There are tons and tons of sites out on the web right now that offer free online translations between different language pairs. It's even gotten to the point to where people are forgetting that there are human translators that professionally translate for a living.
Regardless of that, however, is the fact that while free online translators can be useful in certain situations, it's important to understand that these online translators often leave plenty to be desired. You don't want to be using a free translator you find on the web to translate some important documents for your business.
As I mentioned earlier, though, free online translators can serve a good purpose when used how they are meant to be used. These online translators were never meant to replace human translators (OK, maybe there were some engineers who envisioned such a world, but they're long gone). In fact, they are usually not even good enough to help give translators a rough-cut pretranslation of a text they might be working on.
So then what are they good for? Well, online translators such as the ones you can find at Google or Babelfish are meant to be used to give very rough translations of fairly simplified text, which means that they work better on shorter texts and documents with less complex language. A couple sentences will translate better than a 40 page whitepaper, and a short social email with translate better than a legal contract.
Another issue to understand when using a free online translator is that they all offer different language pairs to translate. Most of them provide translations between languages such as English, Spanish, French, German, and Portuguese; more and more translators are also providing translations into Asian languages such as Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. So if one of these languages interests you, then you'll be in luck. However, if you're looking for free online translation of Quechua or GuaranĂ, you might be disappointed.
Finally, remember that they are free and usually in this world you get what you pay for. Don't expect too much from them and they won't disappoint you. Rather, they'll probably make you laugh with their often hilarious, sometimes ridiculous output.
So, what do you need to remember when using free online translation programs and websites? 1) They're far from perfect, 2) They usually work better with simple and short text, 3) They often only include the world's most widely-spoken languages, and 4) They can really make you laugh with the translations they give.
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About the Author
Clint is a Spanish->English translator and Spanish translation consultant specializing in helping others become better translators. His website can be found at
www.spanish-translation-help.com.
