Language Translators make mistakes!

DaveC426913

DaveC426913

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A New Perspective on the 4th Dimension We often hear that a “point” is the 0th dimension, but is it really a dimension at all? A single point has no length, width, or depth—it’s just a position. However, an infinite number of points arranged in a line creates a 1-dimensional space. Stack...
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Olga responded to my post with Ладно.

The translator I use auto-detected this as Macedonian, and the word as Cold. It was only luck that Olga saw the text of my post and realized it was wrong. What she typed was Russian which translates as OK.

This could have gone very badly


I suspect the error was caused by the single-word sample and lack of context, but still, getting the wrong language is pretty egregious.

Something to be cautious of. Wars have been started over simple miscommunications.
 
Without context, there are lots of words that are used in different languages yet have different meanings within them . "bald" in German means "soon". "Ja" means "yes" in German but "and" in Finnish. "No" in Finnish means "well" ( Such as in, Well, hello!) etc.
 
Pups, meaning juvenile dogs in English, is a slang for fart in German, i.e. der pups.
Phonetically, Putin is whore in French (sp. putain).

Kakka is cake in Swedish, but poop in Finnish. That could cause some droll moments in coffeeshops and restaurants.
 
Pinball1970 said:
Interesting. "Kak" in UK slang is "shit."
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It's more commonly "cack". I think we (UK) gets it more directly from the Latin cacare (to defecate), but that, and all the other European languages, originally likely come from the proto-Indo-European word kaka, although there seems to be some dispute as to whether they, too, come by way of the Latin.


Anyhoo - with regard translating Olga's post, given that she has always been posting in Russian (when not in English), I would have thought it obvious to check that that was the detected language when using a translator. While the translator had no context, the user of the translator in this case did. I mean, they can blame the translator for making mistakes if they want, given how unappealing the alternative is for them, I guess. ;)
 
Sarkus said:
It's more commonly "cack".
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That looks better actually.
Latin maybe, noted.

Sarkus said:
Anyhoo - with regard translating Olga's post, given that she has always been posting in Russian
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When I translate her texts I always put into "Russian detected" I sometimes get weird grammar back.
Like I say it's no Biggie.
I told her I would not be translating anymore as it was difficult on my device going back and forth, then changed my mind.
 
Pinball1970 said:
When I translate her texts I always put into "Russian detected" I sometimes get weird grammar back.
Like I say it's no Biggie.
I told her I would not be translating anymore as it was difficult on my device going back and forth, then changed my mind.
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There will be differences in idioms and grammar that translation programmes may not quite translate accurately, and I assume Olga is using colloquial language as much as any of us are, but I've not had an issue with grasping what she's been posting.
 
TheVat said:
Pups, meaning juvenile dogs in English, is a slang for fart in German, i.e. der pups.
Phonetically, Putin is whore in French (sp. putain).

Kakka is cake in Swedish, but poop in Finnish. That could cause some droll moments in coffeeshops and restaurants.
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Poop in Finnish is kakk, kakka is poo (pooh). While cake in Finnish is kakku.
More "k" words are Kuku=who, Kukku=flower. Kokki =cook(person). Kokkata = to cook( but s/he cooks =hän kokkaa) Koko = whole, Kokko=bonfire. Kokoo=gathering, Kokoon = together. On top of that, questions are often formed by adding "ko" to the end of words. Thus on = is, and onko= is? This leads to the following Finnish tongue-twister: Kokoo kokoon koko kokko! Koko kokkoko? Koko kokko. (Gather up the whole bonfire! The whole bonfire? The whole bonfire.)
 
Janus58 said:
Poop in Finnish is kakk, kakka is poo (pooh). While cake in Finnish is kakku.
More "k" words are Kuku=who, Kukku=flower. Kokki =cook(person). Kokkata = to cook( but s/he cooks =hän kokkaa) Koko = whole, Kokko=bonfire. Kokoo=gathering, Kokoon = together. On top of that, questions are often formed by adding "ko" to the end of words. Thus on = is, and onko= is? This leads to the following Finnish tongue-twister: Kokoo kokoon koko kokko! Koko kokkoko? Koko kokko. (Gather up the whole bonfire! The whole bonfire? The whole bonfire.)
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Billy had had "had had". "Had had" had had a better effect on the teacher.

The spacing between the "Toad", the "the", the "the", the "Wet", the "Wet" and the "Sprocket" are all different.
 
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