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▾ dictionary english-french, essay noun ( plural: essays ) —, essai m ( plural: essais m ), rédaction f ( plural: rédactions f ), dissertation f, composition f ( plural: compositions f ), photo essay n —, essay writing n —, essay contest n —, essay competition n —, short essay n —, research essay n —, argumentative essay n —, photographic essay n —, critical essay n —, written essay n —, essay topic n —, long essay n —, literary essay n —, brief essay n —, philosophical essay n —, political essay n —, first essay n —, second essay n —, ▸ wikipedia, ▾ external sources (not reviewed).

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French translation of 'essay'

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How to Use Google Translate for Text, Images, and Real-time Conversations

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• Translate Text With Google Translate
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What to Know

• For text: Select a language > Tap to enter text > begin typing > Enter .
• For spoken word: Select a language > tap the mic > begin speaking at the beep. Tap the Speaker icon to hear the translation.
• For conversations: Select a language > tap Conversation > begin speaking. Watch the screen for the translation.

This article explains how to use Google's Translate tool, which can handle text, images, speech, and even real-time conversations.

How to Translate Text With Google Translate

Translating text is the easiest and most well-supported function of Google Translate. Here's how to translate any text you come across.

Select the name of the source language you want to translate from in the top-left of the screen. In this example, we're using English .

Then select the name of the destination language you want to translate to in the screen's top-right. In this example, we're using Spanish .

Select the field that says Tap to enter text and either type or copy and paste (press and hold) the text you want to translate into this field.

You can also use the predictive text function to help write what you want to translate quicker.

The Google Translate app will continually translate what you're writing in the field underneath. At any time during this translation process, you can tap the Speaker icon to hear what it sounds like in your chosen translation language.

When you're finished typing you can use the right arrow or Enter key to return to the previous screen, then if you want to copy the translation, tap the three-dot menu icon and select Share .

How to Translate Images

Translating a foreign language from an image or picture using your camera or previous images is super handy when you're out and about. In our example, we'll use a food menu.

Select the source language and the translation language at the top of the screen. In this example, we are using Chinese to English .

Select the Camera icon.

Align what you want to translate in your camera window and select Instant .

If you want to translate an image you already have, select the Import button and then locate and select the image on your device. Then skip to Step 4 .

Google will translate the image on your device. It may take a moment for the translation to complete, but once it does, you'll be able to select individual words in the image to highlight their translation.

Some languages offer live translation, but others require a saved image. To scan and save a selection for translation, select the Scan button.

How to Translate Words and Speech

Translating what you say into a different language is one of the most useful features of Google Translate when traveling or just trying to learn a new language . Here's how to do it.

Select the source language and the translate to language at the top of the screen.

Tap the microphone icon and when prompted with a beep, begin speaking. Google will automatically translate your voice into text form.

Select the Speaker icon to hear the translation spoken back to you.

If you want to dictate what you say into a different language instead, select the Transcribe icon. Then begin speaking as before, and what you say will be translated into your destination language on screen.

Transcribing is different than dictating. When you're dictating, you're just using your voice instead of a keyboard or stylus to input data to be translated. When you're transcribing, you're creating a written output of your voice. Transcribing is especially useful if you need to send a message or write an email.

Tap the microphone and then begin speaking as before..

What you say will be translated into your destination language on screen. When you're finished speaking, tap the microphone again to end the transcription.

How to Translate Real-Time Conversations

You can also use Google Translate to facilitate a live conversation between you and someone who speaks a language you don't understand.

Select the source and destination languages at the top of the screen.

Select the Conversation icon. 

You can manually select the speaker's language at any one time to force the app to use that as the source or select the Auto button to allow the app to determine who is speaking at any one time.

Begin speaking. The translation of what you're saying will appear on screen, as will a translation for any replies from the person you are speaking to. This lets you both see what's being said in real-time.

Google Translate can translate about 103 different languages for text translation. Although not all of them are as natural as each other, and 59 are supported offline, it covers much of the world and its most populous languages.

New languages can often be added, so you can check out the complete list of languages supported on the Google site.

Real-time speech conversations support 43 distinct languages, while camera image translation is available in up to 88 languages. You might think handwriting is more challenging, but it supports 95 different languages.

How to Get Google Translate

To make the most of Google Translate, you'll need to download and install the app on your compatible Android or iOS device . Before beginning any of the instructions below, make sure the app is open and functioning.

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23 French Transition Words to Make Your Sentences Flow

The French language has quite the catalog of transition words to help hold it all together.

Not only do they keep you from sounding robotic, but they’re also the key to writing effective essays, understanding the literature you’re reading and improving your comprehension and conversation .

Here are 23 French transition words that you can start integrating into your sentences.

Tying It All Together: 23 Transition Words for Seamless French

1. d’abord, 5. ainsi que, 6. après que, 7. avant que, 8. bien que, 10. parce que/car, 11. pour que, 12. quoi que, 13. tant que, 14. comme / puisque, 15. lorsque / quand, 16. quoique, 18. en fait, 19. cependant, 20. en revanche / par contre, 21. en plus / en outre, 22. pour ma part / pour moi, 23. à mon avis, how to integrate french transition words into your diet, get your feet wet with quizzes, extract transition words from real french materials, write your own beautiful sentences, use transition words with the subjunctive, listen to french instructors online, and one more thing....

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Translation: First of all

Subjunctive-friendly?  Nah.

