When I asked Google to translate this phrase, the response "Stupidity always insists" -- a painfully literal translation that leaves one wondering "insists on what?"-- popped up. There was a button to click if you could offer a better translation.
Great! That was exactly what I wanted to do. But instead of an edit window (where I had intended to write either "Stupidity reigns supreme" or "Stupidity will out") I was shown a list of permutations of the 3-word literal translation; the interface gave me no opportunity to offer a completely different translation. It's not news that word-for-word translation can only go so far, not only for famous quotes or idioms, but also for hard-to-parse phrases like "Combien y en a-t-il?" Running this not-uncommon question thru the translator just now, the answer I got was "y'en how he?" All righty then. Even with a less opaque word order -- "Il y en a combien?" -- the translator boggles, and produces "How has it y?" (Here's one potential issue right off the bat: does the translator think "combien" is the same as "comment?") Any fluent speaker of French and English could provide the English equivalent, "How many are there?" (Primary stress on "are," so that "are there" = "exist.") I think it would be great to provide an option for site visitors to offer non-literal translations, leveraging the human knowledge of the Google Translate community to enhance the quality of translations. How might such functionality be designed and implemented? What issues might arise? (Validation of entries, prevention of abuse, etc.) Is there a large enough interested user base to sustain the effort? -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "General" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/google-translate-general/-/aaMQndygAFMJ. 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.
