View source for Google Translate

{{Short description|Multilingual neural machine translation service}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2014}}
{{Pp|small=yes}}
{{Pp-move|small=yes}}
{{Infobox website
|name = Google Translate
|logo = Google Translate logo.svg
|logo_size = 100px
|screenshot = Google Translate screenshot.png
|caption = Google Translate website homepage
|url = {{URL|https://translate.google.com}}
|commercial = Yes
|type = [[Neural machine translation]]
|registration = Optional
|language = {{:Google Translate}} languages; see [[#Supported languages|below]]
|num_users = Over 500 million people daily
|owner = [[Google]]
|launch_date = {{start date and age|2006|4|28}} (as [[statistical machine translation]])<ref name="Statistical machine translation">{{cite web|last=Och|first=Franz Josef|author-link=Franz Josef Och|date=April 28, 2006|title=Statistical machine translation live|url=https://ai.googleblog.com/2006/04/statistical-machine-translation-live.html|work=[[Google AI]] Blog|publisher=[[Google]] Inc.|access-date=February 15, 2011|archive-date=May 23, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180523100259/https://ai.googleblog.com/2006/04/statistical-machine-translation-live.html|url-status=live}}</ref><br />{{start date and age|2016|11|15}} (as [[neural machine translation]])<ref name="Turovsky, Barak, found in translation">{{cite web|last=Turovsky|first=Barak|date=November 15, 2016|title=Found in translation: More accurate, fluent sentences in Google Translate|url=https://blog.google/products/translate/found-translation-more-accurate-fluent-sentences-google-translate/|website=The Keyword [[Google]] Blog|publisher=[[Google]] Inc.|access-date=December 1, 2016|archive-date=April 7, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170407071226/https://blog.google/products/translate/found-translation-more-accurate-fluent-sentences-google-translate/|url-status=live}}</ref>
|current_status = Active
}}
'''Google Translate''' is a [[multilingualism|multilingual]] [[neural machine translation|neural]] [[machine translation]] service developed by [[Google]] to [[translation|translate]] text, documents and websites from one language into another. It offers a [[web application|website interface]], a [[mobile app]] for [[Android (operating system)|Android]] and [[iOS]], as well as an [[API]] that helps developers build [[browser extension]]s and [[application software|software application]]s.<ref name="translations made simple">{{cite web|author=<!-- Staff writer(s); no by-line. -->|date=April 8, 2020|title=Translations Made Simple: The Usefulness of Translation Apps|url=https://www.ulatus.com/translation-blog/most-globally-used-translated-apps/|website=Ulatus|access-date=April 29, 2020|archive-date=April 29, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200429054905/https://www.ulatus.com/translation-blog/most-globally-used-translated-apps/|url-status=live}}</ref> As of {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTYEAR}}, Google Translate supports {{:Google Translate}} languages and language varieties at various levels.<ref name="supported languages">{{cite web|author=<!-- Staff writer(s); no by-line. -->|title=See which features work with each language|url=https://translate.google.com/intl/en/about/languages/|website=Google Translate|publisher=[[Google]] Inc.|access-date=July 13, 2015|archive-date=January 12, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210112000302/https://translate.google.com/intl/en/about/languages/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Caswell, Isaac, 110 new languages">{{cite web|last=Caswell|first=Isaac|date=27 June 2024|title=110 new languages are coming to Google Translate|url=https://blog.google/products/translate/google-translate-new-languages-2024/|website=Google Translate Blog|publisher=[[Google]] Inc.|access-date=30 June 2024}}</ref> It served over 200 million people daily in May 2013,<ref name="Shankland, Stephen, 200 million people">{{cite web|last=Shankland|first=Stephen|date=May 18, 2013|title=Google Translate now serves 200 million people daily|url=https://www.cnet.com/news/google-translate-now-serves-200-million-people-daily/|website=[[CNET]]|publisher=[[Red Ventures]]; [[Paramount Streaming|CBS Interactive]] (at the time of publication)|access-date=October 17, 2014|archive-date=December 4, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191204114514/https://www.cnet.com/news/google-translate-now-serves-200-million-people-daily/|url-status=live}}</ref> and over 500 million total users {{as of|2016|April|lc=y}},<ref name="Turovsky, Barak, ten years of Google Translate">{{cite web|last=Turovsky|first=Barak|date=April 28, 2016|title=Ten years of Google Translate|url=https://www.blog.google/products/translate/ten-years-of-google-translate/|website=Google Translate Blog|publisher=[[Google]] Inc.|access-date=December 24, 2019|archive-date=December 24, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191224080107/https://www.blog.google/products/translate/ten-years-of-google-translate/|url-status=live}}</ref> with more than 100 billion words translated daily.

Launched in April 2006 as a [[statistical machine translation]] service, it originally used [[United Nations]] and [[European Parliament]] documents and transcripts to gather linguistic data. Rather than translating languages directly, it first translated text to English and then pivoted to the target language in most of the language combinations it posited in its grid,<ref name="pivot">{{cite web|last=Benjamin|first=Martin|date=April 1, 2019|title=How GT Pivots through English|url=https://www.teachyoubackwards.com/extras/pivot/|website=Teach You Backwards|access-date=December 24, 2019|archive-date=January 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210113221642/https://www.teachyoubackwards.com/extras/pivot/|url-status=live}}</ref> with a few exceptions including Catalan–Spanish.<ref name="Catalan to Spanish translations">{{cite web|last=Benjamin|first=Martin|date=April 1, 2019|title=Catalan to Spanish Translations|url=https://www.teachyoubackwards.com/extras/catalan-to-spanish-translations/|website=Teach You Backwards|access-date=December 24, 2019|archive-date=December 24, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191224074444/https://www.teachyoubackwards.com/extras/catalan-to-spanish-translations/|url-status=live}}</ref> During a translation, it looked for patterns in millions of documents to help decide which words to choose and how to arrange them in the target language. In recent years, it has used a [[deep learning]] model to power its translations. Its accuracy, which has been criticized{{by whom|date=June 2024}} on several occasions,<ref name="Hofstadter, Douglas">{{cite web|last=Hofstadter|first=Douglas|author-link=Douglas Hofstadter|date=January 30, 2018|title=The Shallowness of Google Translate|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/01/the-shallowness-of-google-translate/551570/|website=[[The Atlantic]]|access-date=March 24, 2020|archive-date=March 22, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200322231523/https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/01/the-shallowness-of-google-translate/551570/|url-status=live}}</ref> has been measured to vary greatly across languages.<ref name="in-depth study">{{cite web|last=Benjamin|first=Martin|date=March 30, 2019|title=Source data for Teach You Backwards: An In-Depth Study of Google Translate for 108 Languages|url=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fJQLMj8O5z3Q7eKDxi1tNNrFipiEL0UDyaEF0fleZ54/edit?pli=1#gid=0|website=Teach You Backwards|access-date=December 24, 2019|archive-date=December 24, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191224075354/https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fJQLMj8O5z3Q7eKDxi1tNNrFipiEL0UDyaEF0fleZ54/edit?pli=1#gid=0|url-status=live}}</ref> In November 2016, Google announced that Google Translate would switch to a [[neural machine translation]] engine – [[Google Neural Machine Translation]] (GNMT) – which translated "whole sentences at a time, rather than just piece by piece. It uses this broader context to help it figure out the most relevant translation, which it then rearranges and adjusts to be more like a human speaking with proper grammar".<ref name="Turovsky, Barak, found in translation" />

== History ==
Google Translate is a web-based free-to-use translation service developed by Google in April 2006.<ref name="Sommerlad, Joe">{{cite web|last=Sommerlad|first=Joe|date=June 19, 2018|title=Google Translate: How does the search giant's multilingual interpreter actually work?|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/google-translate-how-work-foreign-languages-interpreter-app-search-engine-a8406131.html|url-access=registration|website=[[The Independent]]|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201102162151/https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/google-translate-how-work-foreign-languages-interpreter-app-search-engine-a8406131.html|archive-date=November 2, 2020|access-date=November 28, 2018}}</ref> It translates multiple forms of texts and media such as words, phrases and webpages.

Originally, Google Translate was released as a [[statistical machine translation]] (SMT) service.<ref name="Sommerlad, Joe" /> The input text had to be translated into English first before being translated into the selected language.<ref name="Sommerlad, Joe" /> Since SMT uses predictive [[algorithm]]s to translate text, it had poor grammatical accuracy. Despite this, Google initially did not hire experts to resolve this limitation due to the ever-evolving nature of language.<ref name="Sommerlad, Joe" />

In January 2010, Google introduced an [[Android (operating system)|Android]] app and [[iOS]] version in February 2011 to serve as a portable personal interpreter.<ref name="Sommerlad, Joe" /> As of February 2010, it was integrated into browsers such as Chrome and was able to pronounce the translated text, automatically recognize words in a picture and spot unfamiliar text and languages.<ref name="Sommerlad, Joe" />

In May 2014, Google acquired [[Word Lens]] to improve the quality of visual and voice translation.<ref name="Petrovan, Bogdan">{{cite web|last=Petrovan|first=Bogdan|date=January 14, 2015|title=Google Translate just got smarter: Word Lens and instant voice translations in the latest update|url=https://www.androidauthority.com/google-translate-word-lens-voice-translations-580312/|website=Android Authority|access-date=May 28, 2017|archive-date=January 14, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210114053852/https://www.androidauthority.com/google-translate-word-lens-voice-translations-580312/|url-status=live}}</ref> It is able to scan text or a picture using the device and have it translated instantly. Moreover, the system [[language identification|automatically identifies]] foreign languages and translates speech without requiring individuals to tap the microphone button whenever [[speech translation]] is needed.<ref name="Petrovan, Bogdan" />

In November 2016, Google transitioned its translating method to a system called [[neural machine translation]].<ref name="McGuire, Nick">{{cite web|last1=McGuire|first1=Nick|last2=Argondizzo|first2=Peter|date=July 26, 2018|title=How accurate is Google Translate in 2018?|url=https://www.argotrans.com/blog/accurate-google-translate-2018/|website=ARGO Translation|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125043932/https://www.argotrans.com/blog/accurate-google-translate-2018/|archive-date=January 25, 2021|access-date=November 29, 2018}}<!-- A redesign of ''ARGO Translation'' replaces 'Nick McGuire' with 'Peter Argondizzo' as the author of this article. --></ref> It uses [[deep learning]] techniques to translate whole sentences at a time, which has been measured to be more accurate between English and French, German, Spanish, and Chinese.<ref name="bridging the gap">{{cite arXiv|last1=Wu|first1=Yonghui|last2=Schuster
|first2=Mike|last3=Chen|first3=Zhifeng|last4=Le|first4=Quoc V.|last5=Norouzi|first5=Mohammad|last6=Macherey|first6=Wolfgang|last7=Krikun|first7=Maxim|last8=Cao|first8=Yuan|last9=Gao|first9=Qin|last10=Macherey
|first10=Klaus|last11=Klingner|first11=Jeff|last12=Shah|first12=Apurva|last13=Johnson|first13=Melvin|last14=Liu|first14=Xiaobing|last15=Kaiser|first15=Łukasz|last16=Gouws|first16=Stephan|last17=Kato
|first17=Yoshikiyo|last18=Kudo|first18=Taku|last19=Kazawa|first19=Hideto|last20=Stevens|first20=Keith|last21=Kurian|first21=George|last22=Patil|first22=Nishant|last23=Wang|first23=Wei|last24=Young|first24=Cliff
|last25=Smith|first25=Jason|last26=Riesa|first26=Jason|last27=Rudnick|first27=Alex|last28=Vinyals|first28=Oriol|last29=Corrado|first29=Greg|last30=Hughes|first30=Macduff|last31=Dean|first31=Jeff|author31-link=Jeff Dean|date=October 8, 2016|title=Google's Neural Machine Translation System: Bridging the Gap between Human and Machine Translation|eprint=1609.08144|class=cs.CL}} Retrieved May 14, 2017</ref> No measurement results have been provided by Google researchers for GNMT from English to other languages, other languages to English, or between language pairs that do not include English. As of 2018, it translates more than 100 billion words a day.<ref name="McGuire, Nick" />

In 2017, Google Translate was used during a court hearing when court officials at [[Teesside]] Magistrates' Court failed to book an interpreter for the Chinese defendant.<ref name="Corcoran, Kieran">{{cite web|last=Corcoran|first=Kieran|date=August 11, 2017|title=A British court was forced to rely on Google Translate because it had no interpreter|url=https://www.businessinsider.com/teesside-magistrates-court-forced-to-rely-on-google-translate-because-it-had-no-interpreter-2017-8|website=[[Business Insider]]|publisher=[[Insider Inc.]], [[Axel Springer SE]]|access-date=August 11, 2017|archive-date=August 11, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170811181816/http://www.businessinsider.com/teesside-magistrates-court-forced-to-rely-on-google-translate-because-it-had-no-interpreter-2017-8|url-status=live}}</ref>

