Help:Translation/Machine translation errors

This page is a worksheet for gathering data on serious errors produced by automatic translation programs translating into English that would negatively impact the verifiability of an article if the translation were added to English Wikipedia. This page is not for recording awkward wording, poor style, incorrect grammar, or translated content that would benefit from copyediting, but strictly examples of automatic translations that turn a verifiable statement in the source language into a false or unverifiable one in English.

A suggested incident report format follows, but feel free to include whatever you need to, to clearly show what happened and to detail the error:

=== YYYY-MM-DD: MT-Program from LanguageName – add'l info ===

– e.g., "=== 2025-04-24: Google translate from Klingon ==="

* '''source:''' [[:kl:Foreign article]] – a link to the original source text or external page, or a description where you found it
* '''orig:''' {{lang|kl|Text passage in the original language}} – you can add bolding to highlight the portion that was mistranslated, if helpful.
* '''MT:''' English text generated by MT program – bolding the erroneous part encouraged if helpful
* '''better:''' Your improved text. – a better translation provided by you or another knowledgeable human translator (not a different MT). No need to fix up stylistic problems or grammar here or rewrite the whole sentence; this is not the *best* translation, just a model of how to fix the erroneous part to highlight what was wrong with it
Your additional comments here. ~~~~ – although not a Talk page, your sig helps identify when it was seen/reported and by whom.

If you get different results than you see here for the same input text and search engine, you can add your data in a follow-up post. Please label your machine translation output as MT2: (then MT3: for a third, different output, etc.) and sign it. This is a data worksheet, not a discussion page: if you have general comments or discussion not involving new or different data; please use the relevant Talk page, most likely Help talk:Translation, or Help talk:Translation/Machine translation errors.

List

2025-04-21: Google translate from French – flipped the sense: reject/reaffirm

source: fr:La Manif pour tous#Opposition à la « théorie du genre », rev. 224223413 of 2025 mars 25 à 10:59
orig: La Manif Pour Tous justifie l'utilisation du terme par l'usage qu'en a fait Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, alors conseillère générale du Rhône, en août 2011 et cela en dépit du fait que cette dernière soit revenu, en juin 2013, sur ses déclarations pour affirmer que « la théorie du genre n'existe pas »
MT: The Manif Pour Tous justifies the use of the term by the use made of it by Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, then general councillor of the Rhône, in August 2011, despite the fact that the latter returned, in June 2013, to her declarations to affirm that "gender theory does not exist".
better: The Manif Pour Tous justifies the use of the term by the use made of it by Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, then general councillor of the Rhône, in August 2011, despite the fact that the latter recanted, in June 2013, her earlier declarations affirming that "gender theory does not exist".

Google completely reversed the sense what happened here; Manif justified a term based on someone who *recanted* (rejected, withdrew, disavowed, repudiated, renounced) their earlier position, not *reaffirmed* it, as Google would have it. Mathglot (talk) 18:54, 22 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

On 22 April, TSventon noted (diff) the following output from a full-page translation by Google of the linked source page:

MT2: La Manif Pour Tous justifies the use of the term by the use made of it by Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, then general councillor of the Rhône, in August 2011 and this despite the fact that the latter returned, in June 2013, on his statements to affirm that "gender theory does not exist". [edited for misplaced spaces].

reported here by Mathglot (talk) at 02:21, 23 April 2025 (UTC) on behalf of TSventon.[reply]

2025-04-23: Google translate from Armenian - Leningrad College

source: hy:Օքսֆորդի_համալսարան (University of Oxford), rev. 10290828 of 00:04, 23 April 2025
orig:

Քելլոգ
Լեդի Մարգարետ Հալլ
Լենիքըլ
Լինքոլն

MT: link

Kellogg
Lady Margaret Hull
Leningrad
Lincoln

better:

Kellogg
Lady Margaret Hall
Linacre
Lincoln

This is part of a list of Oxford colleges. The error may have be in the original Armenian or in the translation. TSventon (talk) 14:25, 23 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]