DeepL appears to be significantly better than Google Translate

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Elenia
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Re: DeepL appears to be significantly better than Google Translate

Postby Elenia » Wed Sep 06, 2017 3:19 pm

Random Review wrote:I actually think this is legitimate, because of the way German moves second verbs to the end of the clause, there is no way of knowing for sure what that sentence fragment means without punctuation or a context. A human translator might reason that people can be lazy and there is probably some missing punctuation (and translate accordingly); but expecting machine translation software to do that is not really realistic. I think the fair test is how it copes with all appropriate pronunciation.


Which is a fair point, but in that case there are a hell of a lot more options than just the two give by DeepL. What is being translated are the words put in the sentence, not the punctuation, and therefore I think it is fair to make note of the fact that the DeepL translation adds in very specific information that is not even hinted at in the original text. As I said, the anticipatory factor is very clever, but not always useful.
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Re: DeepL appears to be significantly better than Google Translate

Postby Random Review » Fri Sep 08, 2017 2:20 pm

Elenia wrote:
Random Review wrote:I actually think this is legitimate, because of the way German moves second verbs to the end of the clause, there is no way of knowing for sure what that sentence fragment means without punctuation or a context. A human translator might reason that people can be lazy and there is probably some missing punctuation (and translate accordingly); but expecting machine translation software to do that is not really realistic. I think the fair test is how it copes with all appropriate pronunciation.


Which is a fair point, but in that case there are a hell of a lot more options than just the two give by DeepL. What is being translated are the words put in the sentence, not the punctuation, and therefore I think it is fair to make note of the fact that the DeepL translation adds in very specific information that is not even hinted at in the original text. As I said, the anticipatory factor is very clever, but not always useful.


I understand your point of view; but I honestly think Deeplang's alternatives are in improvement, at least for learners.
Perhaps for a German speaker (native or otherwise) it might not be useful, I don't know; but for learners (at least for me), it gives a far better feel for how to reconstruct what the actual meaning might be in a given context than Google's translation.

I genuinely suspect that this might also be the case for users who have no German at all- so long as they have a reasonably strong context.
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Re: DeepL appears to be significantly better than Google Translate

Postby Gomorrita » Thu Sep 21, 2017 4:56 pm

I am really impressed and I think it is an important breakthrough in machine translation. It uses "Neural Machine Translation", the same method that Google switched to in November 2016, but it seems to achieve considerably better results.

I read about an "army" of 500 lexicographers working for them and about a 5 PetaFLOP supercomputer (one of the fastest in the world) in Iceland doing the computations. Which makes me wonder, where did this company get the funding and what is their source of income? :shock:
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Re: DeepL appears to be significantly better than Google Translate

Postby DaveBee » Tue Oct 17, 2017 7:40 pm

I had a french mystery earlier, 'osti'.
osti que je t'aime
from District 31 S01E92

Deep L: osti that I love you / dare that I love you / that I love you
Google Translate: osti that I love you

Word reference.com forum: "...swearwords derive from the Host [' hostie '], the round bread consecrated during the Eucharist. There is obviously no exact English translation since anglophones rarely use religious references when cursing. Their greatest taboo is sex, so it's sexual (or scatological) references that populate English profanity. Even to an anglophone Catholic a curse involving ' sti ' or ' osti ' will not sound very strong, while it will sound terrible to Québecois ears. You will have to select one of the strong sexual curses of the English language to render ' sti ' / ' osti '."
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Re: DeepL appears to be significantly better than Google Translate

Postby urubu » Fri Oct 20, 2017 12:42 pm

Interesting that it often gives 100% wrong results, even for very simple sentences.

NL input:
Lekken kunnen leiden tot een zuurstofarme omgeving.

DE output:
Undichtigkeiten können zu einer sauerstoffhaltigen Umgebung führen.
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Re: DeepL appears to be significantly better than Google Translate

Postby zenmonkey » Fri Oct 20, 2017 1:01 pm

I'm also pretty impressed with DeepL.

Test: She has fencing Sunday. I hope she podiums. But even if she drops out early, she will have fun.

French, DeepL: Elle fait de l'escrime dimanche. J'espère qu'elle montera sur le podium. Mais même si elle abandonne tôt, elle s'amusera.

French, GTranslate: Elle a clôturé dimanche. J'espère qu'elle monte sur le podium. Mais même si elle se retire tôt, elle va s'amuser.

Interesting choices +2 for DeepL

However, what has me using google translate more is that I can now ask Siri "How do you say 'some phrase' in German" and she answers rather well.

That type of integration, at the touch of a button will drive my use.




Edit: reverse translations:

Source:Elle fait de l'escrime dimanche. J'espère qu'elle montera sur le podium. Mais même si elle abandonne tôt, elle s'amusera.
DeepL: She's fencing on Sunday. I hope she'll make it to the podium. But even if she gives up early, she'll have fun.
GTrans: She makes fencing on Sunday. I hope she gets on the podium. But even if she abandons early, she will have fun.

DeepL - a better translation job and a better voice.
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Re: DeepL appears to be significantly better than Google Translate

Postby rdearman » Fri Oct 20, 2017 6:08 pm

zenmonkey wrote:However, what has me using google translate more is that I can now ask Siri "How do you say 'some phrase' in German" and she answers rather well.


I thought Siri was an Apple thing, not a Google thing?
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Re: DeepL appears to be significantly better than Google Translate

Postby zenmonkey » Sat Oct 21, 2017 9:42 am

rdearman wrote:
zenmonkey wrote:However, what has me using google translate more is that I can now ask Siri "How do you say 'some phrase' in German" and she answers rather well.


I thought Siri was an Apple thing, not a Google thing?


You are right. Major brain fart right there.
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Re: DeepL appears to be significantly better than Google Translate

Postby Gomorrita » Sun Oct 22, 2017 11:31 am

Original: Tijdens deze les haal je de oermens in jezelf naar boven. Het omgooien van vrachtwagenbanden, zwaaien met sledgehammers, smijten met wallballs en losgaan op battle ropes.... opgezweept door onze instructeur Benjamin Gomes op knallende muziek haal jij 45 minuten lang het maximale uit jezelf samen met andere warriors.

DeepL: During this lesson you bring up the primal person in yourself. Changing truck tires, waving sledge hammers, smitting with wallballs and loosening up on battle ropes.... whipped up by our instructor Benjamin Gomes on popping music you get the maximum out of yourself together with other warriors for 45 minutes.

Google: During this lesson you will pick up the ore in yourself. Towing lorries, swinging with sleigh sleeves, slipping with wallballs and losing on battle ropes .... soaked by our instructor Benjamin Gomes on popping music, you'll get the most out of yourself together with other warriors for 45 minutes.

DeepL wasn't the best translation... but Google was absolutely horrible!
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Re: DeepL appears to be significantly better than Google Translate

Postby tastyonions » Sun Oct 22, 2017 12:28 pm

That Google “translation” is hilarious. What on earth is a “sleigh sleeve,” how does one “pick up the ore” in oneself, and how are the participants going to “lose on ropes” and be “soaked” by the instructor? Inquiring minds want to know.

:D
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