Different languages have different grammar (this is the biggest problem), and different expressions (like what would, you have butter fingers mean to someone in say...Indonesia? They probably wouldn't quite see it as clumsy). I personally know 4 different languages and I've used translators before as well -- the grammar is not nearly desirable. And then of course, some languages have words that don't even exist in another language...

And fixing grammar differences isn't as easy as you might think -- a lot of languages have very different grammar structures. For example : I would like 3 glasses of milk please. If I say this phrase in Hindi and then literally translate the sentence back word for word in English, it would be like this : I milk of 3 glasses want please.

There are also cultural differences, for example saying Hello in English is a common greeting -- however, its rough translation into Hindi is Namaste, which isn't as casual as Hello is. Mostly in Hindi people would say "How are you" as a casual greeting. So yea, its a minor set back and not nearly as challenging to overcome as the grammar but its there.

However, the differences between languages that are derived from latin are quite small -- and if someone spends enough time (enough means A LOT), I think it would be possible to make a fairly rough to good translator program. However when you move on to languages derived from Sanskrit or Chinese, you might as well give up, unless you are really willing to dedicate the better part of your life on it.

perhaps, but if the syntax follows rules about placement of such things as verbs adjectives nouns etc then they could make conversions
(just as you can take classes on learning proper grammar, the computer can be programmed to have proper grammar)

also, there are starting to be definitions for slang terms in online dictionaries. O_O

but as for words with multiple meanings, it would either have to understand the context of the sentence and interpret it or it would have to prompt you which specific definition you were referring to (for words where it might be confusing or cause issues)


plus this wouldn't be a one man job...

I think it is possible to do it( at least the test only version)


the voice only version might take a little while to perfect because of the inherent flaws in voice recognition software

oh

;/ It sucks when translating.

indeed, too difficult.

I can write QFT, and you would know what it meant, but a computer might translate it into:
""A blood test developed fairly recently to see if a person is infected with TB bacteria. It is not yet widely available.""

that will raise some eyebrows...

i'm pretty sure there is a reason we have different languages

Tower of Babel

TL;DR but...


We all have different customs, and sometimes its difficult to get used to your own customs, let alone all the customs.

Plus, even if there was a single original language it would not matter because over time the language would decay from all our misspellings and slang generation.

Even within the same country and the same language there are differences in inflection that can eventually become quite apparent in spoken language.



sum tims it har to reed tings if u don spell write