The bilingual elves working behind Google’s Translate service seem to be making some weird mistakes these days. For example, in some cases they are translating “lady gaga” to “Britney Spears,” and “sigur rós” to “Foo Fighters.”

Proof are the pictures below. And if you don’t believe they’re real, try the translations yourself!

Click image for big version.

Click image for big version.

sponsored links

The explanation for the “errors” lies in the way Google Translate works, which is by finding language patterns that it learns and then uses to translate similar text in the future. So if two words often appear in similar contexts in different languages, the algorithm thinks they mean the same thing. Well, that’s what I think at least, based on what I learned from this video Google launched a few days ago.

via reddit



Liked this post? Subscribe for updates via RSS or email:
  • Paul

    Try to translate “Comment t’appelles-tu?” from French into German. It gives “What is your name?” German? Go figure.

  • http://armannd.com/ Titus-Armand

    haha, didn’t know about that one.

  • Slider

    hynny i gyd yn ffug neu beidio ddoniol, felly rhoi’r gorau iddi ar fywyd
    welsh to english

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_M5JG2VAFY25U6CGXDALKYZPA7E Xaviera

    ‎1) Go to Google Translate and

    2) Type in “Will Justin Bieber ever hit puberty” then

    3) English to Vietnamese

    4) Copy paste the Vietnamese words

    5) Vietnamese to English

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_M5JG2VAFY25U6CGXDALKYZPA7E Xaviera

    1) Go to Google Translate and

    2) Type in “I love you” then

    3) English to Catalan

    4) Copy translated text and switch back to English

  • http://www.facebook.com/rawrmycookiez Jaelynne Lindsey Focht

    type “äääääääääääääää” and translate from german into turkish. Like if you were amazed!

  • http://armannd.com/ Titus-Armand

    lmao, good one

    link for the lazies – http://goo.gl/xCAEU

  • Pingback: Conveyancing Solicitor

  • Emily Rose Reeve

    It’s only reversing it because that is what different languages mixed together will do. And hahaha btw. So funny I forgot to laugh! .

  • Oyearun
  • Oyearun

    Ya this is funny for hindi readers

  • rosecallisto

    go to ggogle translate. type in “i smell pu pi” translate from english to french. hit swap languages. see how some things can get lost in translation?