I do not trust Google Translate

[Eduardo29]

Hello everybody,

 

I'm trying to translate a phrase from English into Chinese, but I do not really trust Google Translate for this one. I hope this isn't considered spam and I could get a hand from the community.

Here's what I want to be translated:

 

For an extraordinary woman that will be greatly missed.

 

Thank you!

[Jim]

Would vary a bit depending on context, I'm pretending it's for a leaving card from colleagues:

 

献给一位非凡女人；我们都会挂念你。 (first bit says your offering something -the card - to an extraordinary woman, second part says we will keep thinking of you)

 

If it's condolences it would be quite different

[Eduardo29]

It's for a girl at my office that's leaving. 

Here's what I got from someone else: 为了一位将被深深缅怀的伟大女士。

 

Which one do you think its more appropriate?

 

Thanks!

[Eduardo29]

For a better context,

 

The letter is personal since it's meant just from me to her and not the entire office. All I want it to say is "For an extraordinary woman that will be greatly missed." since it's going to be written on a card with flowers.

[Lu]

You are right not to trust Google translate. The Google translation you post here does not say what you mean.

 

If it's just from singlar you and not from plural you, I'd amend Jim's translation to: 献给一位非凡女人；我会挂念你。

 

You question gives me the impression that she is more to you than just a colleague. If you in fact have feelings for her and she is single and you generally get along with her, you might consider asking for her phone number and/or wechat instead of giving her this card. And then ask her out of course, once she has left. If she is not single or you never really have much interaction with her, just put your name on the general office card and don't make this gesture.

[Jan Finster]

Google translator is full of mistakes regarding pinyin: for 突然 it provides túrán ?

[Publius]

突 tú is Taiwan pronunciation: https://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/dictView.jsp?ID=2775&q=1&word=突

[Jan Finster]

On 7/24/2022 at 11:11 AM, Publius said:

突 tú is Taiwan pronunciation:

 

Fair enough, but Google translator still shows these tones when I choose "Chinese (simplified)"

[phoneticsem]

On 8/4/2018 at 4:01 AM, Lu said:

 

You are right not to trust Google translate.

 

 

But his initial trust is based on some translation service, which in this case is google. should not trust 100%, but useful to begin with.

 

He should have first translated from chinese to literal english for some time, and then try literal english to chinese

 

Pleco also showing it as 突然 tū rán. then googled and found this. I think it is used in both the forms or this wiki is edited wrongly by some one

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/突然间

 

For pronunciation and definitions of 突然间 – see 突然間 (“suddenly”).
(This term, 突然间, is  the simplified form of 突然間.)

[MTH123]

Overall, I would say that Google Translate gets one more than half the way there, but still far from 100% or 90% or 80%. The times when Google Translate happens to appear to be accurate are highly dependent upon what is being translated and the amount of text being translated. If one is translating a whole page of text, the accuracy is probably closer to 50% than 100%.

 

Google Translate still even does stuff like translating something into the literal opposite of what it means. I get that it’s easy for an automatic translator to be confused, because there’s so much Chinese that has opposites in the same sentence, like “is it or isn’t it” or “is it right or is it not right”? These might not be the best examples, especially because Google Translate is continually getting better. These examples are just what happened to pop into my mind just now. But, you get the idea. Google Translate struggles with much more than sentences that have opposites.

 

It’s far better to use the MDBG Chinese Dictionary (Words tab, not Translate tab) or Pleco--at least at the same time as using Google Translate. The more one uses MDBG or Pleco instead of Google Translate, the more accurate the translations are. If you can get away from Google Translate completely or almost completely, then you’ve made a major step in your translation ability and Chinese learning!