A petition for Google to add [[Cree language|Cree]] to Google Translate was created in 2021, but it was not one of the languages in development at the time of the Translate Community's closure.<ref name="Chidley-Hill, John">{{cite web|last=Chidley-Hill|first=John|date=February 21, 2021|title=Online petition asks for Cree language to be added to Google Translate|url=https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/online-petition-asks-for-cree-language-to-be-added-to-google-translate-1.5317866|publisher=[[CTV News]], [[Bell Media]] (owner)|agency=[[The Canadian Press]]|access-date=February 26, 2021|archive-date=February 23, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210223075853/https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/online-petition-asks-for-cree-language-to-be-added-to-google-translate-1.5317866|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Beattie, Samantha">{{cite web|last=Beattie|first=Samantha|date=February 23, 2021|title=Google Translate's Exclusion Of Indigenous Languages A 'Squandered' Opportunity|url=https://www.huffpost.com/archive/ca/entry/google-translate-cree-indigenous-language_ca_6035242ac5b67c329620c3e3|website=[[HuffPost]] Canada|publisher=[[BuzzFeed]]|access-date=February 26, 2021|archive-date=November 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211127104656/https://www.huffpost.com/archive/ca/entry/google-translate-cree-indigenous-language_ca_6035242ac5b67c329620c3e3|url-status=live}}</ref>

At the end of September 2022, Google Translate was discontinued in [[mainland China]], which Google said was due to "low usage".<ref name="Wiggers, Kyle">{{cite web|last=Wiggers|first=Kyle|date=September 30, 2022|title=Google appears to have disabled Google Translate in parts of China|url=https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/30/google-appears-to-have-disabled-google-translate-in-parts-of-china/|website=[[TechCrunch]]|publisher=[[AOL]]|access-date=October 1, 2022|archive-date=September 30, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220930231440/https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/30/google-appears-to-have-disabled-google-translate-in-parts-of-china/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Strumpf, Dan">{{cite web|last=Strumpf|first=Dan|date=October 3, 2022|title=Google Pulls Translation App From China|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-pulls-translation-app-from-china-11664795087|url-access=subscription|work=[[The Wall Street Journal]]|access-date=October 3, 2022|archive-date=October 3, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221003115656/https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-pulls-translation-app-from-china-11664795087|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 2024, a record of 110 languages including Cantonese, Tok Pisin and some regional languages in Russia including Bashkir, Chechen, Ossetian and Crimean Tatar were added. The languages were added through the help of the [[PaLM 2]] [[Generative AI]] model.<ref name="Jibin, Joseph">{{cite web|last=Joseph|first=Jibin|date=27 June 2024|title=Google Translate Adds Support for 110 Languages, Its Largest Expansion Ever|url=https://www.pcmag.com/news/google-translate-adds-support-for-110-languages-its-largest-expansion-ever|website=[[PCMag]]|access-date=4 September 2024}}</ref><ref name="Olga, Kusikova">{{cite web|last=Olga|first=Kusikova|date=28 June 2024|title=Стало известно, какие языки добавят в «Google Переводчик». Их больше 100.|trans-title=It has become known which languages will be added to "Google Translate". There are more than 100 of them.|url=https://www.rbc.ru/life/news/667d77c39a79470e2a58b589|website=[[RBK Group]]|language=Russian|access-date=4 July 2024}}</ref>

In May 2025, users across the web{{who|date=June 2025}} found that if a [[Traditional Chinese characters|Traditional Chinese]] phrase entered in the [[French language|French]] section is translated to [[Traditional Chinese characters|Traditional Chinese]], Google Translate will provide strange translations. For example, if "{{lang|zh|習近平的裸體}}" ({{transliteration|zh|Xíjìnpíng de luǒtǐ}}; [[Xi Jinping]] in [[naked]] style) is entered, the translation "{{lang|zh|中國人民的愛}}" ({{transliteration|zh|Zhōngguó rénmín de ài}}), which means "what Chinese love", will result.<ref>{{Cite news |last=顏慧 |first=郭 |date=1 May 2025 |title=Google翻譯出怪怪的？ 輸入「習近平的裸體」譯為「中國人民的愛」 |url=https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/novelty/breakingnews/5029102 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250502063817/https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/novelty/breakingnews/5029102 |archive-date=2 May 2025 |access-date=2 May 2025 |work=[[Liberty Times]]}}</ref>

== Functions ==
Google Translate can translate multiple forms of text and media, which includes text, speech, and text within still or moving images.<ref name="About Google Translate">{{cite web|author=<!-- Staff writer(s); no by-line. -->|title=Google Translate - A Personal Interpreter on Your Phone or Computer|url=https://translate.google.com/intl/en/about/|website=Google Translate|publisher=[[Google]] Inc.|access-date=May 28, 2013|archive-date=January 12, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210112000307/https://translate.google.com/intl/en/about/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Google Translate Help">{{cite web|author=<!-- Staff writer(s); no by-line. -->|title=Google Translate Help|url=https://support.google.com/translate/?hl=en|publisher=Google Inc.|access-date=June 4, 2014|archive-date=June 3, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140603125032/https://support.google.com/translate/?hl=en|url-status=live}}</ref> Specifically, its functions include:
*'''Written Words Translation:''' a function that translates written words or text to a foreign language.<ref name="Translate written words">{{cite web|author=<!-- Staff writer(s); no by-line. -->|title=Translate written words|url=https://support.google.com/translate/answer/6142478/?hl=en|website=Google Translate Help|publisher=Google Inc.|access-date=December 1, 2016|archive-date=May 1, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160501210801/https://support.google.com/translate/answer/6142478?hl=en|url-status=live}}</ref>
*'''Website Translation:''' a function that translates a whole webpage to selected languages.<ref name="Translate documents and webpages">{{cite web|author=<!-- Staff writer(s); no by-line. -->|title=Translate documents & webpages|url=https://support.google.com/translate/answer/2534559/?hl=en|website=Google Translate Help|publisher=Google Inc.|access-date=December 1, 2016|archive-date=May 1, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160501210840/https://support.google.com/translate/answer/2534559?hl=en|url-status=live}}</ref>
*'''Document Translation:''' a function that translates a document uploaded by the users to selected languages. The documents should be in the form of: .doc, .docx, .odf, .pdf, .ppt, .pptx, .ps, .rtf, .txt, .xls, .xlsx.<ref name="Translate documents and webpages" />
*'''Speech Translation:''' a function that instantly translates spoken language into the selected foreign language.<ref name="Translate by speech">{{cite web|author=<!-- Staff writer(s); no by-line. -->|title=Translate by speech|url=https://support.google.com/translate/answer/6142468/?hl=en|website=Google Translate Help|publisher=Google Inc.|access-date=December 1, 2016|archive-date=May 1, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160501211421/https://support.google.com/translate/answer/6142468?hl=en|url-status=live}}</ref>
*'''Mobile App Translation:''' in 2018, Google introduced its new Google Translate feature called "Tap to Translate", which made instant translation accessible inside any app without exiting or switching it.<ref name="Translate text in other apps">{{cite web|author=<!-- Staff writer(s); no by-line. -->|title=Translate text in other apps|url=https://support.google.com/translate/answer/6350658/?hl=en|website=Google Translate Help|publisher=Google Inc.|access-date=February 4, 2022|archive-date=January 13, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220113221827/https://support.google.com/translate/answer/6350658/?hl=en|url-status=live}}</ref>
*'''Image Translation:''' a function that identifies text in a picture taken by the users and translates text on the screen instantly by images.<ref name="Translate images">{{cite web|author=<!-- Staff writer(s); no by-line. -->|title=Translate images|url=https://support.google.com/translate/answer/6142483/?hl=en|website=Google Translate Help|publisher=Google Inc.|access-date=November 20, 2018|archive-date=October 26, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181026185113/https://support.google.com/translate/answer/6142483?hl=en|url-status=live}}</ref>
*'''Handwritten Translation:''' a function that translates language that are handwritten on the phone screen or drawn on a virtual keyboard without the support of a keyboard.<ref name="Translate with handwriting or virtual keyboard">{{cite web|author=<!-- Staff writer(s); no by-line. -->|title=Translate with handwriting or virtual keyboard|url=https://support.google.com/translate/answer/6142469/?hl=en|website=Google Translate Help|publisher=Google Inc.|access-date=December 1, 2016|archive-date=May 1, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160501210817/https://support.google.com/translate/answer/6142469?hl=en|url-status=live}}</ref>
*'''Bilingual Conversation Translation:''' a function that translates conversations in multiple languages.<ref name="Translate a bilingual conversation">{{cite web|author=<!-- Staff writer(s); no by-line. -->|title=Translate a bilingual conversation|url=https://support.google.com/translate/answer/6142474/?hl=en|website=Google Translate Help|publisher=Google Inc.|access-date=February 4, 2022|archive-date=January 13, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220113221458/https://support.google.com/translate/answer/6142474/?hl=en|url-status=live}}</ref>
*'''Transcription:''' a function that transcribes speech in different languages.<ref name="Transcribe in Google Translate">{{cite web|author=<!-- Staff writer(s); no by-line. -->|title=Transcribe in Google Translate|url=https://support.google.com/translate/answer/9724492/?hl=en|website=Google Translate Help|publisher=Google Inc.|access-date=February 4, 2022|archive-date=January 15, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220115063150/https://support.google.com/translate/answer/9724492/?hl=en|url-status=live}}</ref>

For most of its features, Google Translate provides the pronunciation, dictionary, and listening to translation. Additionally, Google Translate has introduced its own Translate app, so translation is available with a mobile phone in offline mode.<ref name="About Google Translate" /><ref name="Google Translate Help" />

== Features ==
[[File:Google translate webpage.png|thumb|[[English Wikipedia]]'s homepage translated into [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]]]]

=== Web interface ===
Google Translate produces approximations across languages of multiple forms of text and media, including text, speech, websites, or text on display in still or live video images.<ref name="About Google Translate" /><ref name="Google Translate Help" /> For some languages, Google Translate can synthesize speech from text,<ref name="Translate written words" /> and in certain pairs it is possible to highlight specific corresponding words and phrases between the source and target text. Results are sometimes shown with dictional information below the translation box, but it is not a dictionary<ref name="when and how to use GT dictionary">{{cite web|last=Benjamin|first=Martin|date=March 30, 2019|title=Dictionary - When & How to Use Google Translate|url=https://www.teachyoubackwards.com/how-to-use-google-translate/#dictionary|website=Teach You Backwards|access-date=December 25, 2019|archive-date=December 24, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191224074813/https://www.teachyoubackwards.com/how-to-use-google-translate/#dictionary|url-status=live}}</ref> and has been shown to invent translations in all languages for words it does not recognize.<ref name="Ooga Booga">{{cite web|last=Benjamin|first=Martin|date=April 1, 2019|title=Ooga Booga: Better than a Dictionary - Qualitative Analysis of Google Translate across 108 Languages|url=https://www.teachyoubackwards.com/qualitative-analysis/#ooga-booga|website=Teach You Backwards|access-date=December 25, 2019|archive-date=January 30, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210130084443/https://www.teachyoubackwards.com/qualitative-analysis/#ooga-booga|url-status=live}}</ref> If "Detect language" is selected, text in an unknown language can be automatically identified. In the web interface, users can suggest alternate translations, such as for technical terms, or correct mistakes. These suggestions may be included in future updates to the translation process. If a user enters a [[URL]] in the source text, Google Translate will produce a [[hyperlink]] to a machine translation of the website.<ref name="Translate documents and webpages" /> Users can save translation proposals in a "phrasebook" for later use, and a shareable URL is generated for each translation.<ref name="Save translations">{{cite web|author=<!-- Staff writer(s); no by-line. -->|title=Save translations in a phrasebook|url=https://support.google.com/translate/answer/6142480/?hl=en|website=Google Translate Help|publisher=Google Inc.|access-date=May 28, 2017|archive-date=April 28, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160428114231/https://support.google.com/translate/answer/6142480?hl=en|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="AK, Sony">{{cite web|last=AK|first=Sony|date=December 5, 2019|orig-date=December 3, 2019|title=Practical Puppeteer: Playing with Google Translate to translate a text|url=https://dev.to/sonyarianto/practical-puppeteer-access-to-google-translate-to-translate-a-text-160j|website=DEV.to|access-date=January 25, 2022|archive-date=January 25, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125223330/https://dev.to/sonyarianto/practical-puppeteer-access-to-google-translate-to-translate-a-text-160j|url-status=live}}</ref> For some languages, text can be entered via an [[virtual keyboard|on-screen keyboard]], whether through [[handwriting recognition]] or [[speech recognition]].<ref name="Translate with handwriting or virtual keyboard" /><ref name="Translate by speech" /> It is possible to enter searches in a source language that are first translated to a destination language allowing one to browse and interpret results from the selected destination language in the source language.