When you think “transition word,” this may be what you’re thinking. To start with the basics, here’s one of the first transition words you likely learned in French class. It’s best at the beginning of sentences, when giving directions or when recounting a series of events.

D’abord , il faut réchauffer le four. (First of all, you must preheat the oven.)

Translation: Next

Subjunctive-friendly?  Nuh-uh.

An easy way to remember this one (yet another in the series of your basic transition words), is that la  suite   is the sequel or “the next one” in French. It’s a useful piece of vocab when delving into French book series and films, and this transition word is obviously useful for continuing a series of events or directions you may be giving.

Ensuite , je prépare la tarte aux cerises. (Next, I prepare the cherry pie.)

Translation: Then

Subjunctive-friendly?  Not this one, either.

Then, you’ve got  puis .  If you’re unfamiliar with this one, just know that it’ll come up a lot in literature and conversation. It’s a very useful transition word to have under your belt. Puis  proves to be a good fallback word to have when some of the more specific transition words slip your mind.

Puis, je coupe les pêches. (Then, I cut the peaches.)

Translation: Finally

Subjunctive-friendly?  Pas du tout  (not at all).

In our  d’ abord, ensuite, puis  sequence, we end with  enfin .  This useful word is not only used as a transition to mark  la fin (the end) of something, but is also an interjection—a filler word, if you will.

It can mean “well,” “all in all,” “I mean” or “at least.” It’s a multi-edged sword. Use it as a transition to an end or to make your conversational French more authentic.

Enfin, on mange tout. (Finally, we eat everything.)

Translation:  As well as

Subjunctive-friendly?  Nope!

Getting into some more advanced vocabulary now, this means “just as.” This conjunction is useful when elaborating on something you’re already discussing. It can also be used with a different meaning of “just as,” as in “It went just as I thought.”

Je voudrais une tarte aux pommes ainsi que deux boules de glace. (I would like apple pie as well as two scoops of ice cream.)

Translation:  After/when

Subjunctive- friendly?  Technically, no, but French speakers tend to use the subjunctive after it regardless. So go ahead and get the extra practice.

Bet you’re wondering what the difference is between  a près que   and that old favorite  a près . Après  is a preposition , and  ap rès que  is a compound conjunction . All that means is you use the latter when it’s followed by a verb (like in the example). If you wanted to start a sentence with “after,” then you would use the preposition:

Après , on va partir. (After, we’re going to leave.)

Remember that the  que   helps link the clauses, and you should be good to link the night away.

Je vais dormir  après que je mange toute cette tarte. (I’m going to sleep after I eat all this pie.)

Translation:  Before

Subjunctive-friendly?  Yes, and don’t you forget it!

Similar to  a près que,  this conjunction is not to be confused with its definition without  que.  The same distinction can be made— avant   being the preposition in this case and avant que   the compound conjunction.

Je vais finir la tarte avant que je nettoie la cuisine. (I’m going to finish the pie before I clean the kitchen.)

Translation:  Although/even though

Subjunctive-friendly?  Oh, most definitely.

Careful not translate this one to “good that.” This conjunctive phrase is great for showing contrast and adding “conditions” to things, even though you have to know your subjunctive to use it.

Il m’a donné une tarte aux pêches bien que j’aie commandé une tarte aux pommes! (He gave me peach pie even though I ordered an apple pie!)

Translation: As soon as

Subjunctive-friendly?  Never, ever.

This is usually followed by not the subjunctive, but by a future tense! Makes sense considering the context. This is a great conjunctive phrase to use when making threats, lofty goals and uncertain plans. Très useful.

Dès que la tarte arrive, je vais la détruire. (As soon as the pie arrives, I will destroy it.)

Translation: Because

Subjunctive-friendly?  No.

You’re likely familiar with  parce que ,  and maybe less so with car .  There are some slight distinctions to keep in mind for you nit-picky French speakers out there:  Car  leans slightly more towards “since” or “for.” 

Parce que  is a little stronger when used in speech. They both mean essentially the same thing, but it’s good to know both of them to add variety to your French conversation.

J’aime les tartes plus que les gâteaux parce que (car) la croûte est magnifique. (I like pies more than cakes because the crust is magnificent.)

Translation: So that

Subjunctive-friendly?  You better believe it!

Oh, isn’t it great when such a useful conjunction takes the subjunctive? Well, sure it is! That’s how you get practice.  Pour   means for, but for translation purposes, “so that”   makes more sense when using this phrase.

Je fais une tarte pour que  tu aies quelque chose à manger ce soir. (I’m making a pie so that you have something to eat tonight.)

Translation: No matter what

Subjunctive-friendly?  Yes…yet again!

I bet your mind is reeling with how much better your French will sound once you get this one down. No matter what the medium is, it’s useful.

But you may be noticing an interesting trend: A word that you’re well-versed in (bien, quoi, pour) , when   added to our favorite little word  que,  can bring out a completely different definition. Keep this in your mental notebook when you read these phrases or hear them spoken!

Quoi que ma mère fasse en cuisine, c’est délicieux. (No matter what my mom makes in the kitchen, it’s delicious.)

Translation: As long as

Subjunctive-friendly?  No, you’re safe on this one.

What’s  tant   mean anyway? Funny you should ask, because this here is yet another example of fun words being transformed by their trusty sidekick  que. Tant  by itself means “so much or many,” or can be used to express an indefinite quantity.

