be confused by the tu/vous (informal/formal) distinction that exists in many languages but not in English. At some point the portuguese "tu és" would be translated in french by the formal "vous êtes" instead of the informal "tu es". This appears to have been fixed however, I can't reproduce it at the moment. Conjugations don't fare so well however, for instance imperfect past french "je chantais" is translated into portuguese preterite "eu cantei" even though "eu cantava" would make more sense I think. Obviously with such small phrases I can't really be too harsh on google's bad grammar, they're probably not optimizing for that case. [1] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/b%C3%A1culo https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/b%C3%A1culo

rerx 9y ago

That sounds extremely interesting. I had not noticed that feature before. Do you happen to have some example input at hand that triggers such an adjustment?

londons_explore 9y ago
It's likely this tech is released to only a small percentage of users, and at off-peak times. Parsing an entire paragraph for context is expensive...