Discussion: Translations and Interpretations

Hellbovine

Hellbovine

Well-Known Member
Something I've noticed is how impressively diverse this forum is, far more than any other place I've visited before. We have many members here that speak either more than one language, or that are non-English speakers and translate their posts. The question I want to ask is if there are some things that the native English speakers can do to make text translate better into your language?

For example, many people speak in slang and that is bad for translators. When people say something like "wassup" instead of "What's up" it will not translate in either direction properly. Another really important one is to always make sure to use proper spelling, grammar, capitalization, and punctuation because those always translate poorly. These are obvious, but what other details matter, such as contractions maybe?

If you need a translator, Google (link1) and DeepL (link2) are both free.
 
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Hellbovine said:
Hello everyone,

Something I've noticed is how impressively diverse this forum is. Way more than any other place I've visited before. We have a lot of members here that speak either more than one language, or that are non-english speakers and have to translate their posts.

What I am curious about though, is this question:

"Are there some easy things that the native English speakers can do to make our text translate better into your native language, when you plug it into something like Google translate?"

So for example, a lot of people speak in slang. And this is very hard for translations, when people say something like "wud up" instead of "What's up" it just isn't going to translate in either direction properly. That is pretty obvious, so the more proper we write, the better.

But what about other details, such as contractions for example? If I write "Don't" instead of "Do not" in English, does this cause problems sometimes when translating it into other languages?

Would any of you that are bilingual mind replying to this thread with a few pointers please? I would really appreciate it. I want to incorporate those tips into my writing style here.

Thank you for your time.
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Fully agree, I can speak a bit of a few languages, but have to rely on translate programs to try to understand what some people are saying.

Personally, and I do mean personally, I think that those who are not native English speakers should post in as simple English as possible. I don't mean putting a post like ' not work. help master' or similar but a brief and if it has to be done as child speak, then as child speak. I do find it infuriating too when where some people are informed ' English only please' , they pay no attention to a request that will probably get them help, but continue to post in their own native language. That simple act of ignorance by them always infuriates me.

Granted, translation programs don't hit the nail on the head with all phrases and words, but apart from language classes it is the closest we have to trying to help. What we also have to remember too is we're NTlitle not a world wide language place, and yes , sometimes I do bite my tongue when I see a question posted that goes something like ' wud i dooz feex cumpotator' or that bad, and all I wish is , is that they tried using a translate program before posting. Language is a funny thing as one word in say English, could be an insult in another, or a simple question could translate from what could be simple in their own language to a contradiction in English.

I do ask for clarification sometimes, but if it just reads as nonsense, I leave it
 
I try to write in textbook English, where sentence structure is most important. Correct grammar, punctuation and capitalization are a must.
Don't write long paragraphs, break it up to give the reader time to process ideas.

Common expressions like don't are fine, if they are widely known.
Colloquialisms like RTFM are not.

Pidgin (misspelled slang) should be avoided. It's like how everyone says "we have this word, but it doesn't really have a proper translation".

Before posting, l let myself sit for about 5-10 min. and see if there was a better way to say the same ideas.
 
garlin said:
I try to write in textbook English, where sentence structure is most important. Correct grammar, punctuation and capitalization are a must.
Don't write long paragraphs, break it up to give the reader time to process ideas.

Common expressions like don't are fine, if they are widely known.
Colloquialisms like RTFM are not.

Pidgin (misspelled slang) should be avoided. It's like how everyone says "we have this word, but it doesn't really have a proper translation".

Before posting, l let myself sit for about 5-10 min. and see if there was a better way to say the same ideas.
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highly advisable
 
Hellbovine said:
But what about other details, such as contractions for example? If I write "Don't" instead of "Do not" in English, does this cause problems sometimes when translating it into other languages?

Would any of you that are bilingual mind replying to this thread with a few pointers please? I would really appreciate it. I want to incorporate those tips into my writing style here.
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Acronyms aren´t translated, contractions are translated ok, As Far As I Know (this is more commonly used: AFAIK).

I know very few acronyms and some times try to decode those not recognized.
IIRC: if i recall correctly
AFAIK: as far as i know
IMHO: in my humble opinion (IMO without the h)

Maybe I recall a few acronyms but sometimes I have to "decode" those not known.
 
An issue I am noticing frequently in posts, is terminology. It would benefit everyone if we were more careful to clarify certain words. For example, the wording below clarifies the terms commonly used to describe the Windows install process.

Clean: Reformatting the computer and installing an unmodified or custom Windows.

Default/Unmodified: Not changing any settings, using the program as the developer shipped it.

I do not think clean should mean free of tweaks because developers allow users to change settings. The main problem there, is many people do modifications the wrong way, and are also not forthcoming about the tweaks they used. I try to use the literal meaning of words to avoid this, since that is a more universal approach. For example, clean means free of dirt, and in this case the dirt is third party software and such. Unmodified by definition means not altered, which in this case means just using software as-is, without any tweaking.

Part of the problem is the English language is fairly awful in many regards, we have countless words that have the same or similar meanings (untouched, unchanged, unmodified, default), while we also have words that sound alike, but mean something different (oar, or, ore). As such, it is understandable that we have communication issues, but we can be more productive at times if we try to clarify these things.
 
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Another thing I noticed over time, is cultural differences, even within countries using the same language, such as with abbreviations.

BTW: Mean "between" for some people, but "by the way" for others. I have never seen the "between" usage until visiting this forum.

NB: Is Latin for "nota bene" which means "note well" and is used at the start of a sentence to signify importance. The confusion is when people use it without any capitalization or punctuation and instead of saying, "NB:" or "NB" and I had no idea what that meant until I researched it.
 
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