If you apply that definition back to this transitional phrase, then you can see something of a rough translation that matches “as long as.” But as long as you remember the definition, you’ll be good to go.

Tant que cette tarte est là, je serai tenté de la manger. (As long as this pie is here, I will be tempted to eat it.)

Translation: Since

Subjunctive-friendly?  No and no.

Even though the definition is the same on these two, there is a slight distinction. Comme is useful for showing both the cause and result in a sentence, whereas puisque just gives an explanation.

Comme also likes to hang around at the beginning of sentences, whereas  puisque can go in the middle if it so pleases. This distinction will help you sound extra-super pro!

Comme j’ai mangé trop de tarte, je ne peux pas manger mes légumes. (Since I ate too much of the pie, I can’t eat my vegetables.)

Puisque je l’ai fait, je goûte en premier. (Since I made it, I’ll taste [it] first.)

Translation: When

Subjunctive-friendly?  Sadly, no.

These are interchangeable when talking about time, though lorsque is a formal upgrade of quand . Gauge the situation when you pick. They both have their own special purpose as well: Quand can mean “whenever,” and lorsque can mean “whereas.”

  Je cuisinais quand/ lorsque   tu es arrivé. (I was cooking when you arrived.)

Translation: Even though

Subjunctive-friendly?  You better believe it.

Okay, I’ll admit…it does get a bit confusing here. We just did  quoi que , meaning “no matter what,”   and now we’ve got the same thing minus the space in between and all of a sudden it means “even though”?

These sound the same when spoken , but you should be able to figure it out based on the context. In addition, bien que   and  quoique can be used interchangeably. Just another opportunity for you to diversify.

Je mangerai une autre tranche quoique je n’aie pas faim. (I will eat another slice even though I’m not hungry.)

Translation: So

Subjunctive-friendly?  Not even close.

There is so much to say about this little word.  Donc   is one of the holy grails of French filler words , one of the little idiosyncrasies of French speech that you’ll pick up while in France and carry with you, smiling, forever.

They use it both in the “correct” fashion, showing causation, as well as how we use it in English: “So, here’s the thing.” “So, I was heading to the store.” “So… So… So…” Remember  donc.  Cherish it. Can you tell this is my favorite French transition word?

Je veux que tu la goûtes, donc je garde une part. (I want for you to taste it, so I’m saving a piece.)

Translation: In fact

You have no excuses for not remembering this one. It’s spelt and sounds similar to the English definition. Use this phrase before emphasizing an important conclusion or key point.

En fait, l’année dernière j’ai gagné une competition. (In fact, last year I won a competition.)

Translation: However, nonetheless

Subjunctive-friendly?  No! No!

Cependant   is actually an adverb, but it still functions as a transition word. Use it at the beginning of a sentence to point out an opposition or contradiction.  Pourtant   is a close cousin, but it’s a little more nuanced, as it indicates that one thing happened when another one was expected to.

Cependant , j’aime un bon gâteau de temps en temps. (However, I enjoy a nice cake from time to time.)

Translation: On the other hand, in opposition

Subjunctive-friendly?  Mais non ! 

The definition is close to  cependant , but provides a little clearer contrast. Those make for two great transition words when you’re writing essays in French or can’t decide which type of pie is better.

Une tarte aux pommes est classique. Par contre , une tarte aux tomates est bonne pour le petit-déjeuner, le déjeuner et le dîner. (An apple pie is classic. On the other hand, a tomato pie is good for breakfast, lunch and dinner.)

Translation: Also

Subjunctive-friendly?  Jamais  (never).

Need to add something that you forgot before? These two are good ways to vary your language and avoid using  aussi   (also) at every turn.  En plus   is common in conversation, and it, as well as  en outre ,  is often a better alternative to  aussi  in written French.

En outre , il faut choisir un bon parfum de glace pour accompagner la tarte. (Also, one must choose a good ice cream flavor to go with the pie.)

Translation: For me

Subjunctive-friendly?  Stop asking. It’s another “no.”

Here are two phrases to use when you want to put emphasis on “me! me! me!”  Pour moi   is a good way to order at a restaurant , and  pour ma part   is best for stating opinions.

Pour moi/ma part , je préfère la tarte au citron. (For me, I prefer lemon pie.)

Translation: In my opinion

Subjunctive-friendly?  This is the last time I’m saying it…nope.

But when you really want to make it all about you and your opinions, this is the best phrase. To qualify a statement as an opinion, or before you go on a rant about something you’re passionate about, this is a great transitional phrase to use and abuse!

À mon avis , tous ces phrases sont ridicules! (In my opinion, all of these sentences are ridiculous!)

Gauging your knowledge with a few quizzes before you delve into any topic is always a good idea. You may even get a little confidence boost when you realize that you already know a sizable handful of transition words!

• Check out this quiz  from Quizlet.
• This one makes noise when you click on words.
• And for a challenge, this fill-in-the-blank quiz is the ticket.

Authentic French movies, TV shows and videos are another great place to look and listen for transition words. You’ll hear how they’re used naturally by real French speakers , which is invaluable to incorporating them into your own French.

Practice makes perfect, so get out your pens and paper, and start on those French sentences ! Try writing a paragraph that uses four or five transition words .

If you’re more into immersion-based learning , make sure to include appropriate transition words when writing emails to your pen pals, writing entries in your French journal or even in text messages with another French-speaking friend.

