28 March 2013

Google Translate Mistakes



The Google Translate app for Android has some text files that include translation mistakes (/sdcard/Android/data/com.google.android.apps.translate/files/ol/v3r1/c_p). Some of them have been reported by users, blogs, news sites, while others are new. It's not clear why the application needs these lists since Google has fixed these translation errors.



Here are some examples:



German to English: Stuttgart -> London, tischen -> Nazi, Sheraton -> Hilton, StepStone -> Monster, Kilo -> pounds



French to English: le président américain -> Bush, toussaint -> Halloween, Homme -> Female






Spanish to English: Madrid -> London, útil -> helpful Google Translation, amor -> truelove.



English to French: boobs massage -> Ségolène Royal, boobs massage -> Kaamelott Saison, it sucks -> elle suce



English to Spanish: quiz trivia -> vínculo con Israel



Catalan to English: Jordi Pujol -> Abraham Lincoln



English to Latin: English -> Latin, New York -> Romae, New York -> Londini, Milan -> Lib



English to Dutch: please -> iPhone, feet -> meter



Hungarian to English: magyar -> English, Kossuth Lajos -> Abraham Lincoln



Icelandic to English: Sigur Rós -> Foo Fighters, Sigur Ros -> Anastacia



Latin to English: Libri -> Random, Libri -> Reviews, Arma Virumque Cano -> Chairman Meow



Serbian to English: Mitar Mirić -> Rihanna, Miric -> Jackson



Swedish to English: Runkar -> Heil Hitler, kronor -> dollars



Google's machine translation algorithms are often fooled by proper nouns used in similar contexts (Madrid in Spanish vs London in English, Sigur Rós in Icelandic vs Foo Fighters in English), by measurement units and currencies (feet in English vs meter in Dutch), but there are also non-obvious mistakes.


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