I had forgotten how good Google can be. If you use their language tools on home page you can literally type a speech or letter and have it simultaneously translated at same time. I have no idea if grammar is correct and of course if speaking you must have an idea about how to pronounce which we all know is not easy in Portugal unless you suffer from permanent catarrh !

Google translate is a lifesaver - comes up with some strange stuff sometimes though, I have been corrected by natives on certain things.

Stewing steak translates to "diced biological calf"!

B

I wouldn't rely on it! I use it for confirmation some times and when I read what it comes up with I don't agree neither does OH who is PT.

It's good for translating single words, I wouldn't use it to translate a passage.

G

Exactly. All automatic translators are like that. I regularly get posts from people who speak many different languages. You can immediately tell who is using an automatic translator. The longer the sentence, the more ridiculous it gets.

But at least you ARE communicating. I have used it to translate some German documents and get the sense of what is written which helps. Try it - it costs you nada.

The point I was trying to make is that if you are using an automatic translator, make it as simple as you can. Where you'd normally write a 20-word sentence, use 4 5-word sentences instead. Avoid words that have different meanings.

Better still, if you know another language, see how the automatic translator translates your English text to that language first. Once you are happy with the results, translate the text to the language you don't understand.