• About Machine Translation
• Non-Natural Pairs (pairs marked with an asterisk)
• Source Text Size Limit
• Translation Tips
• Examples

Machine translation is effective in conveying the essence of the source message in the destination language. The resulting translation should be adequate for conveying the meaning of the original message. There are a number of things you can do to improve the quality of your translation - for details, see "Translation Tips" below.

After selecting the language you wish to translate "from", you may see an asterisk (*) before some of the languages in the "to" pull-down menu. The asterisk indicates that translating from the source language to that target language will require the use of a "pivot" language. For example, a translation from English to Japanese is a direct translation. But to translate from French to Japanese, the source text is first translated into English, and the result is then translated into Japanese.

This extra step happens behind the scenes - you will be presented only with the final result of the translation. However, it is important to realize that the quality of a translation performed in this manner will not be as high as that of a direct translation.

It is only possible to translate up to 2048 characters (approximately 250 words) at one time using the instant translation tool. If you need to translate more text than this, try breaking the text into two separate strings and translate them separately.

Translation Tips

To improve translation quality, please remember the following tips when composing text:

• Use correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
• Avoid slang.
• Avoid using abbreviations and acronyms.
• Write short sentences.
• When composing Japanese text, use the appropriate kanji and katakana as much as possible.
• When translating from Japanese to English, make sure all sentences have a subject and predicate.
• Avoid symbols (such as arrows) as they may appear garbled in other fonts.

1. Use complete sentences and correct grammar and spelling.

   Instead of: "gotta go now seeya!"
   Use: "I have to leave. I will see you later."

2. Keep your sentences simple and short.

   Instead of: "Foxes are common in Japanese folk tales and they have magical powers, like transforming into other things."
   Use: "Foxes are common in Japanese folk tales. They have magical powers. They often transform into other things."

3. Avoid slang terms and idioms.

   Instead of: "Dude, she stole the show!"
   Use: "Her performance was amazing!"

4. Avoid pronouns and dropping out words.

   Instead of: "My brother loves Elvis. He's 10."
   Use: "My brother loves Elvis. My brother is 10 years old."

5. Make sure you capitalize names.

   Instead of: "I had dinner with daisy last night."
   Use: "I had dinner with Daisy last night."

6. Avoid abbreviations and non-standard contractions.

   Instead of: "BTW, my BFs going 2 LA."
   Use: "By the way, my boyfriend is going to Los Angeles."

7. Avoid sentences that begin with "it is" followed by an adjective.

   Instead of: "It is so much fun to go salsa dancing."
   Use: "Salsa dancing is so much fun."

8. Keep adjectives and adverbs close to the words they modify.

   Instead of: "We visited France before I graduated from high school twice." (It sounds like you graduated from high school twice.)
   Use: "We visited France twice before I graduated from high school."