Why do people suggest when somebody needs a translation for them to use babelfish when it does not work.?
463749
You are right, any computer translating anything will just make a mess of it and it can quite often lead to confusion or even end up giving you the opposite meaning! I studied a degree in translation for 4 years, and it is frustrating that some people think that a job that would take a few hours for a professional to translate, can be done as good in seconds by a computer. Translations ARE necessary (unlike someone else has said) and I am sure you can find people that can speak pretty much every language in this web page. But you can't take advantage of that and ask them to translate a very long text, that's taking the mickey, if that's what you want, then you'll have to pay someone to get a proper translation. But if you just want a few sentences translated, just ask here and I'm sure more than one person will be happy to help.
300678
I am a native english speaker and have no problem, but i have learned french 10 years ago and speak french every day, and i still have problems with this kind of thing in french. I constantly translate the english preposition etc into french where it doesn't work the same.  maybe you get stuck with your native language's way of doing things.
471663
babelfish is the only translator i use
52836
Semantics may be more important to them than syntax.\n\n(in other words, they are happy if their message is conveyed quickly and don't care as much about the technical form)
19970
There is a website for translation so you don't have to wait for folks to answer.\nGo to :\nhttp://babelfish.altavista.com/
625351
Try Babelfish. But, like all machine translators, it's a machine.
298701
:}\nBecause they are translations, which means they change the words of the original language into the language they are translation to
103529
People think that because they are on the Internet they don't have to spell things properly or edit what they have written.\n\nI've seen so many misspelled words and poor syntax on Yahoo Questions, and it's not just from EAASL (English As A Second Language) speakers.\n\nAlso some people think it's cool to hax0r talk.  Bunch of Un-l33t bastages if you ask me.
311590
Generally speaking, I do not trust online translators at all. They are only useful to get a gist of what the original source text is saying. Currently, we do not have the technology to produce a target text that accurately conveys the meaning of the original text AND is grammatically correct in the target text. It's just not possible without human intervention. \n\nBy the way, the way you mentioned to check the accuracy of a translator is probably not the best method to use, because back translations are never accurate, even with a human. Back translations are never considered an accurate form of translation testing in the industry. It is difficult for even the best human translator to determine exactly what the original author meant to say through a translated phrase. A good translator is able to convey the meaning of a source text. A machine cannot determine meaning very easily.\n\nThe link below demonstrates SYSTRAN machine translations. At the end, it shows what happens when you translate the same phrase over and over again with different languages.
1045008
I've never heard of an Engish to Engish translator.  Can you possibly rewrite your question and give more details about what you want it to do?
540662
I've translated a lot of older written texts in French on there.  Didn't have a problem.  But i am sure with modern language, it looses it's nuisance.
308096
I think a few sentences here or there, if someone is excited or trying to express and idea, are reasonable.  However, having an entire conversation in another language puts up a wall and if the point is for everyone to be spending time together, it's not working.  People who can't understand will likely suspect they are being talked about.  If the majority can't speak the language and an effort isn't being made to share what they're speaking about, it's rude.
612227
I like to use http://babelfish.altavista.com/ I use it for translating Japanese and Spanish but it has heaps of other languages... but like all other online translators they are never accurate! But its good to use if you just need to get a jist of what is being said... but for EXACT translations its not so reliable!!\n\nHope i helped!! :)
954070
Please try that again in English.
663136
Use a language translator program.
415864
Google offers a translation service I think. You can also try Babel Fish.
935713
Why?  Well, okay.  At this website you can pick from many languages and translate the above words from english to spanish, german, french, etc.  It works great for single words, but I wouldn't go with whole paragraphs though because it is often not extremely accurate and sometimes doesn't really make sense.\n\nhttp://ets.freetranslation.com/