Texts written in the [[Arabic script|Arabic]], [[Cyrillic script|Cyrillic]], [[Devanagari]] and [[Greek alphabet|Greek]] scripts can be automatically transliterated from their phonetic equivalents written in the [[Latin alphabet]]. The browser version of Google Translate provides the option to show phonetic equivalents of text translated from Japanese to English. The same option is not available on the paid API version.

[[File:Google English accent map.svg|thumb|Accent of English that the "text-to-speech" audio of Google Translate of each country uses:
{{legend|#22B14C|British (Received Pronunciation) (female)}}
{{legend|#F0F|General American (female)}}
{{legend|#FFF200|General Australian (female)}}
{{legend|#FFA500|Indian (female)}}
{{legend|black|No Google translate service}}]]
Many of the more popular languages have a "text-to-speech" audio function that is able to read back a text in that language, up to several hundred words or so. In the case of [[pluricentric language]]s, the accent depends on the region: for English, in the [[Americas]], most of the [[Asia–Pacific]] and [[West Asia]], the audio uses a female [[General American English|General American]] accent, whereas in Europe, [[Hong Kong]], [[Malaysia]], [[Singapore]], [[Guyana]] and all other parts of the world, a female [[British English|British]] ([[Received Pronunciation]]) accent is used, except for a special [[Australian English|General Australian]] accent used in Australia, New Zealand and [[Norfolk Island]], and an [[Indian English]] accent used in India; for Spanish, in the [[Americas]], a [[Spanish language in the Americas|Latin American]] accent is used, while in other parts of the world, a [[Castilian Spanish|Castilian]] accent is used; for [[French language|French]], a [[Quebec French|Quebec]] accent is used in Canada, while in other parts of the world, a [[Standard French|standard European accent]] is used; for [[Bengali language|Bengali]], a male Bangladeshi accent is used, except in India, where a special female Indian Bengali accent is used instead. Until March 2023, some less widely spoken languages used the open-source [[eSpeak]] synthesizer for their speech; producing a robotic, awkward voice that may be difficult to understand.

==== Browser integration ====
Google Translate is available in some [[web browser]]s as an optional downloadable [[browser extension|extension]] that can run the translation engine, which allow right-click command access to the translation service.<ref name="Firefox">{{cite web|title=Search results for "Google Translate"|url=https://addons.mozilla.org/en/firefox/search/?q=Google+Translate|work=[[Add-on (Mozilla)#Website|Add-ons for Firefox]]|publisher=[[Mozilla Foundation]]|access-date=August 7, 2009|archive-date=April 19, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230419192524/https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/search/?q=Google+Translate|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Chrome Web Store">{{cite web|title=Google Translate|url=https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-translate/aapbdbdomjkkjkaonfhkkikfgjllcleb/?hl=en|work=[[Chrome Web Store]]|publisher=[[Google]] Inc.|access-date=July 23, 2010|archive-date=April 8, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130408173502/https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-translate/aapbdbdomjkkjkaonfhkkikfgjllcleb?hl=en|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Baldwin, Roberto">{{cite web|last=Baldwin|first=Roberto|date=October 16, 2014|title=Google introduces Google Translate Chrome Extension for inline translations of text|url=https://thenextweb.com/news/google-introduces-google-translate-chrome-extension-inline-translations-text|website=[[TNW (website)|TNW]]|publisher=[[Financial Times]]|access-date=May 28, 2017|archive-date=April 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210424133130/https://thenextweb.com/news/google-introduces-google-translate-chrome-extension-inline-translations-text|url-status=live}}</ref> In February 2010, Google Translate was integrated into the [[Google Chrome]] browser by default, for optional automatic webpage translation.<ref name="Brinkmann, Martin">{{cite web|last=Brinkmann|first=Martin|date=July 19, 2016|orig-date=February 7, 2010|title=Google Translate Integrated In Google Chrome 5|url=https://www.ghacks.net/2010/02/07/google-translate-integrated-in-google-chrome-5/|publisher=[[Ghacks]] Technology News|access-date=July 23, 2010|archive-date=July 27, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100727124039/http://www.ghacks.net/2010/02/07/google-translate-integrated-in-google-chrome-5|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="TechWhack Google Chrome Translate">{{cite web|author=<!-- Staff writer(s); no by-line. -->|date=February 15, 2010|title=Google Chrome 5 features an integrated Google Translate service|url=https://stuff.techwhack.com/8388-google-chrome-5-translate|website=TechWhack|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100726134705/http://stuff.techwhack.com/8388-google-chrome-5-translate|archive-date=July 26, 2010|access-date=July 23, 2010}}</ref><ref name="Wauters, Robin">{{cite web|last=Wauters|first=Robin|author2=<!-- Staff writer(s); no by-line. -->|date=February 14, 2010|title=Rant: Google Translate Toolbar In Chrome 5 Needs An 'Off' Button|url=https://techcrunch.com/2010/02/14/google-chrome-5-translate-toolbar/|website=[[TechCrunch]]|publisher=[[AOL]]|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170728173033/https://techcrunch.com/2010/02/14/google-chrome-5-translate-toolbar/|archive-date=July 28, 2017|access-date=May 28, 2017}}<!-- A redesign of ''[[TechCrunch]]'' omits the author from this article. --></ref>

=== Mobile app ===
{{Infobox software
|name = Google Translate
|logo = Google Translate logo.svg
|screenshot = Google Translate for Android screenshot.png
|screenshot size = 200px
|caption = A screenshot of the Android app of Google Translate
|collapsible = yes
|developer = [[Google]]
|released = {{start date and age|2010|01|01}} (for Android)<br />{{start date and age|2011|02|08}} (for iOS)
|ver layout = stacked
|platform = {{hlist|[[Android (operating system)|Android]] [[Android Marshmallow|6.0]] and later|[[iOS 12]].4 and later}}
|size = 37.44 [[megabyte|MB]] (Android)<!-- use arm64-v8a --><br />177.4 MB (iOS)
|language = {{:Google Translate}} languages; see [[#Supported languages|below]]
|genre = [[Neural machine translation]]
|website = {{URL|1=https://translate.google.com/m?hl=en}}
}}
The Google Translate app for [[Android (operating system)|Android]] and [[iOS]] supports {{:Google Translate}} languages and can propose translations for 37 languages via photo, 32 via voice in "conversation mode", and 27 via live video imagery in "augmented reality mode".<ref name="Turovsky, Barak, see the world">{{cite web|last=Turovsky|first=Barak|date=July 29, 2015|title=See the world in your language with Google Translate|url=https://blog.google/products/translate/see-world-in-your-language-with-google/|website=The Keyword [[Google]] Blog|publisher=[[Google]] Inc.|access-date=July 30, 2015|archive-date=April 7, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190407211523/https://blog.google/products/translate/see-world-in-your-language-with-google/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Setalvad, Ariha">{{cite web|last=Setalvad|first=Ariha|date=July 29, 2015|title=Google Translate adds 20 new languages to video text translation|url=https://www.theverge.com/2015/7/29/9061135/google-translate-update-new-languages-word-lens|website=[[The Verge]]|publisher=[[Vox Media]]|access-date=July 30, 2015|archive-date=November 8, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108092746/http://www.theverge.com/2015/7/29/9061135/google-translate-update-new-languages-word-lens|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Android app was released in January 2010, and for iOS on February 8, 2011,<ref name="Zhu, Wenzhang">{{cite web|last=Zhu|first=Wenzhang|date=February 8, 2011|title=Introducing the Google Translate app for iPhone|url=https://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2011/02/introducing-google-translate-app-for.html|website=[[List of Android apps by Google|Google Mobile]] Blog|publisher=[[Google]] Inc.|access-date=February 15, 2011|archive-date=February 16, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110216173916/http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2011/02/introducing-google-translate-app-for.html|url-status=live}}</ref> after an [[HTML5]] [[web application]] was released for iOS users in August 2008.<ref name="Hutchinson, Allen">{{cite web|last=Hutchison|first=Allen|date=August 7, 2008|title=Google Translate now for iPhone|url=https://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2008/08/google-translate-now-for-iphone.html|website=[[List of Android apps by Google|Google Mobile]] Blog|publisher=[[Google]] Inc.|access-date=March 23, 2017|archive-date=March 20, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170320185657/http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2008/08/google-translate-now-for-iphone.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The Android app is compatible with devices running at least Android 2.1, while the iOS app is compatible with [[iPod Touch]]es, [[iPad]]s and [[iPhone]]s updated to iOS 7.0+.<ref name="iTunes">{{cite web|title=Google Translate on the App Store|url=https://apps.apple.com/app/google-translate/id414706506|work=Google|access-date=July 29, 2015|archive-date=July 27, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190727181501/https://apps.apple.com/app/google-translate/id414706506|url-status=live}}</ref>

A January 2011 Android version experimented with a "Conversation Mode" that aims to allow users to communicate fluidly with a nearby person in another language.<ref name="Hachman, Mark">{{cite web|last=Hachman|first=Mark|author2=<!-- Staff writer(s); no by-line. -->|date=January 12, 2011|title=Google Translate's New 'Conversation Mode': Hands On|url=https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2375655,00.asp|website=[[PCMag]]|publisher=[[Ziff Davis]]|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180704123952/https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2375655,00.asp|archive-date=July 4, 2018|access-date=May 28, 2017}}<!-- A redesign of ''[[PCMag]]'' replaces 'Mark Hachman' with 'PCMag Staff' as the author of this article. --></ref> Originally limited to English and Spanish, the feature received support for 12 new languages, still in testing, the following October.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/oct/13/google-translate-14-dialects | title=Google extends Android translation tool to 14 languages including Russian and Mandarin | first=Josh | last=Halliday | work=[[The Guardian]] | date=October 13, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.theverge.com/2011/10/13/2488411/google-translate-app-for-android-now-has-speech-to-speech | title=Google Translate app for Android now has speech to speech translations in 14 languages | first=Laura | last=June | work=[[The Verge]] | date=October 13, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Velazco |first=Chris |title=Google Translate For Android Gets Upgraded "Conversation Mode" |url=https://techcrunch.com/2011/10/13/google-translate-for-android-gets-upgraded-conversation-mode/ |website=[[TechCrunch]] |date=October 13, 2011 |archive-date=November 25, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201125143850/https://techcrunch.com/2011/10/13/google-translate-for-android-gets-upgraded-conversation-mode/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

The 'Camera input' functionality allows users to take a photograph of a document, signboard, etc. Google Translate recognises the text from the image using [[optical character recognition]] (OCR) technology and gives the translation. Camera input is not available for all languages.