The subjunctive is nothing to fear, but sometimes it can be difficult to integrate into the French you actually use.

If you’re still a beginner, no worries here. Many of the above words and phrases don’t require the subjunctive mood. On the other hand, you always could take the opportunity to learn about this ultra-useful and fun French staple .

Listening to French teachers and instructors helps boost your knowledge of French connectors and ensures you correctly learn them. For a great introduction to French transition words, check out the video below.

French instructor Kritika takes you through some common transition vocabulary and even tests your knowledge at the end with a fun fill-in-the-blank activity!

Enfin,  you’re well-equipped to speak like a pro, write like an essayist and understand all the details in the French literature you’re devouring.

While there are far more transition words than those listed, knowing the basics will do wonders for your fluency.

Choppy French no more!

FluentU has a wide variety of great content, like interviews, documentary excerpts and web series, as you can see here:

FluentU brings native French videos with reach. With interactive captions, you can tap on any word to see an image, definition and useful examples.

For example, if you tap on the word "crois," you'll see this:

Practice and reinforce all the vocabulary you've learned in a given video with learn mode. Swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you’re learning, and play the mini-games found in our dynamic flashcards, like "fill in the blank."

All throughout, FluentU tracks the vocabulary that you’re learning and uses this information to give you a totally personalized experience. It gives you extra practice with difficult words—and reminds you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned.

Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)

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Translation of "essay" into French

essai, rédaction, dissertation are the top translations of "essay" into French. Sample translated sentence: What criterion did you use when you elected this essay as the winner? ↔ Quel critère avez-vous utilisé pour élire cet essai en tant que gagnant ?

A written composition of moderate length exploring a particular issue or subject. [..]

English-French dictionary

written composition [..]

What criterion did you use when you elected this essay as the winner?

Quel critère avez-vous utilisé pour élire cet essai en tant que gagnant ?

You can finish your essay now.

Tu peux finir ta rédaction maintenant.

dissertation

written composition

His essay was concise and to the point.

Sa dissertation était concise et pertinente.

Less frequent translations

• composition
• composition française
• mémoire de maîtrise
• pièce d'essai
• compte rendu

Show algorithmically generated translations

Automatic translations of " essay " into French

Translations with alternative spelling

Essay, Orne

Essay and Talk and Brother to Nationhood, and she is an accomplished illustrator of children's literature.

Essay and Talk et Brother to Nationhood, et est un illustrateur reconnu de littérature de jeunesse.

Phrases similar to "essay" with translations into French

• essay question question à développement · sujet de dissertation
• Mineral Policy Alternatives - A Background Essay Choix de politique minérale - exposé général
• colour essay essai de couleur · épreuve couleur
• An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races Essai sur l’inégalité des races humaines
• in an essay, always stick to the subject dans une dissertation, collez toujours au sujet
• essay subject sujet de dissertation
• essay and poetry contest winner lauréat de dissertation et de poésie
• essay against the clock épreuve de vitesse horaire

Translations of "essay" into French in sentences, translation memory

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Here Is How DeepL Translator and Google Translate Compare

March 28, 2023 - Revolutionized Team

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The machine translation service DeepL caused a major stir when it was first launched back in 2017. The tool — developed by a Cologne-based team of around 20 people — was quickly found to be just as effective as Google Translate, the older translation tool developed by one of the giants of the tech world. Both DeepL Translator and Google Translate use the same approach to machine translation. By using state-of-the-art AI trained on manually translated text, it’s possible to use AI to translate new strings of text provided by a user.

DeepL, however, seems to have found a better combination of algorithm design and language data — and there’s some evidence that it may be significantly more accurate than Google Translate.

DeepL Translator vs. Google Translate: Key Differences

Google Translate and DeepL are both machine translation services. They use AI to translate user-provided text from one language to another. Both applications can automatically detect languages. That capability allows users to translate text in an unknown language to one they can understand.

The most significant difference between the two is the language data each tool is trained on. DeepL Translator draws from Linguee’s massive corpus of manually translated sentences, idioms and text snippets.

Google Translate uses a mix of digital resources in various languages. The original database for the tool drew heavily on the Europarl Corpus , a collection of human-translated documents from European Parliament proceedings.

Both tools have limitations. European language translation is generally more accurate than the translation of languages like Chinese or Somali. But DeepL’s source corpus seems to help it offer more accurate translations.

Looking for Extra Features?

DeepL also offers a few additional features that Google’s translation service currently lacks. Besides translating the text, DeepL provides a glossary that allows users to choose how to translate certain words or phrases. If you find that DeepL consistently mistranslates a word, idiom or phrase, you can fix it yourself without manually correcting each translation.

For certain languages — like French and German — you can also choose the formality of the output translation. This may help the translator capture nuances in the original text it may not have otherwise found.

Add a Little Variety

Google Translate beats DeepL when it comes to variety. DeepL Translator only supports 31 languages for text translations right now. However, Google Translate supports 133 languages for text translation.

Google Translate also supports image translation for 37 languages. It lets you point your camera at text — like a food packaging label — then use Google to translate it. DeepL’s limited language support may be a point in its favor, however.

While Google Translate supports languages like Somali, users often find the translations suspect or low quality. In some cases, due to the limited availability of source material, religious texts are significantly overrepresented in the language database. This problem means if you enter something that confuses the algorithm, Google Translate will sometimes spit out unusual translations cobbled together from religious texts.

