Translation Technology: Should We Use Machine Translators?

Today, more and more people are ready to rely on various computer translation solutions. This time, I’m not just talking about google translate, which is essentially unable to translate long and complex texts correctly, but also various other solutions. But for many who wants precise results for their needed translations, it is still best to rely on professional translation services like RedLines.

RedLines is practically new to the language services industry but they are good at what they do. Their website offers fun content for their readers like their recent post, “countries that start with d”. They have an experienced team composed of translators, editors, and designers that can deliver your much-needed projects just on time.

Machine versus Human Translation

Literal translation

It should be understood that when translating text on the Internet or in various programs, they take any word literally and that is how they translate it. For this reason, the text becomes unsaturated with figurative expressions of the language (aphorisms, sayings, phraseology, etc.) and is too static. Any saying in Latvian will never sound and mean the same thing in other languages, and different words have different meanings, the use of which differs from the context and logic, so the machine translator is not able to choose the required word in the given situation.

Verb tenses vary

Languages ​​differ not only in writing style, word meanings, and other criteria but also in times and tenses. An example is the Estonian language, which has only four verb tenses – one present and three past. We can judge for ourselves what a translated text from Latvian into Estonian will look like if we want to tell, for example, our future plans.

Unverified translation result

Obviously, if a machine translator solution is used, then the user is not sure about their abilities in the language. But what if you want to check if the result is correct? The only thing you can do is bring this translation to someone who knows the language. But maybe immediately entrust this work to a specialist in the field – a translator – who will perform these duties much better and in this way you will be able to avoid various disagreements when the translated text or its fragment is not understood.

If we look at it as a whole, sometimes simpler texts that are only needed for oneself or communication with friends can indeed be translated into machine translators, but for the translation of various documents, longer texts or works whose translated version must be completely orthographically correct, stylistically, I would recommend the use of professional translators who will do the job much better and with a 100% guarantee.