In January 2015, the apps gained the ability to propose translations of physical signs in real time using the device's camera, as a result of Google's acquisition of the [[Word Lens]] app.<ref name="Turovsky, Barak, hello">{{cite web|last=Turovsky|first=Barak|date=January 14, 2015|title=Hallo, hola, olá to the new, more powerful Google Translate app|url=https://blog.google/products/translate/hallo-hola-ola-more-powerful-translate/|website=The Keyword [[Google]] Blog|publisher=[[Google]] Inc.|access-date=January 14, 2015|archive-date=January 6, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170106193105/https://blog.google/products/translate/hallo-hola-ola-more-powerful-translate/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Russell, Jon">{{cite web|last=Russell|first=Jon|date=January 14, 2015|title=Google Translate Now Does Real-Time Voice And Sign Translations On Mobile|url=https://techcrunch.com/2015/01/14/amaaaaaazing/|website=[[TechCrunch]]|publisher=[[AOL]]|access-date=May 28, 2017|archive-date=November 29, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201129162504/https://techcrunch.com/2015/01/14/amaaaaaazing/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Petrovan, Bogdan" /> The original January launch only supported seven languages, but a July update added support for 20 new languages, with the release of a new implementation that utilizes [[convolutional neural network]]s, and also enhanced the speed and quality of Conversation Mode translations ([[augmented reality]]).<ref name="Turovsky, Barak, see the world" /><ref name="Setalvad, Ariha" /><ref name="Good, Otavio">{{cite web|last=Good|first=Otávio|author-link=Otávio Good|date=July 29, 2015|title=How Google Translate squeezes deep learning onto a phone|url=https://ai.googleblog.com/2015/07/how-google-translate-squeezes-deep.html|website=[[Google AI]] Blog|publisher=[[Google]] Inc.|access-date=July 30, 2015|archive-date=June 12, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612162754/https://ai.googleblog.com/2015/07/how-google-translate-squeezes-deep.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Gush, Andrew">{{cite web|last=Gush|first=Andrew|date=July 29, 2015|title=Google Translate adds video translation support for 25 more languages|url=https://www.androidauthority.com/google-translate-video-translation-629893/|website=Android Authority|access-date=May 28, 2017|archive-date=June 4, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170604013448/http://www.androidauthority.com/google-translate-video-translation-629893/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Olanoff, Drew">{{cite web|last=Olanoff|first=Drew|date=July 29, 2015|title=Google Translate's App Now Instantly Translates Printed Text In 27 Languages|url=https://techcrunch.com/2015/07/29/google-translates-app-now-instantly-translates-printed-text-in-27-languages/|website=[[TechCrunch]]|publisher=[[AOL]]|access-date=May 28, 2017|archive-date=December 24, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201224090007/https://consent.yahoo.com/v2/collectConsent?sessionId=3_cc-session_83a0df9f-0a7d-4663-a383-1e60d1360b2f|url-status=live}}</ref> The feature was subsequently renamed Instant Camera. The technology underlying Instant Camera combines image processing and optical character recognition, then attempts to produce cross-language equivalents using standard Google Translate estimations for the text as it is perceived.<ref name="instant camera translation">{{cite web|last=Benjamin|first=Martin|date=March 30, 2019|title=Instant Camera Translation - Introduction: Into the Black Box of Google Translate|url=https://www.teachyoubackwards.com/introduction/#instant-camera|website=Teach You Backwards|access-date=December 25, 2019|archive-date=December 24, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191224074553/https://www.teachyoubackwards.com/introduction/#instant-camera|url-status=live}}</ref>

On May 11, 2016, Google introduced ''Tap to Translate'' for Google Translate for Android. Upon highlighting text in an app that is in a foreign language, Translate will pop up inside of the app and offer translations.<ref name="Kastrenakes, Jacob">{{cite web|last=Kastrenakes|first=Jacob|date=May 11, 2016|title=Google Translate now works inside any app on Android|url=https://www.theverge.com/2016/5/11/11656900/tap-to-translate-google-translate-inside-any-android-app|website=[[The Verge]]|publisher=[[Vox Media]]|access-date=May 13, 2016|archive-date=May 12, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160512184201/http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/11/11656900/tap-to-translate-google-translate-inside-any-android-app|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== API ===
On May 26, 2011, Google announced that the Google Translate [[API]] for [[software development|software developer]]s had been deprecated and would cease functioning.<ref name="Feldman, Adam, Google Code">{{cite web|last=Feldman|first=Adam|date=June 3, 2011|orig-date=May 26, 2011|editor-last=Knaster|editor-first=Scott|title=Spring cleaning for some of our APIs (Google Code Blog)|url=https://googlecode.blogspot.com/2011/05/spring-cleaning-for-some-of-our-apis.html|work=Official [[Google Developers|Google Code]] Blog|publisher=[[Google]] Inc.|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110528125302/http://googlecode.blogspot.com/2011/05/spring-cleaning-for-some-of-our-apis.html|archive-date=May 28, 2011|access-date=May 28, 2011}}</ref><ref name="Feldman, Adam, Google Developers">{{cite web|last=Feldman|first=Adam|date=June 3, 2011|editor-last=Knaster|editor-first=Scott|title=Spring cleaning for some of our APIs (Google Developers Blog)|url=https://developers.googleblog.com/2011/06/spring-cleaning-for-some-of-our-apis.html|work=[[Google Developers]] Blog|publisher=[[Google]] Inc.|access-date=February 4, 2022|archive-date=February 4, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220204095121/https://developers.googleblog.com/2011/06/spring-cleaning-for-some-of-our-apis.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="GTS Blog, Google to shut down Translate API">{{cite web|last=Grunwald|first=Dave|date=May 27, 2011|title=BREAKING NEWS! Google to shut down Translate API|url=https://blog.gts-translation.com/2011/05/27/breaking-news-google-to-shut-down-translate-api/|website=GTS Blog|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110531023043/http://blog.gts-translation.com/2011/05/27/breaking-news-google-to-shut-down-translate-api/|archive-date=May 31, 2011|access-date=May 6, 2016}}</ref> The Translate API page stated the reason as "substantial economic burden caused by extensive abuse" with an end date set for December 1, 2011.<ref name="Google Translate API">{{cite web|title=Google Translate API (deprecated)|url=https://code.google.com/apis/language/translate/overview.html|work=[[Google Developers|Google Code]]|publisher=[[Google]] Inc.|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110822200912/http://code.google.com/apis/language/translate/overview.html|archive-date=August 22, 2011|access-date=May 28, 2011}}</ref> In response to public pressure, Google announced in June 2011 that the API would continue to be available as a paid service.<ref name="Feldman, Adam, Google Code" /><ref name="Feldman, Adam, Google Developers" /><ref name="GTS Blog, to start charging for translations">{{cite web|last=Grunwald|first=Dave|date=June 4, 2011|title=Google cancels plan to shutdown Translate API. To start charging for translations|url=https://blog.gts-translation.com/2011/06/04/google-cancels-plan-to-shutdown-translate-api-to-start-charging-for-translations/|website=GTS Blog|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110630083754/http://blog.gts-translation.com/2011/06/04/google-cancels-plan-to-shutdown-translate-api-to-start-charging-for-translations|archive-date=June 30, 2011|access-date=June 4, 2011}}</ref>

Because the API was used in numerous third-party websites and apps, the original decision to deprecate it led some developers to criticize Google and question the viability of using Google APIs in their products.<ref name="Wong, George">{{cite web|last=Wong|first=George|date=May 27, 2011|title=Google gets rid of APIs for Translate and other services|url=https://www.ubergizmo.com/2011/05/google-rid-translate-api/|website=Ubergizmo|access-date=May 28, 2011|archive-date=May 31, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110531092750/http://www.ubergizmo.com/2011/05/google-rid-translate-api/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Burnette, Ed">{{cite web|last=Burnette|first=Ed|date=May 27, 2011|title=Google pulls the rug out from under web service API developers, nixes Google Translate and 17 others|url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-pulls-the-rug-out-from-under-web-service-api-developers-nixes-google-translate-and-17-others/|website=[[ZDNET|ZDNet]]|publisher=[[Red Ventures]]; [[Paramount Streaming|CBS Interactive]] (at the time of publication)|access-date=May 28, 2011|archive-date=December 21, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141221102052/http://www.zdnet.com/article/google-pulls-the-rug-out-from-under-web-service-api-developers-nixes-google-translate-and-17-others/|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Google Assistant ===
Google Translate also provides translations for [[Google Assistant]] and the devices that Google Assistant runs on such as [[Google Nest (smart speakers)|Google Nest]] and [[Pixel Buds]].

== Supported languages ==
{{as of|2025|6|post=,}} the following <onlyinclude>249</onlyinclude> languages, dialects and language varieties written in different scripts ({{#expr:{{:Google Translate}}-9}} unique languages and dialects) are supported by Google Translate.<ref name="supported languages" />
{{-}}
{{div col|colwidth=16em}}
# [[Abkhaz language|Abkhaz]]
# [[Acehnese language|Acehnese]]
# [[Acholi dialect|Acholi]]
# [[Afar language|Afar]]
# [[Afrikaans]]
# [[Albanian language|Albanian]]
# [[Alur language|Alur]]
# [[Amharic]]
# [[Arabic]]
# [[Armenian language|Armenian]]
# [[Assamese language|Assamese]]
# [[Avar language|Avar]]
# [[Awadhi language|Awadhi]]
# [[Aymara language|Aymara]]
# [[Azerbaijani language|Azerbaijani]]
# [[Balinese language|Balinese]]
# [[Balochi language|Baluchi]]
# [[Bambara language|Bambara]]
# [[Baoulé language|Baoulé]]
# [[Bashkir language|Bashkir]]
# [[Basque language|Basque]]
# [[Batak Karo language|Batak Karo]]
# [[Batak Simalungun language|Batak Simalungun]]
# [[Toba Batak language|Batak Toba]]
# [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]]
# [[Bemba language|Bemba]]
# [[Bengali language|Bengali]]
# [[Betawi language|Betawi]]
# [[Bhojpuri language|Bhojpuri]]
# [[Central Bikol|Bikol]]
# [[Bosnian language|Bosnian]]
# [[Breton language|Breton]]
# [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]]
# [[Buryat language|Buryat]]
# [[Cantonese]]
# [[Catalan language|Catalan]]
# [[Cebuano language|Cebuano]]
# [[Chamorro language|Chamorro]]
# [[Chechen language|Chechen]]
# [[Chewa language|Chichewa]]
# [[Chinese language|Chinese]] ([[simplified Chinese characters|Simplified]])
# [[Chinese language|Chinese]] ([[traditional Chinese characters|Traditional]])
# [[Chuukese language|Chuukese]]
# [[Chuvash language|Chuvash]]
# [[Corsican language|Corsican]]
# [[Crimean Tatar language|Crimean Tatar]] ([[Crimean Tatar alphabet#Cyrillic|Cyrillic]])
# [[Crimean Tatar language|Crimean Tatar]] ([[Crimean Tatar alphabet#Latin|Latin]])
# [[Croatian language|Croatian]]
# [[Czech language|Czech]]
# [[Danish language|Danish]]
# [[Dari]]
# [[Maldivian language|Dhivehi]]
# [[Dinka language|Dinka]]
# [[Dogri language|Dogri]]
# [[Tonga language (Zambia and Zimbabwe)|Dombe]]
# [[Dutch language|Dutch]]
# [[Dyula language|Dyula]]
# [[Dzongkha]]
# [[English language|English]]
# [[Esperanto]]
# [[Estonian language|Estonian]]
# [[Ewe language|Ewe]]
# [[Faroese language|Faroese]]
# [[Fijian language|Fijian]]
# [[Filipino language|Filipino]]
# [[Finnish language|Finnish]]
# [[Fon language|Fon]]
# [[French language|French]]
# [[French language|French]] ([[Canadian French|Canada]])
# [[West Frisian language|Frisian]]
# [[Friulian language|Friulian]]
# [[Fula language|Fulani]]
# [[Ga language|Ga]]
# [[Galician language|Galician]]
# [[Georgian language|Georgian]]
# [[German language|German]]
# [[Greek language|Greek]]
# [[Guarani language|Guarani]]
# [[Gujarati language|Gujarati]]
# [[Haitian Creole]]
# [[Hakha Chin]]
# [[Hausa language|Hausa]]
# [[Hawaiian language|Hawaiian]]
# [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]
# [[Hiligaynon language|Hiligaynon]]
# [[Hindi]]
# [[Hmong language|Hmong]]
# [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]]
# [[Hunsrik]]
# [[Iban language|Iban]]
# [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]]
# [[Igbo language|Igbo]]
# [[Ilocano language|Ilocano]]
# [[Indonesian language|Indonesian]]
# [[Inuktitut|Inuktut]] (Latin)
# [[Inuktitut|Inuktut]] ([[Inuktitut syllabics|Syllabics]])
# [[Irish language|Irish]]
# [[Italian language|Italian]]
# [[Jamaican Patois]]
# [[Japanese language|Japanese]]
# [[Javanese language|Javanese]]
# [[Jingpo language|Jingpo]]
# [[West Greenlandic|Kalaallisut]]
# [[Kannada]]
# [[Kanuri language|Kanuri]]
# [[Kapampangan language|Kapampangan]]
# [[Kazakh language|Kazakh]]
# [[Khasi language|Khasi]]
# [[Khmer language|Khmer]]
# [[Kiga language|Kiga]]
# [[Kongo language|Kikongo]]
# [[Kinyarwanda]]
# [[Kituba language|Kituba]]
# [[Kokborok]]
# [[Komi language|Komi]]
# [[Konkani language|Konkani]]
# [[Korean language|Korean]]
# [[Krio language|Krio]]
# [[Kurdish language|Kurdish]] ([[Kurmanji]])
# [[Kurdish language|Kurdish]] ([[Sorani]])
# [[Kyrgyz language|Kyrgyz]]
# [[Lao language|Lao]]
# [[Latgalian language|Latgalian]]
# [[Latin]]
# [[Latvian language|Latvian]]
# [[Ligurian language|Ligurian]]
# [[Limburgish]]
# [[Lingala]]
# [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]]
# [[Lombard language|Lombard]]
# [[Luganda]]
# [[Dholuo|Luo]]
# [[Luxembourgish]]
# [[Macedonian language|Macedonian]]
# [[Madurese language|Madurese]]
# [[Maithili language|Maithili]]
# [[Makassarese language|Makassar]]
# [[Malagasy language|Malagasy]]
# [[Malay language|Malay]]
# [[Malay language|Malay]] ([[Jawi script|Jawi]])
# [[Malayalam]]
# [[Maltese language|Maltese]]
# [[Mam language|Mam]]
# [[Manx language|Manx]]
# [[Māori language|Maori]]
# [[Marathi language|Marathi]]
# [[Marshallese language|Marshallese]]
# [[Marwari language|Marwadi]]
# [[Mauritian Creole]]
# [[Meadow Mari language|Meadow Mari]]
# [[Meitei language|Meiteilon (Manipuri)]]
# [[Minangkabau language|Minang]]
# [[Mizo language|Mizo]]
# [[Mongolian language|Mongolian]]
# [[Burmese language|Myanmar (Burmese)]]
# [[Huasteca Nahuatl|Nahuatl (Eastern Huasteca)]]
# [[Ndau dialect|Ndau]]
# [[Southern Ndebele language|Ndebele (South)]]
# [[Newar language|Nepalbhasa (Newari)]]
# [[Nepali language|Nepali]]
# [[N'Ko language|NKo]]
# [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]] ([[Bokmål]])
# [[Nuer language|Nuer]]
# [[Occitan language|Occitan]]
# [[Odia language|Odia (Oriya)]]
# [[Oromo language|Oromo]]
# [[Ossetian language|Ossetian]]
# [[Pangasinan language|Pangasinan]]
# [[Papiamento]]
# [[Pashto]]
# [[Persian language|Persian]]
# [[Polish language|Polish]]
# [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] ([[Brazilian Portuguese|Brazil]])
# [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] ([[European Portuguese|Portugal]])
# [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]] ([[Gurmukhi]])
# [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]] ([[Shahmukhi]])
# [[Southern Quechua|Quechua]]
# [[Qʼeqchiʼ language|Qʼeqchiʼ]]
# [[Romani language|Romani]]
# [[Romanian language|Romanian]]
# [[Kirundi|Rundi]]
# [[Russian language|Russian]]
# [[Northern Sámi|Sami (North)]]
# [[Samoan language|Samoan]]
# [[Sango language|Sango]]
# [[Sanskrit]]
# [[Santali language|Santali]] (Latin)
# [[Santali language|Santali]] ([[Ol Chiki]])
# [[Scottish Gaelic|Scots Gaelic]]
# [[Northern Sotho|Sepedi]]
# [[Serbian language|Serbian]]
# [[Sotho language|Sesotho]]
# [[Seychellois Creole]]
# [[Shan language|Shan]]
# [[Shona language|Shona]]
# [[Sicilian language|Sicilian]]
# [[Silesian language|Silesian]]
# [[Sindhi language|Sindhi]]
# [[Sinhala language|Sinhala]]
# [[Slovak language|Slovak]]
# [[Slovene language|Slovenian]]
# [[Somali language|Somali]]
# [[Spanish language|Spanish]]
# [[Sundanese language|Sundanese]]
# [[Susu language|Susu]]
# [[Swahili language|Swahili]]
# [[Swazi language|Swati]]
# [[Swedish language|Swedish]]
# [[Tahitian language|Tahitian]]
# [[Tajik language|Tajik]]
# [[Berber languages|Tamazight]]
# [[Berber languages|Tamazight]] ([[Tifinagh]])
# [[Tamil language|Tamil]]
# [[Tatar language|Tatar]]
# [[Telugu language|Telugu]]
# [[Tetum language|Tetum]]
# [[Thai language|Thai]]
# [[Lhasa Tibetan|Tibetan]]
# [[Tigrinya language|Tigrinya]]
# [[Tiv language|Tiv]]
# [[Tok Pisin]]
# [[Tongan language|Tongan]]
# [[Luba-Kasai language|Tshiluba]]
# [[Tsonga language|Tsonga]]
# [[Tswana language|Tswana]]
# [[Tulu language|Tulu]]
# [[Tumbuka language|Tumbuka]]
# [[Turkish language|Turkish]]
# [[Turkmen language|Turkmen]]
# [[Tuvan language|Tuvan]]
# [[Twi]]
# [[Udmurt language|Udmurt]]
# [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]]
# [[Urdu]]
# [[Uyghur language|Uyghur]]
# [[Uzbek language|Uzbek]]
# [[Venda language|Venda]]
# [[Venetian language|Venetian]]
# [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]]
# [[Waray language|Waray]]
# [[Welsh language|Welsh]]
# [[Wolof language|Wolof]]
# [[Xhosa language|Xhosa]]
# [[Yakut language|Yakut]]
# [[Yiddish]]
# [[Yoruba language|Yoruba]]
# [[Yucatec Maya language|Yucatec Maya]]
# [[Zapotec languages|Zapotec]]
# [[Zulu language|Zulu]]
{{div col end}}