Even though languages like Somali are available, limited digital resources may mean translations to and from Somali are ultimately weaker than those to or from languages like French or German. Those other two can both draw on the texts from the Europarl Corpus.

Measuring the Effectiveness of DeepL vs. Google Translate

While it can be challenging to compare the quality of two translations, people have researched how the two services stack up. One 2018 pre-print from a National Research Council Canada linguist used a set of French-language challenge sets to measure the effectiveness of DeepL and Google Translate. By assembling and translating these challenge sets — sets of sentences that are particularly difficult for computers to translate — you can estimate how well a service breaks down a language.

The researcher found DeepL’s “overall rate of success was almost 13% higher than that of Google.” DeepL Translator beat Google when translating idioms, yes-no questions and sentences with negation.

The two services were equally effective at handling morpho-syntactic divergences — or sentences where the translated language differs significantly from the target language in which grammatical features are explicitly marked. In French, for example, the pronoun “leur” comes before the verb and can mean both “to them” and “from them.” When translating “leur,” a machine translator has to decide which preposition — if any — it needs to use.

Research with automated machine translation testing tools has also found DeepL is slightly more effective than Google at machine translation.

The Effect of Online Translators on Language Learning

High accuracy rates are among the top advantages of both Google Translate and DeepL. So, many people wonder what effect these tools could have on language learners and teachers. One of the challenges with English classes is students may come from places as varied as Syria and Spain.

That means it usually doesn’t help a teacher very much to know a certain language before starting the class. The students’ native tongues are so varied that the instructor is often learning new languages themselves as much as helping the students.

It may help instructors if they know how to use DeepL translator for quick reference during a class, though. Doing that is probably much handier than using one of the many translation search engines.

One way translator apps help is by aiding students who remember specific words in their native languages but cannot recall them in English. Quickly launching Google Translate on smartphones fixes that issue, minimizing the frustration for everyone involved.

But how good is DeepL translator or Google Translate for more extensive needs? For example, how do they perform when checking the content of whole essays in English from nearly-fluent students? Teachers have mixed opinions about the worth of online translators.

English Teachers Share Their Thoughts

Patrick Conaway — associate professor of English at Japan’s Shokei Gakuin University — said, “Well, I can tell if they’re using Google Translate, but if they’re using DeepL, I can’t tell.” He explained the main difference is that DeepL can mimic the grammatically correct writing an intermediate or advanced English language student could use.

A teacher may even think an essay wholly translated by DeepL is a student’s work — that is, until they see the “translated by DeepL” message at the bottom the person forgot to remove before submitting.

Potential Problems Arise

Samantha Kawakami owns a private language school and teaches English part-time at the university level. She’s not so enthusiastic about translators. However, she and her colleagues are familiar with and have used them.

“If you have long passages, DeepL does come up with language that is more natural overall. But DeepL often mistranslates words and shorter phrases. Google Translate and Bing Translate both seem to do better with individual words and short phrases. On a couple of occasions, DeepL has also ignored whole sentences and left them out in the translation. I have not had either Google or Bing make this particular error,” she explained.

José Domingo Cruz — who teaches English at Japan’s Kyushu Institute of Technology — likes Google Translate for the pronunciation information it provides. He also appreciates how the app provides links to supplement language learning.

English language teachers caution that students may feel tempted to use online translators in unethical ways. It’s one thing to use such apps to check work or to better understand a paragraph of text. Those activities can genuinely help people learn and support their hard work. However, if users let machine translators do almost everything for them, they’re not learning.

Bias in Machine Translation

DeepL — while more effective than Google Translate in some areas — still struggles with a few issues that are endemic to machine translation and AI in general. Machine translation relies on machine learning. An AI receives massive amounts of data that it “learns” from and uses to build a predictive model. Over time, by combing through this data, the AI can identify and replicate subtle patterns in the original set.

This approach enables a wide variety of AI applications. For example, machine vision allows computers to identify objects in visual data, voice recognition and machine translation.

With this approach, however, the AI depends on the data it learned from. Without the proper controls, an AI can only replicate reality, meaning it will reproduce any bias that it learns.

This has become a major problem for just about every significant AI project, like experiments with facial recognition that reproduced biased data or AI-powered resume screening tools that downgraded candidates who attended all-women colleges.

Machine learning translation requires a collection of manually translated texts that make up the training data for the AI. Information from this corpus is how the AI “learns” to translate. By finding common translations for single words and sorting out patterns in grammar, the AI can build a model of how certain phrases or idioms tend to be translated.

While these translations won’t be particularly innovative or creative, they can be effective. They’re especially helpful in a business context, where language is often formal and clear communication is a priority. This often means translating text can be easier and has less risk of losing essential nuance.

However, the AI draws on previous translations. Thus it’s not unusual for it to reinforce biases that existed in the original training data. A machine translator may also overcorrect. It then strengthens existing patterns and creates an algorithm even more biased than reality.

Attempts to Solve Bias Problems

Google has come under fire several times due to bias in its translations. When given a gendered phrase — like “Der Krankenpfleger,” German for “the male nurse” — it would produce a differently gendered translation , like “l’infirmière,” which is French for “the female nurse.” It tried to solve this problem by identifying potentially gendered phrases and offering multiple possible translations side-by-side.

