Do you use Google Translate or another translation software? For what do you use it (e.g. writing notebook entries or discussion posts or for understanding what other users write) and do you find it useful and accurate?
I sometimes see posts here in italki that are completely ungrammatical and that have sometimes strange non-existent/untranslated words in between. My guess is, that those were written with the help of a translation software and the poor author doesn't realise that he/she is posting total gibberish.
I use it for words or very simply structured phrases. It can't handle anything else.
Google translate gives the most peculiar translations and most times they are grammatically or semantically wrong. Sometimes they make some sense and I can correct the sentence manually, but most times they are way off the mark. Instead of doing the job twice, I prefer to look up the words in an online dictionary and translate the passage on my own.
Wordreference . com is much more accurate for vocabulary.
I often use Google translator and many others for different purpose. The main problem with them is that they give the loan translation which is the worse thing can happen :) No programmer will ever teach his computer how to feel the language, its rhythm, sense, order, ect.
But reading such translations is funny sometimes. My advice is to use your common sense while translating or learning. ....
Good luck!