=== Languages with text-to-speech support ===
{{as of|2025|1|post=,}} the following 68 languages, dialects and language varieties currently have [[text-to-speech]] support.
{{-}}
{{div col|colwidth=16em}}
# [[Afrikaans]]
# [[Albanian language|Albanian]]
# [[Amharic]]
# [[Arabic]]
# [[Basque language|Basque]]
# [[Bengali language|Bengali]]
# [[Bosnian language|Bosnian]]
# [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]]
# [[Cantonese]]
# [[Catalan language|Catalan]]
# [[Chinese language|Chinese]] ([[simplified Chinese characters|Simplified]])
# [[Chinese language|Chinese]] ([[traditional Chinese characters|Traditional]])
# [[Croatian language|Croatian]]
# [[Czech language|Czech]]
# [[Danish language|Danish]]
# [[Dutch language|Dutch]]
# [[English language|English]]
# [[Estonian language|Estonian]]
# [[Filipino language|Filipino]]
# [[Finnish language|Finnish]]
# [[French language|French]]
# [[French language|French]] ([[Canadian French|Canada]])
# [[Galician language|Galician]]
# [[German language|German]]
# [[Greek language|Greek]]
# [[Gujarati language|Gujarati]]
# [[Hausa language|Hausa]]
# [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]
# [[Hindi]]
# [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]]
# [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]]
# [[Indonesian language|Indonesian]]
# [[Italian language|Italian]]
# [[Japanese language|Japanese]]
# [[Javanese language|Javanese]]
# [[Kannada]]
# [[Khmer language|Khmer]]
# [[Korean language|Korean]]
# [[Latin]]
# [[Latvian language|Latvian]]
# [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]]
# [[Malay language|Malay]]
# [[Malayalam]]
# [[Marathi language|Marathi]]
# [[Burmese language|Myanmar (Burmese)]]
# [[Nepali language|Nepali]]
# [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]] ([[Bokmål]])
# [[Polish language|Polish]]
# [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] ([[Brazilian Portuguese|Brazil]])
# [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] ([[European Portuguese|Portugal]])
# [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]] ([[Gurmukhi]])
# [[Romanian language|Romanian]]
# [[Russian language|Russian]]
# [[Serbian language|Serbian]]
# [[Sinhala language|Sinhala]]
# [[Slovak language|Slovak]]
# [[Spanish language|Spanish]]
# [[Sundanese language|Sundanese]]
# [[Swahili language|Swahili]]
# [[Swedish language|Swedish]]
# [[Tamil language|Tamil]]
# [[Telugu language|Telugu]]
# [[Thai language|Thai]]
# [[Turkish language|Turkish]]
# [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]]
# [[Urdu language|Urdu]]
# [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]]
# [[Welsh language|Welsh]]
{{div col end}}

=== Languages with Dictation support ===
{{as of|2025|1|post=,}} the following 72 languages, dialects and language varieties currently have dictation support.
{{-}}
{{div col|colwidth=16em}}
# [[Afrikaans language|Afrikaans]]
# [[Albanian language|Albanian]]
# [[Amharic language|Amharic]]
# [[Arabic language|Arabic]]
# [[Armenian language|Armenian]]
# [[Basque language|Basque]]
# [[Bengali language|Bengali]]
# [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]]
# [[Catalan language|Catalan]]
# [[Chichewa language|Chichewa]]
# [[Chinese language|Chinese]] ([[Simplified Chinese|Simplified]])
# [[Chinese language|Chinese]] ([[Traditional Chinese|Traditional]])
# [[Croatian language|Croatian]]
# [[Czech language|Czech]]
# [[Danish language|Danish]]
# [[Dutch language|Dutch]]
# [[English language|English]]
# [[Estonian language|Estonian]]
# [[Filipino language|Filipino]]
# [[Finnish language|Finnish]]
# [[French language|French]]
# [[German language|German]]
# [[Greek language|Greek]]
# [[Gujarati language|Gujarati]]
# [[Hausa language|Hausa]]
# [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]
# [[Hindi language|Hindi]]
# [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]]
# [[Igbo language|Igbo]]
# [[Indonesian language|Indonesian]]
# [[Italian language|Italian]]
# [[Japanese language|Japanese]]
# [[Kannada language|Kannada]]
# [[Khmer language|Khmer]]
# [[Korean language|Korean]]
# [[Latin language|Latin]]
# [[Latvian language|Latvian]]
# [[Malay language|Malay]]
# [[Malayalam language|Malayalam]]
# [[Marathi language|Marathi]]
# [[Burmese language|Myanmar (Burmese)]]
# [[Southern Ndebele language|Ndebele (South)]]
# [[Nepali language|Nepali]]
# [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]] ([[Bokmål]])
# [[Oromo language|Oromo]]
# [[Polish language|Polish]]
# [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] ([[Brazil]])
# [[Romanian language|Romanian]]
# [[Rundi language|Rundi]]
# [[Russian language|Russian]]
# [[Serbian language|Serbian]]
# [[Shona language|Shona]]
# [[Sinhala language|Sinhala]]
# [[Slovak language|Slovak]]
# [[Somali language|Somali]]
# [[Spanish language|Spanish]]
# [[Swahili language|Swahili]]
# [[Swati language|Swati]]
# [[Swedish language|Swedish]]
# [[Tamil language|Tamil]]
# [[Telugu language|Telugu]]
# [[Thai language|Thai]]
# [[Tigrinya language|Tigrinya]]
# [[Tswana language|Tswana]]
# [[Turkish language|Turkish]]
# [[Twi language|Twi]]
# [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]]
# [[Urdu language|Urdu]]
# [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]]
# [[Welsh language|Welsh]]
# [[Yoruba language|Yoruba]]
# [[Zulu language|Zulu]]