DeepL solves this problem in a similar fashion. It translates “ő egy orvos” to “He is a doctor,” then offers the alternative “She is a doctor” in a panel below the original translation. This approach isn’t always effective at catching translation bias, however.

Research on stylistic bias in machine translation has found DeepL is still susceptible to bias. While generally better at translating more accurately than Google’s service, DeepL was sometimes even more biased.

Pros and Cons of AI Translation Services

With both Google Translate and DeepL Translator becoming more powerful, how do instant text translators stack up against human translation services?

First, there are biases, but these aren’t unique to AI text translators. Stereotypes don’t arise spontaneously but rather come from the people who wrote the source material from which the AI is learning. People can train machine learning models to become less biased.

2. Translation Errors

Another issue is incorrect translations. In 2017, a Google Translate error went viral for creating a string of words from a single Japanese character pasted repeatedly in the translation box. Among the English translations it provided were “return,” “eco-production” and the nonsensical phrase, “decearing egg.” Although this glitch yielded hilarious results, others may cause communication errors.

The trouble stems from the fact that text translators don’t always understand words out of context. For example, translating the English phrase, “I saw a baby bat on the ground. I grabbed the bat” into Spanish on Google Translate yields two different translations of the word “bat.” The first is the animal, while the second is the sports equipment.

The translation ends up being, “I saw a baby bat on the ground. I picked up the baseball bat.” The story now sounds as though the speaker is scared of the animal and is defending themself with a baseball bat, while the English phrase is ambiguous.

Putting the same English phrase into DeepL, the translator correctly understands that it’s the same type of bat in both sentences. However, it still yields various translations for “bat” depending on the surrounding context, so users must be careful when using ambiguous words in an AI-based text translator.

3. Reduced Human Interaction

Another potential problem of using AI-based translation services is it reduces the amount of time spent asking native speakers for help. In an era of increasing social isolation, that can have negative repercussions both for learning a language and interacting with other people.

Learning a language the old-fashioned way often requires traveling, having new experiences and talking one-on-one with a native speaker. The human element is lost in online translators.

4. Easier Foreign Travel

On the flip side, being able to quickly engage with a non-native speaker — albeit on a rudimentary level — has numerous real-world benefits. In a foreign country, a person can use a translator to ask for directions to the hospital. Once there, they can tell the staff what’s bothering them or at least give clues by translating simple words like “chest pain” or “heart.”

With the advent of image translation, people can also read more complicated warning labels or signs such as, “This road is under construction. Please take an alternate route.”

5. Ease of Learning

Before the advent of online translators, students could spend hours painstakingly looking up the meaning of words in a dictionary. Writing or even double-checking an essay became a laborious process, which may have discouraged certain students from writing or learning new words for fun.

Now, students can use instant text translators as an accessible online dictionary. While there will always be students who use AI to cheat, others can use it to great advantage when it comes to learning.

Other AI Translation Models

How do DeepL translator and Google Translate compare to other language AI models? There are many other algorithms in development, including some that could give DeepL and Google Translate a run for their money. For example, Meta is developing a groundbreaking translation model that includes over 200 different languages. 

In 2022, Meta announced the No Language Left Behind project, or NLLB. The research program led to the NLLB-200 translation model which includes dozens of languages that are missing from most other algorithms. The NLLB prioritized including low-resource languages, which have less media for use in AI training. A low-resource language can be very popular and important. It simply doesn’t have as much written or recorded content as other languages. 

By including 150 low-resource languages in NLLB-200, Meta aims to conserve dying languages and expand inclusion online. In 2022, Meta made NLLB-200 open source and released large amounts of research for other developers to use. 

DeepL might be powerful, but it only has 31 languages. Google Translate has 133, but NLLB-200 still tops both. As a large language model, it is more likely to give accurate, realistic translations than Google Translate would. NLLB-200 can also deliver those translations across far more languages than DeepL currently supports. 

The main drawback of NLLB-200 is accessibility. As of 2023, it still functions more like an early-access API than an open-ended translation service. Users can’t go to Meta’s website and plug in any content they want to translate. However, Meta is offering grants for developers who want to start integrating NLLB-200 into real-world applications. So, the algorithm could be widely available in the near future. For right now, users can test it out for free in a demo that allows readers to translate several illustrated children’s stories from around the world.  Meta also developed a speech translation model, SeamlessM4T, which went open source in 2023. M4T is somewhat more limited than NLLB-200 but still a step up from Google Translate and even DeepL. It can perform text-to-speech, text-to-text and speech-to-speech translations for 100 different input languages. Unfortunately, it is limited to only 35 output languages for speech translations. Interestingly, M4T can reportedly detect when someone switches languages in the middle of a sentence.

Is DeepL Translator Better Than Google Translate?

DeepL has only been around for a few years. Even so, it has already proven itself a reliable alternative to Google Translate. Research found DeepL more accurate than Google Translate in many cases — but, like many AI-powered tools, it may have a bias problem. Overall, for people who need to translate a block of text quickly, both DeepL and Google are highly valuable tools.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published on May 18, 2021 and was updated on October 26, 2023 to provide readers with more updated information.

Certes DeepL est meilleur .Mais cela est insuffisant . Il est clair que de nouvelles pistes (notamment méthodologiques) s’ouvrent sur le plan académique pour résoudre ces “petites carences” qui s’avéreront en fait des “aiguilleurs pertinents” sur la voie de leurs solutions (qui est à rechercher au niveau des statuts du corpus de ces langues ,leurs performances scientifiques et culturels et certains points “relativement opaques ” ! Vieken Danke pour ces deux Géants !

