How Google Translate Works: A Machine Translation Guide for Kids
Google Translate is a website where you type something in English then the site shows you the word in another language. Sometimes when people say “Google Translate,” they mean the actual site. Other times they mean any machine translation, the real name for computerized translation. It’s like saying “Kleenex” when you mean “tissue.” So how does it work?
Machine translation — or translation period, really — isn’t as easy as it sounds. Languages never match each other word for word. For example, think about the word “honeymoon.” It doesn’t mean that the moon is made of honey. If you want to say “honeymoon” in another language, you first have to think about what it really means: A trip people take after their wedding. That’s why the way you say “honeymoon” in French is “voyage de noces” — literally, ”wedding trip.”
Meaning is more important than exact words for translation into English, too. Pretend you’re French and your big sister’s talking about her date. “You’re not going to believe it,” she says — except in French. “He gave me a rabbit.” Of course, Frenchmen don’t show up for dates bearing bunnies. “Il m’a pose un lapin” — the original expression — is how the French say “he stood me up.”
But enough about romance! Let’s get back to how computers learn.
