How Google Translate works and how best to use it

The helpful functions as an online engine, capable of translating calendar texts, documents, texts, images, audios and videos or even conversations in real time. Here, learn how Google Translate works and how best to use it.

How Google Translate works

How Google Translate works

When Google Translate was launched, Google used an automatic statistical system ( SMT ), which translated any input text into English and then used references in files and books from its collection to translate it into the output language.

Because it was not a reliable method, and because the engine did not understand grammar or context, the translations were not very good, but they improved over time. In 2016, SMT has been replaced by a neural network, which uses machine learning (machine learning) to translate complex whole sentences and not word for word.

How many languages does Google Translate support?

Currently, Google Translator works translating  texts from and into 103 languages:

  • Afrikaans;
  • Albanian;
  • German;
  • Amharic;
  • Arabic;
  • Armenian;
  • Azerbaijani;
  • Basque;
  • Bengali;
  • Belarusian;
  • Burmese;
  • Bosnian;
  • Bulgarian;
  • Canarês;
  • Catalan;
  • Kazakhstan;
  • Cebuano;
  • Chicheua (or nianja);
  • Chinese;
  • Chona;
  • Sinhalese;
  • Korean;
  • Corso;
  • Haitian Creole;
  • Croatian;
  • Kurdish;
  • Danish;
  • Slovak;
  • Slovenian;
  • Spanish;
  • Esperanto;
  • Estonian;
  • Filipino;
  • Finnish;
  • French;
  • Frisian;
  • Scottish Gaelic;
  • Galician;
  • Welsh;
  • Georgian;
  • Greek;
  • Gujarati;
  • Hauçá;
  • Hawaiian;
  • Hebrew;
  • Hindi;
  • Hmong;
  • Dutch;
  • Hungarian;
  • Igbo;
  • Yiddish;
  • Indonesian;
  • English;
  • Yoruba;
  • Irish;
  • Icelandic;
  • Italian;
  • Japanese;
  • Javanese;
  • Khmer;
  • Laothian;
  • Latin;
  • Latvian;
  • Lithuanian;
  • Luxembourgish;
  • Macedonian;
  • Malayalam;
  • Malay;
  • Malagasy;
  • Maltese;
  • Maori;
  • Marata;
  • Mongolian;
  • Nepali;
  • Norwegian;
  • Pachto;
  • Persian;
  • Polish;
  • Portuguese;
  • Punjabi;
  • Kyrgyz;
  • Romanian;
  • Russian;
  • Samoano;
  • Serbian;
  • Sessoto;
  • Sindi;
  • Somali;
  • Swahili;
  • Swedish;
  • Sundanese;
  • Tajik;
  • Thai;
  • Tamil;
  • Czech;
  • Telugo;
  • Turkish;
  • Ukrainian;
  • Urdu;
  • Uzbek;
  • Vietnamese;
  • Xhosa;
  • Zulu.

In bilingual chat, Google Translate works with 32 languages:

  • Afrikaans;
  • German;
  • Arabic;
  • Catalan;
  • Chinese;
  • Korean;
  • Croatian;
  • Danish;
  • Slovak;
  • Spanish;
  • Finnish;
  • French;
  • Greek;
  • Hindi;
  • Dutch;
  • Hungarian;
  • Indonesian;
  • English;
  • Icelandic;
  • Italian;
  • Japanese;
  • Norwegian;
  • Polish;
  • Portuguese;
  • Romanian;
  • Russian;
  • Serbian;
  • Swedish;
  • Thai;
  • Czech;
  • Turkish;
  • Vietnamese.

The Augmented Reality tool supports 27 languages in real-time video :

  • German;
  • Bulgarian;
  • Catalan;
  • Croatian;
  • Slovak;
  • Spanish;
  • Danish;
  • Filipino;
  • Finnish;
  • French;
  • Hindi (one-way);
  • Dutch;
  • Hungarian;
  • Indonesian;
  • English;
  • Italian;
  • Lithuanian;
  • Norwegian;
  • Polish;
  • Portuguese;
  • Romanian;
  • Russian;
  • Swedish;
  • Thai (one way);
  • Czech;
  • Turkish;
  • Ukrainian.

Finally, Google Translate is able to translate text from images into 37 languages.

How to use Google Translate

1. Translating text

  1. Go to the Google Translate site, or open the app for Android or iPhone;
  2. On the desktop: click the Text button to enable text input;
  3. At the top, select the input language on the left (the web version for desktop suggests the most used).
    Google Translate is also able to identify you alone, with the Detect text option;
  4. In the field below, type or paste the text you want to translate;
  5. On the left buttons or by opening the menu on the arrow, select the output language;
  6. The translation will be displayed below.

2. Translating a document

  1. Visit the Google Translate site;
  2. Click the Document button, and then click Browse in Computer;
  3. Select the text document you want to translate;
  4. Select the input and output languages, and click the Translate button;
  5. The translation time will vary depending on the file size.
    At the end, Google Translate will display a translated version of it, for the selected output language.

3. Viewing Your Translation History

To view by computer:

  1. Visit the Google Translate site;
  2. Click History;
  3. To remove all, click Clear History.

To see in the mobile apps:

  1. Past translations are displayed individually at the bottom of the home screen;
  2. To remove a translation, slide it to the left or right;
  3. If you want to clear the entire history, touch the Menu button (the three parallel lines), Settings, and then Clear History.

Joining the Google Translate Community

The Google Translate community consists of users contributing to the software, sending translations to the platform in order to improve it and avoid translation errors.

  1. Go to the community site;
  2. Click Start and follow the instructions;
  3. On the main screen, click Translate and send translations to suggested texts;
  4. To add more languages, click Menu and then Languages (maximum of 5).

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