{{div col end}}

=== Stages ===
{{hidden begin|title=History|titlestyle=background:DeepSkyBlue; text-align:center;|style=font-size:100%;}}
''(by chronological order of introduction)''
# 1st stage<!-- date to be filled in -->
## English to and from [[French language|French]]
## English to and from [[German language|German]]
## English to and from [[Spanish language|Spanish]]
# 2nd stage<!-- date to be filled in -->
## English to and from [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] ([[Brazilian Portuguese|Brazil]])
# 3rd stage<!-- date to be filled in -->
## English to and from [[Italian language|Italian]]
# 4th stage<!-- date to be filled in -->
## English to and from [[Chinese language|Chinese]] ([[simplified Chinese characters|Simplified]])
## English to and from [[Japanese language|Japanese]]
## English to and from [[Korean language|Korean]]
# 5th stage (launched April 28, 2006)<ref name="Statistical machine translation" />
## English to and from [[Arabic]]
# 6th stage (launched December 16, 2006)
## English to and from [[Russian language|Russian]]
# 7th stage (launched February 9, 2007)
## English to and from [[Chinese language|Chinese]] ([[traditional Chinese characters|Traditional]])
## [[Chinese language|Chinese]] (([[simplified Chinese characters|Simplified]]) to and from [[traditional Chinese characters|Traditional]])
# 8th stage (all 25 language pairs use Google's machine translation system) (launched October 22, 2007)
## English to and from [[Dutch language|Dutch]]
## English to and from [[Greek language|Greek]]
# 9th stage<!-- date to be filled in -->
## English to and from [[Hindi]]
# 10th stage (as of this stage, translation can be done between any two languages, using English as an intermediate step, if needed) (launched May 8, 2008)
## [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]]
## [[Croatian language|Croatian]]
## [[Czech language|Czech]]
## [[Danish language|Danish]]
## [[Finnish language|Finnish]]
## [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]] ([[Bokmål]])
## [[Polish language|Polish]]
## [[Romanian language|Romanian]]
## [[Swedish language|Swedish]]
# 11th stage (launched September 25, 2008)
## [[Catalan language|Catalan]]
## [[Filipino language|Filipino]] ([[Tagalog language|Tagalog]])
## [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]
## [[Indonesian language|Indonesian]]
## [[Latvian language|Latvian]]
## [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]]
## [[Serbian language|Serbian]]
## [[Slovak language|Slovak]]
## [[Slovene language|Slovene]]
## [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]]
## [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]]
# 12th stage (launched January 30, 2009)
## [[Albanian language|Albanian]]
## [[Estonian language|Estonian]]
## [[Galician language|Galician]]
## [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]]
## [[Maltese language|Maltese]]
## [[Thai language|Thai]]
## [[Turkish language|Turkish]]
# 13th stage (launched June 19, 2009)
## [[Persian language|Persian]]
# 14th stage (launched August 24, 2009)
## [[Afrikaans]]
## [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]]
## [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]]
## [[Irish language|Irish]]
## [[Macedonian language|Macedonian]]
## [[Malay language|Malay]]
## [[Swahili language|Swahili]]
## [[Welsh language|Welsh]]
## [[Yiddish]]
# 15th stage (launched November 19, 2009)
## The Beta stage is finished. Users can now choose to have the [[romanization]] written for Belarusian, Bulgarian, Chinese, Greek, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Thai and Ukrainian. For translations from Arabic, Hindi and Persian, the user can enter a Latin transliteration of the text and the text will be transliterated to the native script for these languages as the user is typing. The text can now be read by a [[speech synthesis|text-to-speech]] program in English, French, German and Italian.
# 16th stage (launched January 30, 2010)
## [[Haitian Creole]]
# 17th stage (launched April 2010)
## Speech program launched in Hindi and Spanish.
# 18th stage (launched May 5, 2010)
## Speech program launched in Afrikaans, Albanian, Catalan, Chinese (Mandarin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Latvian, Macedonian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Swahili, Swedish, Turkish, Vietnamese and Welsh (based on [[eSpeak]]).<ref name="Henderson, Fergus">{{cite web|last=Henderson|first=Fergus|date=May 11, 2010|title=Giving a voice to more languages on Google Translate|url=https://translate.googleblog.com/2010/05/giving-voice-to-more-languages-on.html|work=Google Translate Blog|publisher=[[Google]] Inc.|access-date=May 12, 2010|archive-date=December 26, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161226054619/https://translate.googleblog.com/2010/05/giving-voice-to-more-languages-on.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
# 19th stage (launched May 13, 2010)<ref name="Venugopal, Ashish, five more languages">{{cite web|last=Venugopal|first=Ashish|date=May 13, 2010|title=Five more languages on translate.google.com|url=https://translate.googleblog.com/2010/05/five-more-languages-on.html|work=Google Translate Blog|publisher=[[Google]] Inc.|access-date=May 14, 2010|archive-date=January 9, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170109212740/https://translate.googleblog.com/2010/05/five-more-languages-on.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
## [[Armenian language|Armenian]]
## [[Azerbaijani language|Azerbaijani]]
## [[Basque language|Basque]]
## [[Georgian language|Georgian]]
## [[Urdu]]
# 20th stage (launched June 2010)
## Provides romanization for Arabic.
# 21st stage (launched September 2010)
## Allows phonetic typing for Arabic, Greek, Hindi, Persian, Russian, Serbian and Urdu.
## [[Latin]]<ref name="Uszkoreit, Jakob, official Google Blog">{{cite web|last=Uszkoreit|first=Jakob|date=September 30, 2010|title=Veni, Vidi, Verba Verti (Official Google Blog)|trans-title=I came, I saw, I turned the words|url=https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/veni-vidi-verba-verti.html|website=Official [[Google]] Blog|publisher=[[Google]] Inc.|language=Latin|access-date=September 30, 2010|archive-date=October 2, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101002050716/http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/veni-vidi-verba-verti.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Uszkoreit, Jakob, Google Translate Blog">{{cite web|last1=Uszkoreit|first1=Jakob|last2=Bayer|first2=Ben|date=October 1, 2010|title=Veni, Vidi, Verba Verti (Google Translate Blog)|trans-title=I came, I saw, I turned the words|url=https://translate.googleblog.com/2010/10/veni-vidi-verba-verti.html|website=Google Translate Blog|publisher=[[Google]] Inc.|language=English, Latin|access-date=December 11, 2021|archive-date=December 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211209154553/https://translate.googleblog.com/2010/10/veni-vidi-verba-verti.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
# 22nd stage (launched December 2010)
## Romanization of Arabic removed.
## Spell check added.
## For some languages, Google replaced text-to-speech synthesizers from eSpeak's robot voice to native speaker's nature voice technologies made by SVOX<ref name="SVOX">{{cite web|author=<!-- Staff writer(s); no by-line. -->|date=December 17, 2010|title=Google picks SVOX for Translate and Dictionary services|url=https://www.svox.com/News-Items-Google-picks-SVOX-for-Translate-and-Dictionary-services-.aspx|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101226044925/http://www.svox.com/News-Items-Google-picks-SVOX-for-Translate-and-Dictionary-services-.aspx|archive-date=December 26, 2010|location=[[Zürich]], [[Switzerland]]|publisher=SVOX|access-date=January 20, 2011}}</ref> (Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish and Turkish), and also the old versions of French, German, Italian and Spanish; Latin uses the same synthesizer as Italian.
## Speech program launched in Arabic, Japanese and Korean.
# 23rd stage (launched January 2011)
## Choice of different translations for a word.
# 24th stage (launched June 2011)
#* 5 new Indic languages (in alpha) and a transliterated input method:<ref name="Venugopal, Ashish, Indic web">{{cite web|last=Venugopal|first=Ashish|date=June 21, 2011|title=Google Translate welcomes you to the Indic web|url=https://translate.googleblog.com/2011/06/google-translate-welcomes-you-to-indic.html|work=Google Translate Blog|publisher=[[Google]] Inc.|access-date=June 21, 2011|archive-date=January 6, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170106202715/https://translate.googleblog.com/2011/06/google-translate-welcomes-you-to-indic.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
## [[Bengali language|Bengali]]
## [[Gujarati language|Gujarati]]
## [[Kannada]]
## [[Tamil language|Tamil]]
## [[Telugu language|Telugu]]
# 25th stage (launched July 2011)
## Translation rating introduced.
# 26th stage (launched January 2012)
## Dutch male voice synthesizer replaced with female.
## Elena by SVOX replaced the Slovak eSpeak voice.
## Transliteration of Yiddish added.
# 27th stage (launched February 2012)
## Speech program launched in Thai.
## [[Esperanto]]<ref name="Brants, Thorsten, Esperanto">{{cite web|last=Brants|first=Thorsten|date=February 22, 2012|title=Tutmonda helplingvo por ĉiuj homoj|trans-title=A global auxiliary language for all people|url=https://translate.googleblog.com/2012/02/tutmonda-helplingvo-por-ciuj-homoj.html|work=Google Translate Blog|publisher=[[Google]] Inc.|access-date=September 24, 2015|archive-date=September 4, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160904042537/https://translate.googleblog.com/2012/02/tutmonda-helplingvo-por-ciuj-homoj.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
# 28th stage (launched September 2012)
## [[Lao language|Lao]]
# 29th stage (launched October 2012)
## Transliteration of Lao added. (alpha status)<ref name="Brants, Thorsten, Lao">{{cite news|last=Brants|first=Thorsten|date=September 13, 2012|title=Translating Lao|url=https://translate.googleblog.com/2012/09/translating-lao_13.html|work=Google Translate Blog|publisher=[[Google]] Inc.|access-date=September 19, 2012|archive-date=February 2, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202121229/https://translate.googleblog.com/2012/09/translating-lao_13.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Crum, Chris">{{cite news|last=Crum|first=Chris|date=September 13, 2012|title=Google Adds Its 65th Language To Google Translate With Lao|url=https://www.webpronews.com/google-adds-its-65th-language-to-google-translate-with-lao|website=WebProNews|access-date=September 19, 2012|archive-date=November 6, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181106205347/https://www.webpronews.com/google-adds-its-65th-language-to-google-translate-with-lao|url-status=live}}</ref>
# 30th stage (launched October 2012)
## New speech program launched in English.
# 31st stage (launched November 2012)
## New speech program in French, German, Italian, Latin and Spanish.
# 32nd stage (launched March 2013)
## Phrasebook added.
# 33rd stage (launched April 2013)
## [[Khmer language|Khmer]]<ref name="Ong, Josh">{{cite web|last=Ong|first=Josh|date=April 19, 2013|title=Google Translate Now Supports 66 Languages After Adding Khmer|url=https://thenextweb.com/news/google-translate-gains-support-for-its-66th-language-cambodias-khmer|website=[[TNW (website)|TNW News]]|publisher=[[Financial Times]]|access-date=December 25, 2021|archive-date=December 25, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211225012755/https://thenextweb.com/news/google-translate-gains-support-for-its-66th-language-cambodias-khmer|url-status=live}}</ref>
# 34th stage (launched May 2013)
## [[Bosnian language|Bosnian]]
## [[Cebuano language|Cebuano]]<ref name="Noda, Tam">{{cite web|last=Noda|first=Tam|date=May 10, 2013|title=Google Translate goes Cebuano|url=https://www.philstar.com/nation/2013/05/10/940620/google-translate-goes-cebuano|website=[[The Philippine Star]]|access-date=December 25, 2021|archive-date=December 25, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211225013705/https://www.philstar.com/nation/2013/05/10/940620/google-translate-goes-cebuano|url-status=live}}</ref> 
## [[Hmong language|Hmong]]
## [[Javanese language|Javanese]]
## [[Marathi language|Marathi]]
# 35th stage (launched May 2013)
## 16 additional languages can be used with camera-input: Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Danish, Estonian, Finnish, Hungarian, Indonesian, Icelandic, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian and Swedish.
# 36th stage (launched December 2013)
## [[Hausa language|Hausa]]
## [[Igbo language|Igbo]]
## [[Māori language|Maori]]
## [[Mongolian language|Mongolian]]
## [[Nepali language|Nepali]]
## [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]] ([[Gurmukhi]])
## [[Somali language|Somali]]
## [[Yoruba language|Yoruba]]
## [[Zulu language|Zulu]]
# 37th stage (launched June 2014)
## Definition of words added.
