B+6


 * Online Automatic Translation Tools **

We tried the below example sentences in each of the 10 following online automatic translators:

Google Translator- [|http://translate.google.com] BabelFish- [] FreeTranslation- [] Bing Translator- [] PROMT Translator- [] World Lingo- [] Dictionary.com Translator- [] Reverso- [] Babylon- [] WebTranslation- []

__If a stone falls at a rate of 9.8 meters per second from a height equal to that of the Tower of London, when will it reach the bottom?__ Goolgle gave a good translations of “rate” as //velocidad// while others gave //tasa// or //precio//. Many translated “a stone falls” as //una caída de piedra//.

__I’ve had it up to here with these online translators.__ All of the translators gave essentially the same literal translation of the idiomatic expression “to have it up to here” (estar hasta las narices) - Lo he tenido hasta aquí con estos traductores en línea.

__Did you hear what happened to Mr. Liebovitz? He broke the Rabbi’s wrist running away from a robbery__ This sentence is difficult because it is slightly ambiguous because it is unclear whether the Rabbi or Mr. Liebovitz were running away. Some translators opted for //huyendo// and others less acuratley said //que se escapó//.

__I have endeavoured to make Virgil speak such English as he would himself have spoken, if he had been born in England, and in this present age.__ This phrase is admittedly very difficult to translate and proved to be too challenging for the online translators. None of them were able to translate //hablar// properly in the subjunctive and maintain the overall meaning of the sentence. The vocabulary is very straightforward here but the verbs tenses and subordinate clauses are beyond automatic translation.

__The remote control is broken at Granny’s house.__ Google Translator has the best translation- El mando a distancia se ha roto en la casa de la abuelita- because it properly translated //Granny// and //remote control// while preserving the idiosyncrasies of the target language as regards the verb //se ha roto//. The other translators made minor mistakes with the verbs //ser/estar// and opted for the Latin American //control remoto//.

__The president stepped down after accusations of misconduct hit the press.__ While “stepped down” was nearly always translated as //se renunció// or //demitió//, none of the translators appropriately translated “hit the press”.

__Conclusion__: Overall, we would recommend __Google Translator__ as the best option because its translations were consistently better than the others. It was the only translator to properly change capitalization from English to Spanish. Also, it provides alternate translations for each term or phrase. While __Bing Translato__r gave some adequate translations, all of the rest produced equally confusing and erroneous texts. Many translators are based on Latin American Spanish: for example, using //control remoto// instead of //mando a distancia//. Online translators do not differentiate between //tú// and //usted// and often neglect the proper use of the subjunctive. In conclusion, we recommend that online translators never be used by a serious student of translation as they cannot account for the context of each sentence or the meaning of idiomatic expressions.