The word order thing is a big problem for both users and Google. It seems that Google always gets the wrong word order for Arabic to English translation, such that it completely changes the meaning of the sentences. Here's one I just got:
Original: البحرين: 6 قتلى وفرض حظر للتجول وواشنطن تنتقد قمع المتظاهرين Google: Bahrain: 6 dead and imposed a curfew and crackdown on demonstrators critical of Washington My translation: Bahrain: 6 dead, curfew imposed, and Washington criticizes crackdown on demonstrators Why would Bahrain crack down on demonstrators critical of Washington? Somehow Washington, which was the subject of the main verb "criticizes," has now become the object of the criticism in Google's translation, and the demonstrators are the subject! This is mystifying since both the original and the correct translation have SVO order. I mean, Google could have literally translated the thing word-for-word without rearranging anything and it would have been better. But Google's translation is terrible for several reasons. Now, I could change "critical" to "criticizes" in the Google translation, but that wouldn't really help, would it? It seems like every time I put in a translation I would want to suggest improvements, but it's nonsensical unless I rearrange the word order so I usually can't change anything at all. Thus, if Google supported rearranging word order I could make word-for-word improvements, but because they don't I can't make any improvements. So both Google and myself are paralyzed. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "General" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/google-translate-general?hl=en.