# 38th stage (launched December 2014)
## [[Burmese language|Burmese]]
## [[Chewa language|Chewa]]
## [[Kazakh language|Kazakh]]
## [[Malagasy language|Malagasy]]
## [[Malayalam]]
## [[Sinhala language|Sinhala]]<ref name="Liyanage, Vimukthi">{{cite web|last=Liyanage|first=Vimukthi|date=December 12, 2014|title=Google සිංහල පරිවර්ථන සේවය අද සිට ක්‍රියාත්මකයි !|url=https://techguru.lk/google-translate-sinhala/|script-title=si:Google siṁhala parivarthana sēvaya ada siṭa kriyātmakayi !|trans-title=Google Sinhala translation service is active from today !|website=TechGuru.lk|language=Sinhala|access-date=August 1, 2021|archive-date=August 1, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210801170332/http://techguru.lk/google-translate-sinhala/|url-status=live}}</ref>
## [[Sotho language|Sotho]]
## [[Sundanese language|Sundanese]]
## [[Tajik language|Tajik]]
## [[Uzbek language|Uzbek]]
# 39th stage (launched October 2015)
## Transliteration of Arabic restored.
# 40th stage (launched November 2015)
## [[Languages in Star Wars#Aurebesh|Aurebesh]]
# 41st stage (launched February 2016)
## Aurebesh removed.
## Speech program launched in Bengali.<ref name="Dawn, Sindhi translation">{{cite web|author=<!-- Staff writer(s); no by-line. -->|date=February 19, 2016|title=Google can now translate text into Sindhi, Pashto and vice versa|url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1240589|website=[[Dawn (newspaper)|Dawn]]|publisher=[[Dawn Media Group]]|access-date=March 2, 2016|archive-date=February 29, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160229120307/http://www.dawn.com/news/1240589|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="DNA India, Sindhi translation">{{cite web|author=<!-- Staff writer(s); no by-line. -->|date=February 18, 2016|title=Google adds Sindhi to its translate language options|url=https://www.dnaindia.com/technology/report-google-adds-sindhi-to-its-translate-language-options-2179229|website=[[Zee Media Corporation#Online|DNA India]]|publisher=[[Essel Group]]|access-date=March 2, 2016|archive-date=April 16, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180416073848/http://www.dnaindia.com/technology/report-google-adds-sindhi-to-its-translate-language-options-2179229|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Yahoo, Sindhi translation">{{cite web|author=<!-- Staff writer(s); no by-line. -->|date=February 18, 2016|title=Google adds Sindhi to its translate language options|url=https://in.news.yahoo.com/google-adds-sindhi-translate-language-options-113113260.html|website=[[Yahoo! News]]|publisher=[[Yahoo!]]|agency=[[Asian News International]]|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413202743/https://in.news.yahoo.com/google-adds-sindhi-translate-language-options-113113260.html|archive-date=April 13, 2021|access-date=March 2, 2016}}</ref><ref name="Ahmed, Ali">{{cite web|last=Ahmed|first=Ali|date=February 18, 2016|title=Google Translate now includes Sindhi and Pashto|url=https://www.brecorder.com/news/279458/google-translate-now-includes-sindhi-and-pashto|website=[[Business Recorder]]|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160426034257/http://www.brecorder.com/arts-a-leisure/lifestyle/279458-google-translate-now-includes-sindhi-and-pashto.html|archive-date=April 26, 2016|access-date=March 2, 2016}}</ref><ref name="Shu, Catherine">{{cite web|last=Shu|first=Catherine|date=February 17, 2016|title=Google Translate Now Has More Than 100 Languages And Covers 99 Percent Of The Online Population|url=https://techcrunch.com/2016/02/17/google-translate-hits-100-languages/|website=[[TechCrunch]]|publisher=[[AOL]]|access-date=December 25, 2021|archive-date=April 19, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230419192534/https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Zuckerberg-testify-ftc-within.jpg?w=600&h=347&crop=1|url-status=live}}</ref> 
## [[Amharic]]
## [[Corsican language|Corsican]]
## [[Hawaiian language|Hawaiian]]
## [[Kurdish language|Kurdish]] ([[Kurmanji]])
## [[Kyrgyz language|Kyrgyz]]
## [[Luxembourgish]]
## [[Pashto]]
## [[Samoan language|Samoan]]
## [[Scottish Gaelic]]
## [[Shona language|Shona]]
## [[Sindhi language|Sindhi]]<ref name="Sandilo, Tariq">{{cite web|last=Sandilo|first=Tariq|date=February 21, 2016|url=https://sarwan.pk/editorial/گوگل-تي-سنڌي-ٻولي/|title=گوگل تي سنڌي ٻولي|language=Sindhi|script-title=|trans-title=Sindhi language on Google|website=Sarwan.pk|access-date=March 2, 2016|archive-date=December 30, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211230215721/https://sarwan.pk/editorial/%DA%AF%D9%88%DA%AF%D9%84-%D8%AA%D9%8A-%D8%B3%D9%86%DA%8C%D9%8A-%D9%BB%D9%88%D9%84%D9%8A/|url-status=live}}</ref>
## [[West Frisian language|West Frisian]]
## [[Xhosa language|Xhosa]]
# 42nd stage (launched September 2016)
## Speech program launched in Ukrainian.
# 43rd stage (launched December 2016)
## Speech program launched in Khmer and Sinhala.
# 44th stage (launched June 2018)
## Speech program launched in Burmese, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali and Telugu.
# 45th stage (launched September 2019)
## Speech program launched in Gujarati, Kannada and Urdu.
# 46th stage (launched February 2020)<ref name="Humphries, Matthew">{{cite web|last=Humphries|first=Matthew|date=February 27, 2020|title=Google Translate Adds 5 New Languages|url=https://www.pcmag.com/news/google-translate-adds-5-new-languages|website=[[PCMag]]|publisher=[[Ziff Davis]]|access-date=December 25, 2021|archive-date=December 25, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211225005915/https://www.pcmag.com/news/google-translate-adds-5-new-languages|url-status=live}}</ref>
## [[Kinyarwanda]]
## [[Odia language|Odia]]
## [[Tatar language|Tatar]]
## [[Turkmen language|Turkmen]]
## [[Uyghur language|Uyghur]]
# 47th stage (launched February 2021)
## Speech program launched in Afrikaans, Bulgarian, Catalan, Icelandic, Latvian, and Serbian (changed from eSpeak to a natural voice).
## New speech system (WaveNet) for several languages.
# 48th stage (launched January 2022)
## Speech program launched in Hebrew.
# 49th stage (launched May 2022)<ref name="Wilde, Damien">{{cite web|last=Wilde|first=Damien|date=May 11, 2022|title=Google Translate adds support for 24 new languages, now supports over 130|url=https://9to5google.com/2022/05/11/google-translate-new-languages/|website=9to5Google|access-date=May 11, 2022|archive-date=May 11, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220511171815/https://9to5google.com/2022/05/11/google-translate-new-languages/|url-status=live}}</ref>
## [[Assamese language|Assamese]]
## [[Aymara language|Aymara]]
## [[Bambara language|Bambara]]
## [[Bhojpuri language|Bhojpuri]]
## [[Dogri language|Dogri]]
## [[Ewe language|Ewe]]
## [[Guarani language|Guarani]]
## [[Ilocano language|Ilocano]]
## [[Konkani language|Konkani]]
## [[Krio language|Krio]]
## [[Kurdish language|Kurdish]] ([[Sorani]])
## [[Lingala]]
## [[Luganda]]
## [[Maithili language|Maithili]]
## [[Maldivian language|Maldivian]]
## [[Meitei language|Meitei]]
## [[Mizo language|Mizo]]
## [[Northern Sotho]]
## [[Oromo language|Oromo]]
## [[Southern Quechua|Quechua]]
## [[Sanskrit]]
## [[Tigrinya language|Tigrinya]]
## [[Tsonga language|Tsonga]]
## [[Twi]]
## eSpeak voice synthesizer removed from Armenian, Esperanto, Macedonian and Welsh.
# 50th stage (launched November 2022)
## Speech program launched in Albanian, Bosnian and Swahili (changed from eSpeak to natural).
## New speech program launched in Malayalam, Marathi and Tamil.
# 51st stage (launched March 2023)
## Speech program launched in Croatian (changed from eSpeak to natural).
# 52nd stage (launched April 2023)
## Speech program launched in Welsh (only on Google search results).
## New speech programs launched in Chinese (simplified and traditional), German, Indonesian, Malay, Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu (Chinese, German, Indonesian, Malayalam and Tamil reverted from WaveNet).
# 53rd stage (launched June 2023)
## Speech program launched in Lithuanian and Punjabi.
# 54th stage (launched June 2024)<ref name="Li, Abner">{{cite web|last=Li|first=Abner|date=27 June 2024|title=Google Translate adding support for 110 new languages, including Cantonese|url=https://9to5google.com/2024/06/27/google-translate-new-languages-2/|website=9to5Google|access-date=1 July 2024}}</ref>
## [[Abkhaz language|Abkhaz]]
## [[Acehnese language|Acehnese]]
## [[Acholi dialect|Acholi]]
## [[Afar language|Afar]]
## [[Alur language|Alur]]
## [[Avar language|Avar]]
## [[Awadhi language|Awadhi]]
## [[Balinese language|Balinese]]
## [[Balochi language|Baluchi]]
## [[Baoulé language|Baoulé]]
## [[Bashkir language|Bashkir]]
## [[Batak Karo language|Batak Karo]]
## [[Batak Simalungun language|Batak Simalungun]]
## [[Toba Batak language|Batak Toba]]
## [[Bemba language|Bemba]]
## [[Betawi language|Betawi]]
## [[Bikol languages|Bikol]]
## [[Breton language|Breton]]
## [[Buryat language|Buryat]]
## [[Cantonese]]
## [[Chamorro language|Chamorro]]
## [[Chechen language|Chechen]]
## [[Chuukese language|Chuukese]]
## [[Chuvash language|Chuvash]]
## [[Crimean Tatar language|Crimean Tatar]] ([[Crimean Tatar alphabet#Cyrillic|Cyrillic]])
## [[Dari]]
## [[Dinka language|Dinka]]
## [[Tonga language (Zambia and Zimbabwe)|Dombe]]
## [[Dyula language|Dyula]]
## [[Dzongkha]]
## [[Faroese language|Faroese]]
## [[Fijian language|Fijian]]
## [[Fon language|Fon]]
## [[Friulian language|Friulian]]
## [[Fula language|Fulani]]
## [[Ga language|Ga]]
## [[Hakha Chin]]
## [[Hiligaynon language|Hiligaynon]]
## [[Hunsrik]]
## [[Iban language|Iban]]
## [[Jamaican Patois]]
## [[Jingpo language|Jingpo]]
## [[West Greenlandic|Kalaallisut]]
## [[Kanuri language|Kanuri]]
## [[Kapampangan language|Kapampangan]]
## [[Khasi language|Khasi]]
## [[Kiga language|Kiga]]
## [[Kongo language|Kikongo]]
## [[Kituba language|Kituba]]
## [[Kokborok]]
## [[Komi language|Komi]]
## [[Latgalian language|Latgalian]]
## [[Ligurian language|Ligurian]]
## [[Limburgish]]
## [[Lombard language|Lombard]]
## [[Dholuo|Luo]]
## [[Madurese language|Madurese]]
## [[Makassarese language|Makassar]]
## [[Malay language|Malay]] ([[Jawi script|Jawi]])
## [[Mam language|Mam]]
## [[Manx language|Manx]]
## [[Marshallese language|Marshallese]]
## [[Marwari language|Marwadi]]
## [[Mauritian Creole]]
## [[Meadow Mari language|Meadow Mari]]
## [[Minangkabau language|Minang]]
## [[Huasteca Nahuatl|Nahuatl (Eastern Huasteca)]]
## [[Ndau dialect|Ndau]]
## [[Southern Ndebele language|Ndebele (South)]]
## [[Newar language|Nepalbhasa (Newari)]]
## [[N'Ko language|NKo]]
## [[Nuer language|Nuer]]
## [[Occitan language|Occitan]]
## [[Ossetian language|Ossetian]]
## [[Pangasinan language|Pangasinan]]
## [[Papiamento]]
## [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] ([[European Portuguese|Portugal]])
## [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]] ([[Shahmukhi]])
## [[Qʼeqchiʼ language|Qʼeqchiʼ]]
## [[Romani language|Romani]]
## [[Kirundi|Rundi]]
## [[Northern Sámi|Sami (North)]]
## [[Sango language|Sango]]
## [[Santali language|Santali]]
## [[Seychellois Creole]]
## [[Shan language|Shan]]
## [[Sicilian language|Sicilian]]
## [[Silesian language|Silesian]]
## [[Susu language|Susu]]
## [[Swazi language|Swati]]
## [[Tahitian language|Tahitian]]
## [[Berber languages|Tamazight]]
## [[Berber languages|Tamazight]] ([[Tifinagh]])
## [[Tetum language|Tetum]]
## [[Lhasa Tibetan|Tibetan]]
## [[Tiv language|Tiv]]
## [[Tok Pisin]]
## [[Tongan language|Tongan]]
## [[Tswana language|Tswana]]
## [[Tulu language|Tulu]]
## [[Tumbuka language|Tumbuka]]
## [[Tuvan language|Tuvan]]
## [[Udmurt language|Udmurt]]
## [[Venda language|Venda]]
## [[Venetian language|Venetian]]
## [[Waray language|Waray]]
## [[Wolof language|Wolof]]
## [[Yakut language|Yakut]]
## [[Yucatec Maya language|Yucatec Maya]]
## [[Zapotec languages|Zapotec]]
## Speech program launched in Amharic, Bulgarian, Cantonese, Galician, Hausa, and Welsh
# 55th stage (launched October 2024)<ref>{{cite news |last1=Shurmakevych |first1=Vira |title=Crimean Tatar language in Latin script now available in Google Translate |url=https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2024/10/18/7480345/ |access-date=24 October 2024 |work=Ukrainska Pravda |date=18 October 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Language expansion |url=https://support.google.com/translate/thread/302587325/language-expansion?hl=en&sjid=17964835169000558176-NC |publisher=Google Inc. |access-date=28 October 2024}}</ref>
## [[Crimean Tatar language|Crimean Tatar]] ([[Crimean Tatar alphabet#Latin|Latin]])
## [[French language|French]] ([[Canadian French|Canada]])
## [[Inuktitut|Inuktut]] (Latin)
## [[Inuktitut|Inuktut]] ([[Inuktitut syllabics|Syllabics]])
## [[Santali language|Santali]] ([[Ol Chiki]])
## [[Luba-Kasai language|Tshiluba]]
{{hidden end}}

