Letters: French translation apps are ridiculous, but AI can do the job… sometimes
Readers share their disappointment with automatic translation
Online translators are useful aids but do not always convey the meaning of what you want to say
panuwat phimpha / Shutterstock
To the Editor,
As a former professional translator I don't think any of the apps in your article could possibly replace a human translator or cover all possible meanings of a particular word.
Translation is not just looking up a word in a dictionary, it involves all sorts of cultural, political and even historical references.
For instance, "cité" could correctly be translated as "city" in English but that would in no way conjure up the image of a beautiful English cathedral city, for instance.
The most common modern meaning of the French word would be what we call a council estate, inhabited by mostly poor people, or what Americans call low-income public housing.
Jorie Robb, by email
To the Editor,
I have learnt to avoid google translate like la peste.
Translating blocs of text between English, French and German regularly brought ridiculous results. Colleagues from Spain and Italy confirm this experience.
Our choice is DeepL which is very reliable.
Kai Schaper, by email
To the Editor,
By far the best is ChatGPT.
I have used Google for 13 years and always have to check for mistakes... With ChatGPT, you can ask it to correct your English grammar first before asking for that to be translated into french...
From there you can ask it to make it more formal or informal, or anything else..
Google translate used to struggle with English to German, more so than English to French... But ChatGPT has no issues whatsoever.
Jene Ashley, by email
Do you use AI help translate French and English? Does it work or have you encountered any howling errors? Let us know at letters@connexionfrance.com