I have used both for English/French/Spanish and find DeepL to be vastly superior to Google Translate. It doesn’t think but it surely seems to. 😊

Thanks a lot for this valuable information!

My students use deepl as help when learning English. Definitelly it gives more natural translations. It’s a long way before it will reach human level, but it will for sure change the way how we communicate in the future.

DeepL is better at keeping context between sentences. Very obvious with pronouns into french.

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'Nickelodeon' Is Latin for 'I Don't Care About God'?

"using google translate" and "seeing for yourself" only works in cases like this if you also have your critical-thinking cap on., aleksandra wrona, published march 29, 2024.

About this rating

In March 2024, a meme went viral on X (formerly Twitter), claiming that "Nickelodeon" is the Latin translation of the English phrase, "I don't care about God." The image was also shared on Instagram , Facebook , and TikTok . "Use Google translate and see for yourself," one Instagram post with the image  read . 

The rumor spread in the aftermath of the premiere of " Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV ," a "docu-series that uncovers the toxic culture behind some of the most iconic children's shows of the late 1990s and early 2000s." As The Guardian review  of the documentary informed, the "'in plain sight'" moments in the series are clips from Nickelodeon shows that "repeatedly featured underage performers in bikinis or leotards, or having jets of water or thin stripes of goo squirted into their faces."

(X user @AnimeBibleVerse)

We found that the same rumor was spread in 2023 via  TikTok and Instagram  posts linking it to Illuminati conspiracy theories.

Snopes found that "Nickelodeon" is not, in fact, a genuine Latin translation of the phrase "I don't care about God." We have rated the claim as "False."

To begin with, whoever created the viral image broke up the name "Nickelodeon" into arbitrary segments divided by spaces, so that Google Translate would interpret it as a phrase instead of a single word. When we performed our own Google Translate search of "nic kelo deo" on March 29, 2024, the English translation in fact read "I don't care about God." However, when we clicked on the English translation of the phrase, Google Translate indicated that in Latin it would be rather "Non curat de Deo." 

(Google Translate Screenshots)

We tried looking up different variations of the alleged Latin sentence via Google Translate website. For instance, when we entered "nic kelo deo n" (including an extra "n" at the end), the translation into English remained unchanged as "nic kelo deo n." Furthermore, translating the phrase "I don't care about God" from English into Latin showed the result "Non curat de Deo."

(Google Translate)

What's more, when we searched for "nic" and "kelo," Google Translate the results read "nothing" and "kelo." However, Online Latin Dictionary did not show any results when we searched for " nic " or " kelo ." 

(www.online-latin-dictionary.com)

We have reached out to Google for a comment on the matter and will update the article if/when we receive a response.

Etymonline, an online etymology dictionary, explained that the word "Nickelodeon"  derived from a combination of the word "nickel," a five-cent coin, and the Greek word "odeion," meaning a music hall. 

1888 as the name of a theater in Boston; by 1909 as "a motion picture theater," from nickel "five-cent coin" (the cost to view one) + -odeon, as in Melodeon (1840) "music hall," ultimately from Greek oideion "building for musical performances" (see odeon). Meaning "nickel jukebox" is first attested 1938.

In December 2022, we debunked a similar false rumor, claiming that "Balenciaga" was Latin for "Baal is king."

Nickelodeon | Etymology of Nickelodeon by Etymonline . https://www.etymonline.com/word/nickelodeon. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

ONLINE LATIN DICTIONARY . https://www.online-latin-dictionary.com/. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

Palma, Bethania. "No, 'Baal Enci Aga' Doesn't Mean 'Baal Is King' in Latin." Snopes , 7 Dec. 2022, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/balenciaga-baal-is-king-latin/.

Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV . Business Insider, Maxine Productions, Sony Pictures Television, 2024.

Seale, Jack. "Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV Review – How on Earth Was This Stuff Ever Broadcast?" The Guardian , 25 Mar. 2024. The Guardian , https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/mar/25/quiet-on-set-the-dark-side-of-kids-tv-review-how-on-earth-was-this-stuff-ever-broadcast.

By Aleksandra Wrona

Aleksandra Wrona is a reporting fellow for Snopes, based in the Warsaw area.

Article Tags

Google hit with $270M fine in France as authority finds news publishers’ data was used for Gemini

In a never-ending saga between Google and France’s competition authority over copyright protections for news snippets, the Autorité de la Concurrence announced a €250 million fine against the tech giant Wednesday (around $270 million at today’s exchange rate).

According to the competition watchdog, Google disregarded some of its previous commitments with news publishers. But the decision is especially notable because it drops something else that’s bang up-to-date — by latching onto Google’s use of news publishers’ content to train its generative AI model Bard/Gemini .

The competition authority has found fault with Google for failing to notify news publishers of this GenAI use of their copyrighted content. This is in light of earlier commitments Google made which are aimed at ensuring it undertakes fair payment talks with publishers over reuse of their content.

Copyright and competition wrongs

In 2019, the European Union passed a pan-EU digital copyright reform that extended copyright protections to news headlines and snippets. News aggregators, such as Google News, Discover and the “Top Stories” feature box on search results pages, had previously scraped and displayed these news stories on their products without any financial compensation.

