Frequently Asked Questions → Translation
- What is "automatic translation"?
- Do I need to install any software on my computer to use ¡TradúceloAhora!?
- I don't have a ¡TradúceloAhora! UserID and password. Can I use the automatic translation?
- How do I obtain a ¡TradúceloAhora! UserID and password?
- Can I translate web pages from a source language other than English?
- Can I translate to a target language other than Spanish-to-English and English-to-Spanish?
- Do IBM products support translation to other languages than English or Spanish?
- What dialect of Spanish is used in the automatic translations?
- The translations contain incorrect or poor Spanish; why?
- How does "automatic translation" work?
1. What is "automatic translation"?
Automatic translation is the translation of texts or speech from one language to another by means of computer software. Current translation software provides fast translations, but these often contain mistakes and are not fully idiomatic.
2. Do I need to install any software on my computer to use ¡TradúceloAhora!?
No. The ¡TradúceloAhora! project automatic translation software is completely Web-based. You only need a computer with Internet access and a supported Web browser.
3. I don't have a ¡TradúceloAhora! UserID and password. Can I use the automatic translation?
Access to the automatic translation software is limited to users from organizations participating in the ¡TradúceloAhora! project. Individuals who wish to use the translation software must be affiliated with these organizations.
4. How do I obtain a ¡TradúceloAhora! UserID and password?
Schools and nonprofit organizations that are participating in this grant program receive an email on how to set up IDs and passwords for their users. The project administrator at each site is able to provide this information.
5. Can I translate web pages from a source language other than English?
Yes. ¡TradúceloAhora! supports English-to-Spanish and Spanish-to-English web page translation, as well as bidirectional English-Spanish email translation.
6. Can I translate to a target language other than Spanish-to-English and English-to-Spanish?
No. The ¡TradúceloAhora! grant program only focuses on English-to-Spanish and vice versa.
7. Do IBM products support translation to other languages than English or Spanish?
Yes. IBM WebSphere Translation Server supports nine bidirectional language pairs, but this is not part of this grant program. For more information on WebSphere® Translation Server software, please visit the IBM Pervasive Computing Web site
8. What dialect of Spanish is used in the automatic translations?
The ¡TradúceloAhora! software attempts to produce translations that are acceptable in both the Americas and Spain. There are dialect differences between these regions; however, the ¡TradúceloAhora! program focuses on Latin American Spanish.
9. The translations contain incorrect or poor Spanish; why?
Language analysis and interpretation is a difficult task. Unfortunately, state-of-the-art translation software makes mistakes and doesn't produce texts with the fluency that human translators have. The good news is that progress in human language technology is rapidly improving the quality of automatic translation. IBM is at work to continually improve the accuracy of automatic translation.
10. How does "automatic translation" work?
There are two main approaches to automatic translation: Knowledge-based or symbolic, using linguistic knowledge, and statistical, using text correspondences learned from large bodies of translation examples.
¡TradúceloAhora! uses a symbolic “transfer” aproach, illustrated in the diagram below.
If you would like to learn more about automatic translation, you can read Martin Kay's brief note about it, or John Hutchins' general introduction from the Oxford Handbook of Computational Linguistics.
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