Even most people that DON'T know Spanish still know that "Español" means "Spanish", not "English". My best guess is that Google, attempting to make a more comprehensive translator based not only on the words used but also the meaning behind it, decided that "Español" is supposed to signify the current language that you are speaking in, and thus the translated version comes out as "English" instead of "Spanish." That still doesn't make it a very good translator, though.

 

I like how it translates "debes que aprender Ingles" as "you must learn English", "Debes que aprender Ingles" as "you need to learn English", and "DEBES QUE aprender Ingles" as "THAT MUST learn English"

It might help if what you typed made grammatical sense.  "Deber que" makes no sense, you were thinking of "tener que" when you wrote that.  Deber in and of itself expresses a need or obligation, there's no need for "que" at all.  So Google Translate probably choked on your malformed sentence.

Your theory is correct. Google uses cryptography methods to do the translations.

http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2007/05/15/google_translation/

teqman:

It might help if what you typed made grammatical sense. "Deber que" makes no sense, you were thinking of "tener que" when you wrote that. Deber in and of itself expresses a need or obligation, there's no need for "que" at all. So Google Translate probably choked on your malformed sentence.

(Hey, I successfully avoided using "The real WTF is..."!)

 

 

 

Two thumbs down for your theory =P 

How is that wrong? Its English really is horrible.

Okay, ditch the capital E in Español, and it comes out properly.  Seems like it doesn't like improper capitalization, either.

But that's the one case where you do capitalize it.  When you're talking about the language. 

If you were to say "I'm spanish," you would be correct, but if you were to say "I know spanish," you would have not capitalized properly.  "I know Spanish" is proper.

EDIT:  Realized that the Spanish language may have different capitalization rules than English.  Keeping it up so I can be corrected if I'm wrong. 

The RealWTF is expecting a BETA product to not have issues like this...

I believe one of Douglas Hofstadter's books cited "This English sentence is difficult to translate into French" as, well, an English sentence that was difficult to translate into French.  Sure enough, the French translation of that book replaced that sentence with "Il est difficile traduire cette phrase française en anglais"...

 

 

TRWTF is that Google keeps stuff in beta forever. It seems they just use it like a disclaimer.

belgariontheking:

But that's the one case where you do capitalize it.  When you're talking about the language. 

If you were to say "I'm spanish," you would be correct, but if you were to say "I know spanish," you would have not capitalized properly.  "I know Spanish" is proper.

EDIT:  Realized that the Spanish language may have different capitalization rules than English.  Keeping it up so I can be corrected if I'm wrong. 

 Sí, las reglas son diferentes en español. I think you're mistaken in English as well. Don't take my word for it, though. After all, I'm Canadian.

 

Writing correct Spanish in Google comes up with a reasonable result. It's still interesting that it translates "Español" to "English" in some cases.

m0ffx:

TRWTF is that Google keeps stuff in beta forever. It seems they just use it like a disclaimer.

 

Hasn't G-mail been in 'beta' for 2 years? 

pyro789x:

m0ffx:

TRWTF is that Google keeps stuff in beta forever. It seems they just use it like a disclaimer.

 

Hasn't G-mail been in 'beta' for 2 years? 

~3.5 as of this post, it appears to have been a giant april fools joke in 2004. Helluva lot better than blizzard entertainment's starcraft v1.10 (which upset the modding community for said game).

Lingerance:

Helluva lot better than blizzard entertainment's starcraft v1.10 (which upset the modding community for said game).

Huh?  What does Starcraft v1.10 have to do with either Google Translator or GMail?

Starcraft is at v1.15 now.  I don't know about mods, but third party editors still work fine.  I've used them to make a bunch of maps as TheNevermind.

I love when new patches come out because they break most of the hacks that the kids use to cheat.  They've also added a couple nice features like colored names in chat.
 

AlpineR:

Lingerance:

Helluva lot better than blizzard entertainment's starcraft v1.10 (which upset the modding community for said game).

Huh?  What does Starcraft v1.10 have to do with either Google Translator or GMail?

 

1.10 and GMail were both considered April Fools' Jokes? At least that's the impression I got from the bit of the quote you snipped.

PJH:

AlpineR:

Lingerance:

Helluva lot better than blizzard entertainment's starcraft v1.10 (which upset the modding community for said game).

Huh?  What does Starcraft v1.10 have to do with either Google Translator or GMail?

 

1.10 and GMail were both considered April Fools' Jokes? At least that's the impression I got from the bit of the quote you snipped.

Both were released on April 1st.