Google originally sought to evade the law by switching off Google News in France. But the competition authority quickly stepped in — finding its unilateral action an abuse of a dominant market position that risked harm to publishers. The intervention essentially forced Google to cut deals with local publishers over content reuse. But in 2021, Google was hit with a $592 million fine after the competition authority found major breaches in its negotiations with local publishers and agencies.

The tech giant called the sanction “disproportionate” and said it would appeal. But it subsequently sought to settle the dispute — offering a series of pledges and withdrawing its appeal. The commitments were accepted by the French Autorité, include passing key information to publishers and negotiating in a fair way.

Google has signed copyright agreements with hundreds of publishers in France — which fall under the remit of its agreement with the Autorité. So its business in this area is very tightly regulated.

Google has agreed not to contest the Autorité’s latest findings — in exchange for a fast-tracked process and making a monetary payment.

However, its managing director for news and publishing partnerships, Sulina Connal, struck a peeved tone — writing in a lengthy blog post that “the fine is not proportionate to issues raised” by the authority.

The blog post suggests Google really wants to draw a line under the saga this time, with Connal also writing: “We’ve settled because it’s time to move on and, as our many agreements with publishers show, we want to focus on the larger goal of sustainable approaches to connecting people with quality content and on working constructively with French publishers.”

With generative AI in the frame, and the competitive scramble to launch tools, Google’s calculus on approaching the content reuse issue looks different.

GenAI training in the frame

Today’s enforcement by France’s competition authority shows it honed in on Google’s use of content from news publishers and agencies for training purposes for its AI foundation model and its related AI chatbot service Bard (now called Gemini).

It found Google used content from publishers and press agencies for training Bard, its generative AI tool which launched in July 2023, “without notifying the copyright holders or the Authority,” per its press release .

On this point, Google’s defense is twofold. In its blog post it writes that the competition authority “does not challenge the way web content is used to improve newer products like generative AI, which is already addressed in Article 4 of the EUCD” [EU Copyright Directive].

Article 4 of the Copyright Directive sets out an “exception or limitation for text and data mining” — specifically for “reproductions and extractions of lawfully accessible works and other subject matter for the purposes of text and data mining”.

However in its press release the Autorité argues it has not yet been determined whether the exemption applies here. (It’s worth noting the relevant clause refers to “lawfully accessible works” — while Google is under a legally binding commitment to the competition authority to notify copyright holders about uses of their protected works and apparently failed to do so in this case.)

“When it comes to declaring whether using news content to train an artificial intelligence service falls under neighboring rights and protection, this question has not been answered just yet,” the competition authority wrote. “However, the Autorité considers that Google has breached its commitment #1 by failing to inform publishers that their content had been used to train Bard.”

Google’s blog post also makes passing mention of the EU AI Act — suggesting it’s of relevance. However the legislation is not yet in force as it’s pending final adoption by the European Council.

The incoming AI legislation will also say developers must abide by the bloc’s copyright rules. And it introduces transparency requirements with that goal in mind — requiring them to put in place a policy to respect EU copyright law; and make publicly available a “sufficiently detailed summary” of the content used for training general purpose AI models (such as Gemini/Bard).

This incoming requirement on model makers to publish a training data summary may, in the future, make it easier for news publishers whose protected content has been ingested for GenAI training to obtain fair remuneration under EU copyright law.

No technical opt out

The Autorité also points out that Google failed to provide, until at least September 28, 2023 , a technical solution to allow publishers and press agencies to opt out of their content being used to train Bard without such a decision affecting the display of their content on other Google services.

“Until this date, publishers and news agencies that wanted to opt out of this use case had to insert an instruction that blocks all content indexation from Google, including for Search, Discover and Google News services. Those services are specifically part of the negotiation for revenue related to neighboring rights,” it wrote, adding: “In the future, the Autorité will carefully look at the effectiveness of Google’s opt-out processes.”

In more technical terms, between July and September 2023, news publishers could insert a “noindex” tag to the robots.txt file to make sure that their content wasn’t used to train Google’s AI model. This robots.txt file is placed at the root folder of web servers and contains various instructions for search engines. Google’s web crawler looks at the instructions in those files to index websites.

But a “noindex” tag means that your website disappears from Google altogether. In September 2023, Google added more granularity and created a “Google-Extended” rule that is different from the “noindex” rule. By opting out of the Google-Extended instruction, web publishers indicate that they don’t want to help improve Gemini’s current and future models.

Other shortcomings

The Autorité is also sanctioning Google for a raft of other issues related to how it negotiates with French news publishers, finding it failed to provide them with all the information needed to ensure fair bargaining of remuneration for their content.

In its press release , it wrote that Google’s information to publishers about its methodology for calculating how much they should be paid was “particularly opaque.”

It also found Google failed to meet non-discrimination criteria, aimed at ensuring publishers get equal treatment. And it called out a decision by Google to impose a “minimum threshold” for remuneration — i.e. below which it would not make any pay-outs to publishers — with the Autorité describing this as introducing discrimination between publishers “in its very principle”. Below a certain threshold all publishers are “arbitrarily allocated zero remuneration, regardless of their respective situation”, its press release also noted.

Additionally, the Autorité found fault with Google’s calculations regarding so-called “indirect income”, saying the “package” it proposed was not in accordance with previous decisions or the appeal judgment of the Court of Justice, from October 2020 .

It also said Google failed to act on its commitment to update remuneration contracts in line with its pledges.