DeepL takes Machine Translation to a whole new level. Until now, we have been used to machine translations built on recurrent neural networks and word representations in the form of "embeddings" often sounding mechanical and unnatural. This is why many people use Google Translate only in a pinch, when travelling, etc. DeepL is a game changer. Algorithms built on neural networks can translate text almost indistinguishable from a solidly qualified translator.
Similar to Google Translate, there is an app available on the web that allows you to translate text between 26 different languages for free. The translation results are exceptional and will likely change the way people are used to translating text. In this article, I compare the translation of not-so-simple text using DeepL and Google Translate, and give examples where DeepL is likely to be used in the very near future.
Let’s test it
I had the following text translated first by DeepL and then by Google Translate. The text is written in Czech, which is considered one of the worst languages to study because of its extremely complex grammar. The text is written in a rather colloquial manner, is not well structured, contains quotations, and comes from the news portal https://www.forum24.cz/.
Andrej Babiš: Nejsem idiot, řídím chytrou karanténu a mávám z Řecka.Pan premiér se nám rozjel, a to ve všech významech tohoto slova. S rodinkou se rozjel do Řecka, na sociálních sítích se rozjel s vyjádřeními, kterým se už snad ani nejde smát. Andrej Babiš prý převzal kontrolu nad chytrou karanténou, máme problémy, ale ve skutečnosti se nic neděje, a proto jakožto předseda vlády v krizové situaci, která není krizová, odjíždí na dovolenou, což je divné, protože například ministryně financí Alena Schillerová podle svých slov řeší krizi, a tak nikam nejede.No nic, pěkně popořádku. Ministr zdravotnictví Adam Vojtěch po sedmisté osmdesáté páté selhal a s ním i údajný projekt chytré karantény. Říkáme údajné protože ji nikdo neviděl. Babiš se naštval. Nejprve se naši filutové pokusili situaci řešit tím, že prostě a jednoduše škrtli ze statistiky počty nakažených, což bylo divné, ale opět to vzbudilo pouze výsměch. Lidé navíc začali být nervózní, protože na testy se i po půl roce od počátku pandemie stojí fronty a nic nefunguje.First, let’s look at how Google Translate translates the text:
Andrej Babiš: I'm not an idiot, I run a smart quarantine and I'm waving from Greece.The Prime Minister has left us (1), in all meanings of the word. He went to Greece with his family, he started on (2) social networks with expressions that are hardly laughable. Andrej Babiš is said to have taken control of clever quarantine, we have problems, but nothing really happens, and therefore as prime minister in a non-crisis crisis, he goes on vacation, which is strange because, for example, Finance Minister Alena Schillerová says crisis, so it goes nowhere.Well, nothing, all right (3). Minister of Health Adam Vojtěch failed for the seventy-eighty-fifth time, and with him the alleged project of clever quarantine. We say alleged because no one saw her(4). Grandma(5) was angry. At first, our filets tried to solve the situation by simply and simply(6) deleting the number of infected from the statistics, which was strange, but again it only aroused ridicule. In addition, people have become nervous, because even after six months from the beginning of the pandemic, there are queues for tests and nothing works.I have marked the highest grammatical errors in the translation with numbers: (1) this is a semantic confusion of words, the English text wants to say that the human overreacted to the situation, (2) again this is an inaccurate translation of a word, (3) the translation "Well, nothing, all right" is an example of a machine translation that a human would probably not say, (4) this is an error, because we are talking about a crisis, so we use the pronoun "it", not "her", (5) completely inaccurate, the text refers to the name Babiš, while the translator translated the word "grandmother", (6) "simply and simply" is again an expression that a Brit or an American would probably not say.
There are probably many more stylistic and linguistic inaccuracies in the text that could be described.
Let’s look at the translation from DeepL:
Andrej Babiš: I'm not an idiot, I run a smart quarantine and wave from Greece.The Prime Minister is on a roll, in all senses of the word. He took off for Greece with his family, and on social media he made statements that are impossible to laugh at anymore. He says that Andrej Babiš has taken control of a clever quarantine, that we have problems, but that nothing is really happening, and that is why, as Prime Minister in a crisis situation that is not a crisis, he is going on holiday, which is strange because, for example, Finance Minister Alena Schiller says she is dealing with a crisis and so is not going anywhere.Anyway, first things first. Health Minister Adam Vojtěch has failed for the eighty-fifth time, and with him the alleged smart quarantine project. We say alleged because no one has seen it. Babiš got angry. At first our philots tried to solve the situation by simply and simply (1) crossing out the number of infected from the statistics, which was strange, but again it only drew ridicule. Moreover, people have become nervous because there are still queues for tests six months after the pandemic began and nothing is working.Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)The main inaccuracy in the translation is in the expression "simply and simply", which is a Czech-specific expression and a direct translation of the expression probably does not exist.
Isn’t that unreal ? 🙂 The difference in the translation of the text is huge.
Conclusions
A simple demonstration of using DeepL showed how incredibly great this tool is. Compared to Google translator it is a multiple improvement in machine translation of text.
This entire article was originally written in Czech and then translated into English using the freely available version of DeepL, available here. ** Apart from the title of the article and the last sentence, I have not edited the language translation in any way**. I’m not sure if you recognized it 🙂
DeepL will very likely be used in the near future, among others in:
- Companies: translation of texts for web, product information, internal documents, company presentations, etc.
- Diploma and dissertation papers
- Linguistic mutations of websites
In my opinion, in the horizon of 5 -7 years people will only translate texts that contain specific elements of emotion and which have an artistic subtext, poems, novels or other very specific texts. Other texts will not be financially viable to have translated by humans. The most expensive license DeepL currently costs 40 EUR/month. If its creators can keep its prices to the cost of a translator, then humans will not be necessary for most translations.
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