November 2, 2012

Google's Improved Word Translator

Google Translate is great for translating long texts, but it's also useful for translating words and expressions. The main difference is that words can have multiple meanings and Google Translate will usually show more than one translation.

Now it's easier to select the right translation because Google shows if they're common and groups synonyms. Another improvement is that Google displays a list of reverse translations for each candidate, so you can pick the most appropriate word. "Reverse translations can distinguish translations of different meanings and reveal subtle differences among similar words. Each translation is now annotated with its most frequent reverse translations," explains Google.

For example, the French word "fort" has a lot meanings, so it's hard to pick between "loud", "strong", "heavy", especially if you don't know English. Google's reverse translations are helpful and it's nice to know that "strong" is the most common translation.


Unfortunately, the new features are only available if you're translating from English or into English.

2 comments:

  1. this is awesome it will make translating applications so much easier

    ReplyDelete
  2. It still doesn't allow you to break up translated blocks to correctly order nouns and adjectives. For instance when translating from French to English, the order of these is often inverted.

    ReplyDelete

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