Madhav wrote: > I hear that students are already beginning to use Google-Translator to do > their Sanskrit homework. > > I just did a little experiment. Taking a few of the english translations in Apte's "The Student's Guide to Sanskrit Composition" and comparing what Google Translator gave as a sanskrit translation of these, and comparing to the original sanskrit quotes . A couple of surprising things stood out. Surprising because these are fundamental things nothing subtle. Google translator seems to use sanskrit past active participle to translate english simple past. It doesn't seem to apply visarga sandhi, a completely mechanical process.
In these examples, the yellow highlighted sanskrit is the citation from Apte, the blue highlighted sanskrit is the google sanskrit translation of Apte's english translation given below. Rama saw govinda rāmo govindamapaśyat rāmaḥ govindaṁ dṛṣṭavān I Salute the parents of the universe, Parvati and Paramesvara. jagataḥ pitarau vande pārvatīparameśvarau viśvasya mātāpitarau pārvatīṁ parameśvaraṁ ca namāmi He washed his hands and feet. hastau pādau cākṣālayat saḥ hastapādau prakṣālitavān। She shut her eyes sā locane nyamīlayat | sā netrāṇi nimīlitavatī So says the revered Shankara iti śrīśaṁkārācāryāḥ | tathā vadati pūjyaḥ śaṅkaraḥ। Thou art, therefore, a friend. tasmāt sakhā tvam asi tena tvaṁ mitram asi
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