Translation Train Wreck: Difference between revisions

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** Latin is very often one of the first languages to go horribly and irreparably wrong. It is very obvious to teachers if you have been using translation software on it. For example, the English sentence "I went home and I lay down on the couch to happily read poems, drink wine, and eat grapes." Is properly translated into Latin as "Ivi ad domo et recumbi supra lecto ut laeta legem poemas, ut bibem vinum, et ut edem uvas." Google translate gives the Latin as "Domum meam pono toro feliciter legant et carmina vino et comede uvas." This in English comes out as "My house I place for couch luckily they lay and songs for wine and comedy grapes." The grammar isn't even remotely correct.

** Frustrated fans of [[No Export for You|Japanese-only visual novels]] sometimes make use of automated tools to extract the text from the game and feed it into babelfish like translators. '''Good luck''' making any sense of the results.

* The English word "Does", when used in a question ("Does this work?"), is translated into Hebrew as "Ha'im". Another Hebrew word, "Ha'em", is spelled exactly the same way and means "the mother". [http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1020247/babelfish-causes-diplomatic-incident This once caused an international incident].

* The English word "Does", when used in a question ("Does this work?"), is translated into Hebrew as "Ha'im". Another Hebrew word, "Ha'em", is spelled exactly the same way and means "the mother". [https://web.archive.org/web/20131105060808/http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1020247/babelfish-causes-diplomatic-incident This once caused an international incident].

* [http://my.opera.com/TheEve/albums/showpic.dml?album=630163&picture=8614669 Fire extinguisher sign says "Hand Grenade"]

* Thanks to the United States' large Hispanic minority and membership in NAFTA, it is common to find Spanish translations of English text in products, government forms, signs, etc. However, the quality of the translations varies drastically. An example: [http://www.flickr.com/photos/codeman38/3701243783/ the packaging for a set of name-brand computer speakers] translates "crisp and realistic sound reproduction" as "la patata frita y la reproducción sano práctica"—that is, "potato chip and practical healthy reproduction". Oh, and with the wrong gender on "healthy".