Homonyms don't help...
eg the words skate, row and desert have more than one meaning...
skate.... a fish, skate... to glide over ice
row....an argument, row....to propel a boat, row....many objects in a line.
desert... to leave, desert... a barren place.
Imagine Google translate trying to work out which one you meant...
If you desert me in the desert, we'll have a row, I'll hit you with a skate and you'll have to row across a pond, or skate across it if it's frozen.
"HELP!!!!" says the old Google translator.Why are Google translations imperfect, to say the least?
Never. Here's why. Machine-generated translations cannot be programmed to consider context, all the background information and experience that enables an educated native speaker to choose the right translation from among multiple possible word meanings, idioms, figures of speech, and typos. If you look a word up in a bilingual dictionary, it will often list from five to ten different meanings for a single word. Multiply that by the number of words in a submitted text, and you will see that the probability of errors increases exponentially.Why are Google translations imperfect, to say the least?
Because a machine cannot determine intention or context, which in most languages also results in grammatical changes, and not just translating the wrong word for the context.
Just look at the English "you". How should Google know if you mean 1 person or 2, a friend or a stranger?
I agree, it could be better, but it is a decent literal translating device, at least.
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