Language barriers shape many situations in life – be it when traveling, meeting new people or working in international companies. Those who do not speak several languages are often dependent on a translator in everyday life. The Google translator should enable quick and uncomplicated communication.
- The Google Translate is available for the browser and as an app
- It translates individual words, sentences and entire texts automatically into and from 103 different languages (status: 02/2021)
- Users can submit alternative translation suggestions to improve the quality of the translations
What is the google translator?
Google Translate is a tool from Google LLC that enables machine translation of individual words, sentences, texts or websites. The tool knows more than 100 languages, including German, English, Arabic, Greek, Russian, Chinese and Hungarian. The Google translator is completely free and available both for the Internet browser on the PC and as a mobile version for smartphones and tablets. He is able to carry out written translations or to pronounce them. The latter is particularly useful when the correct pronunciation of a word is required.
For users who want their website to be translated, Google Translate offers two different tools:
- Website Translator: It’s free, straightforward to set up, and easy to use.
- Translate API: A comprehensive, paid translator tool capable of translating website content and web apps.
How can I use Google Translate?
The Google translator can be accessed via desktop and mobile devices. If you want to translate long texts or entire documents with it, you should use the browser version. Extensive text passages in particular are much more manageable when they are translated and displayed on the screen of a PC. In this context, the Google Chrome web browser, in which the Google translator can be integrated, should be mentioned in particular. It automatically recognizes a lot of foreign language web content and offers free machine translation. The Google translator can be used in other web browsers after a corresponding extension has been activated.
Google Translate is also available to users of Android and iOS operating systems as a translator app. It allows content to be translated quickly while on the move, for example SMS messages or app content. The Google translator often even recognizes the source language without the user having to select it. Only the selection of the target language is required.
What features does the mobile Google translator have?
The Google translator in app form should enable translations in real time. With the mobile version of the Google translator, the user has a wide range of input options; the words to be translated can
- spoken into the device,
- typed into the virtual keyboard,
- written with your finger on the touchscreen or
- be photographed with the device camera.
The method of writing on the display with your finger is particularly useful for difficult characters where the pronunciation is unclear. In the case of photographed documents, the Google translator transfers the recognized text within the image layout into the target language. Regardless of the input option chosen, there is a choice between a translation via text or voice output.
The offline mode of the tool also allows translations without an internet connection. The prerequisite for this is that the user has previously downloaded the relevant language packs.
How helpful are Google’s translations in practice?
The Google translator works by machine and automatically. Therefore, the translations are not always completely consistent and grammatical errors are not uncommon. For this reason, Google founded the so-called translator community. Anyone who speaks a language is invited to work with Google to improve the quality of the translations. For this purpose, Google shows participating users certain groups of words, which they then translate independently at their own discretion. Alternatively, Google lists different translations for a phrase. The user chooses which of them are correct and which are not by multiple choice.
It is also conceivable within the community to add new languages if these are already in the development phase for Google Translate. With the help of the community, Google is constantly developing the program and can thus offer ever more accurate translations. A Google account is required to join the translator community. Official news on the development of the Google translator can be found on the blog.
