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Reading a review on booking.com today I have come across a strange thing: something that when translated by machine, says the opposite of what it says in the or
by bambax 3y ago
Reading a review on booking.com today I have come across a strange thing: something that when translated by machine, says the opposite of what it says in the original language.
The phrase was: we didn't sleep too well; it was strange because it was the first sentence of a top-rated review. Why would someone give a top score to a place where they didn't sleep well?
But it was an (automatic) translation from French. The original French version was: on n'a super bien dormi.
That's incorrect: it should read on a super bien dormi, which means "we slept really well". But when said out loud it should sound like on na super bien dormi because the n at the end of "on" is supposed to create a "liaison" with the following "a" so that it's more fluid.
Yet, when written as "on n'a super bien dormi" then the extra "n'" could be construed as a negative -- most French native speakers will intuitively understand that it's not, it's just a spelling mistake; but the automatic translation machine doesn't (at least on booking.com: I just checked on Google Translate and it doesn't fall for it!)
This got me thinking: would it be possible to craft special texts that would mean one thing in one language, and a totally different thing when machine-translated in another language? That would be quite funny -- or terrifying, depending on the context.
- buildsjets 3y agoThat’s a old Monty Python sketch. It’s called “Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook”. My hovercraft is full of eels. https://youtu.be/G6D1YI-41ao?si=eBPnvc4LDjsy0JDo https://youtu.be/G6D1YI-41ao?si=eBPnvc4LDjsy0JDo
- mitthrowaway2 3y agoThis happens a lot with Japanese translations, mainly because the subject (eg. you, me, him, etc) is frequently omitted from a sentence, and needs to be inferred from context. Machine translations rarely have that context, but need to insert a subject to form a natural sentence in English, so they'll just guess. For example "he's not hungry" can machine-translate into "I'm not hungry", and sometimes this can really mess with a sentence's meaning or create major miscommunication. A human translator would at least warn you when there's ambiguity, but machine translators tend to just go with their best guess.
- Jensson 3y agoChatGPT translates "on n'a super bien dormi" to "We slept really well.". LLMs have enough common sense to get those things unlike the old translators.
- dragontamer 3y ago> This got me thinking: would it be possible to craft special texts that would mean one thing in one language, and a totally different thing when machine-translated in another language? That would be quite funny -- or terrifying, depending on the context. This is the subject of age-old jokes. Here's one that I know off the top of my head, but I'm sure plenty of others have their favorite joke translations. Rumor is that USA translators first attempt at automatic English to Russian and back to English was the Biblical Phrase: "The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak" (Jesus's parable about how even if you want to do the right thing, it feels like we act against what we want to do sometimes). Allegedly, translated into Russian, and back into English, results in: "The Vodka is Strong but the meat is rotten".
- mattkrause 3y agoI've had this happen to me a few times, also with French <-> English translations, but I don't think it was due to typos in every case. One case was a terms and conditions thing, where the translation claimed that the supplier would assume all liability for misuse of the product, which was clearly not what the French (or common sense) intended.