== Translation methodology ==
In April 2006, Google Translate launched with a statistical machine translation engine.<ref name="Statistical machine translation" />

Google Translate does not apply [[grammar|grammatical]] rules, since its algorithms are based on statistical or pattern analysis rather than traditional rule-based analysis. The system's original creator, [[Franz Josef Och]], has criticized the effectiveness of [[rule-based machine translation|rule-based]] [[algorithm]]s in favor of statistical approaches.<ref name="och_2005">{{cite web|last=Och|first=Franz Josef|author-link=Franz Josef Och|date=September 12, 2005|title=Statistical Machine Translation: Foundations and Recent Advances|url=https://www.mt-archive.info/MTS-2005-Och.pdf|website=mt-archive.com|location=[[Phuket province|Phuket]], [[Thailand]]|publisher=Asia-Pacific Association for Machine Translation|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225144518/http://www.mt-archive.info/MTS-2005-och.pdf|archive-format=PDF|archive-date=February 25, 2021|access-date=December 19, 2010}}</ref><ref name="MT Summit X">{{cite book|author=<!-- Staff writer(s); no by-line. -->|date=September 12–16, 2005|title=MT Summit X: The Tenth Machine Translation Summit (proceedings)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oooQAAAACAAJ|location=[[Phuket province|Phuket]], [[Thailand]]|publisher=Asia-Pacific Association for Machine Translation|isbn=9789747431261|access-date=February 4, 2022|archive-date=March 26, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326164802/https://books.google.com/books?id=oooQAAAACAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> Original versions of Google Translate were based on a method called [[statistical machine translation]], and more specifically, on research by Och who won the [[DARPA]] contest for speed machine translation in 2003. Och was the head of Google's machine translation group until leaving to join Human Longevity, Inc. in July 2014.<ref name="Human Longevity, Franz Och">{{cite press release|author=<!-- Staff writer(s); no by-line. -->|date=July 29, 2014|title=Franz Och, Ph.D., Expert in Machine Learning and Machine Translation, Joins Human Longevity, Inc. as Chief Data Scientist|url=https://www.humanlongevity.com/franz-och-ph-d-expert-in-machine-learning-and-machine-translation-joins-human-longevity-inc-as-chief-data-scientist/|location=[[La Jolla]], [[California|CA]]|publisher=Human Longevity, Inc.|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807111406/https://www.humanlongevity.com/franz-och-ph-d-expert-in-machine-learning-and-machine-translation-joins-human-longevity-inc-as-chief-data-scientist/|archive-date=August 7, 2020|access-date=January 15, 2015}}</ref>

Google Translate does not directly translate from one language to another (L1 → L2). Instead, it often translates first to English and then to the target language (L1 → EN → L2).<ref>[https://translate.google.com/?hl=en&sl=fr&tl=ru&text=le%20mot%20%27obvious%27%20n%27est%20pas%20fran%C3%A7ais&op=translate French to Russian translation translates the untranslated non-French word "obvious" from pivot (intermediate) English to Russian] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231034449/https://translate.google.com/?hl=en&sl=fr&tl=ru&text=le%20mot%20%27obvious%27%20n%27est%20pas%20fran%C3%A7ais&op=translate|date=December 31, 2021}} ''{{lang|fr|le mot 'obvious' n'est pas français}} → {{lang|ru|"очевидными" слово не французское}}''</ref><ref>[https://en-m-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/Google_Translate?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=fr&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=nui We pretend that this English article is German when asking Google to translate it to French.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220203145647/https://en-m-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/Google_Translate?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=fr&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=nui|date=February 3, 2022}} ''Google, because it does not find the English words in the German dictionary, leaves those words unchanged as one can show it with this spelllling misssstake. But it translates them to French nonetheless. That's because Google translates German → English → French and that the unchanged English words undergo the second translation. The word "{{lang|de|außergewöhnlich}}" however will be translated twice.''</ref><ref name="Boitet, Christian">{{cite web|last1=Boitet|first1=Christian|last2=Blanchon|first2=Hervé|last3=Seligman|first3=Mark|last4=Bellynck|first4=Valérie|date=January 31, 2011|title=MT on and for the Web|url=https://www-clips.imag.fr/geta/herve.blanchon/Pdfs/NLP-KE-10.pdf|website=clips-imag.fr|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170329125916/http://www-clips.imag.fr/geta/herve.blanchon/Pdfs/NLP-KE-10.pdf|archive-format=PDF|archive-date=March 29, 2017|access-date=October 23, 2011}}</ref><ref name="pivot" /><ref name="bad-ru-uk">{{cite web|author=P.Y.|date=October 25, 2010|title=Wrong translation to Ukrainian language|url=https://groups.google.com/group/google-translate-general/msg/bde8be4a58eb74c0|website=[[Google]] Inc.|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120710201208/http://groups.google.com/group/google-translate-general/msg/bde8be4a58eb74c0|archive-date=July 10, 2012|access-date=October 23, 2011}}</ref> However, because English, like all human languages, is ambiguous and depends on context, this can cause translation errors. For example, translating {{lang|fr|vous}} from French to Russian gives {{lang|fr|vous}} → ''you'' → ''{{lang|ru|ты}}'' OR ''{{lang|ru|Bы/вы}}''.<ref>[https://translate.google.com/?hl=en&sl=fr&tl=ru&text=Je%20vous%20aime.%20Tu%20es%20ici.%20You%20are%20here.&op=translate Google Translation mixes up "{{lang|fr|tu|italic=no}}" and plural or polite "{{lang|fr|vous|italic=no}}"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231034448/https://translate.google.com/?hl=en&sl=fr&tl=ru&text=Je%20vous%20aime.%20Tu%20es%20ici.%20You%20are%20here.&op=translate|date=December 31, 2021}} ''{{lang|fr|Je vous aime. Tu es ici.}} You are here. → {{lang|ru|Я люблю тебя. Вы здесь. Вы здесь.}}''</ref> If Google were using an unambiguous, [[artificial language]] as the intermediary, it would be {{lang|fr|vous}} → ''you'' → ''{{lang|ru|Bы/вы}}'' OR {{lang|fr|tu}} → ''thou'' → ''{{lang|fr|ты}}''. Such a suffixing of words disambiguates their different meanings. Hence, publishing in English, using unambiguous words, providing context, or using expressions such as "you all" may or may not make a better one-step translation depending on the target language.

The following languages do not have a direct Google translation to or from English. These languages are translated through the indicated intermediate language (which in most cases is closely related to the desired language but more widely spoken) in addition to through English:{{citation needed|date=March 2012}}
* [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]] ([[East Slavic languages|be ↔ ru]] ↔ en ↔ other);
* [[Catalan language|Catalan]] ([[Iberian Romance languages|ca ↔ es]] ↔ en ↔ other);
* [[Galician language|Galician]] ([[Galician–Portuguese|gl ↔ pt]] ↔ en ↔ other);
* [[Haitian Creole]] ([[French-based creole languages|ht ↔ fr]] ↔ en ↔ other);
* [[Korean language|Korean]] ([[Altaic languages|ko ↔ ja]] ↔ en ↔ other);
* [[Slovak language|Slovak]] ([[Czech–Slovak languages|sk ↔ cs]] ↔ en ↔ other);
* [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]] ([[East Slavic languages|uk ↔ ru]] ↔ en ↔ other);<ref name="bad-ru-uk" />
* [[Urdu]] ([[Hindustani language|ur ↔ hi]] ↔ en ↔ other).

According to Och, a solid base for developing a usable statistical machine translation system for a new pair of languages from scratch would consist of a bilingual [[text corpus]] (or [[parallel text|parallel collection]]) of more than 150–200 million words, and two monolingual corpora each of more than a billion words.<ref name="och_2005" /> Statistical [[mathematical model|model]]s from these data are then used to translate between those languages. To acquire this huge amount of linguistic data, Google used [[United Nations]] and [[European Parliament]] documents and transcripts.<ref name="Adams, Tim">{{cite web|last=Adams|first=Tim|date=December 19, 2010|title=Can Google break the computer language barrier?|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/dec/19/google-translate-computers-languages|website=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=May 28, 2017|archive-date=December 13, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171213010848/https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/dec/19/google-translate-computers-languages|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Tanner, Adam">{{cite web|last=Tanner|first=Adam|date=March 28, 2007|title=Google seeks world of instant translations|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-google-translate-idUSN1921881520070328|website=[[Reuters]]|publisher=[[Thomson Reuters]]|access-date=December 17, 2008|archive-date=March 5, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305112746/http://www.reuters.com/article/us-google-translate-idUSN1921881520070328|url-status=live}}</ref> The UN typically publishes documents in all six [[official languages of the United Nations|official UN languages]], which has produced a very large 6-language corpus. Google representatives have been involved with domestic conferences in Japan where it has solicited bilingual data from researchers.<ref>Google was an official sponsor of the annual Computational Linguistics in Japan Conference ("[[Gengoshorigakkai]]") in 2007. Google also sent a delegate from its headquarters to the meeting of the members of the Computational Linguistic Society of Japan in March 2005, promising funding to researchers who would be willing to share text data.</ref>

When Google Translate generates a translation proposal, it looks for [[pattern]]s in hundreds of millions of documents to help decide on the best translation. By detecting patterns in documents that have already been translated by human translators, Google Translate makes [[artificial intelligence|informed guesses (AI)]] as to what an appropriate translation should be.<ref name="Inside Google Translate">{{cite web|title=Inside Google Translate (old)|url=https://translate.google.com/about/intl/en_ALL|website=Google Translate|publisher=[[Google]] Inc.|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100822193710/http://translate.google.com/about/intl/en_ALL|archive-date=August 22, 2010|access-date=May 28, 2013}}</ref>

Before October 2007, for languages other than [[Arabic]], [[Chinese language|Chinese]] and [[Russian language|Russian]], Google Translate was based on [[SYSTRAN]], a software engine which is still used by several other online translation services such as [[Babel Fish (website)|Babel Fish]] (now defunct). From October 2007, Google Translate used proprietary, in-house technology based on [[statistical machine translation]] instead,<ref name="Chitu, Alex">{{cite web|last=Chitu|first=Alex|date=October 22, 2007|title=Google Switches to Its Own Translation System|url=https://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2007/10/google-translate-switches-to-googles.html|website=Unofficial [[Google]] Blog|publisher=[[Google]] Inc.|access-date=February 15, 2011|archive-date=April 29, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170429040900/https://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2007/10/google-translate-switches-to-googles.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Schwartz, Barry">{{cite web|last=Schwartz|first=Barry|date=October 23, 2007|title=Google Translate Drops Systran For Home Brewed Translation|url=https://searchengineland.com/google-translate-drops-systran-for-home-brewed-translation-12502|website=[[Danny Sullivan (technologist)#Search Engine Land|Search Engine Land]]|access-date=July 23, 2010|archive-date=July 1, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100701083515/http://searchengineland.com/google-translate-drops-systran-for-home-brewed-translation-12502|url-status=live}}</ref> before transitioning to neural machine translation.

=== Google Translate Community ===
Google used to have [[crowdsourcing]] features for volunteers to be a part of its "Translate Community", intended to help improve Google Translate's accuracy.<ref name="Southern, Matt">{{cite web|last=Southern|first=Matt|date=July 28, 2014|title=Google Seeks Community Help To Improve Google Translate|url=https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-seeks-community-help-improve-google-translate/112741/|website=SEJ|access-date=May 26, 2017|archive-date=May 5, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160505014251/https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-seeks-community-help-improve-google-translate/112741/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Kelman, Sveta">{{cite web|last=Kelman|first=Sveta|date=July 25, 2014|title=Translate Community: Help us improve Google Translate!|url=https://translate.googleblog.com/2014/07/translate-community-help-us-improve.html|website=Google Translate Blog|publisher=[[Google]] Inc.|access-date=May 26, 2017|archive-date=March 22, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170322015842/https://translate.googleblog.com/2014/07/translate-community-help-us-improve.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Contribute help">{{cite web|title=Help Us Improve the Google Translate Tool|url=https://translate.google.com/intl/en/about/contribute/|website=Google Translate|publisher=[[Google]] Inc.|access-date=November 20, 2018|archive-date=March 6, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200306040602/https://translate.google.com/intl/en/about/contribute/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Lardinois, Frederic">{{cite web|last=Lardinois|first=Frederic|date=July 25, 2014|title=Google Wants To Improve Its Translations Through Crowdsourcing|url=https://techcrunch.com/2014/07/25/google-wants-to-improve-its-translations-through-crowdsourcing/|website=[[TechCrunch]]|publisher=[[AOL]]|access-date=July 13, 2017|archive-date=August 17, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200817184955/https://techcrunch.com/2014/07/25/google-wants-to-improve-its-translations-through-crowdsourcing/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Summers, Nick">{{cite web|last=Summers|first=Nick|title=Google sets up a community site to help improve Google Translate|url=https://thenextweb.com/news/google-sets-community-site-help-improve-google-translate|website=[[TNW (website)|TNW]]|publisher=[[Financial Times]]|date=July 25, 2014|access-date=July 13, 2017|archive-date=April 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210424145721/https://thenextweb.com/news/google-sets-community-site-help-improve-google-translate|url-status=live}}</ref> Volunteers could select up to five languages to help improve translation; users could verify translated phrases and translate phrases in their languages to and from English, helping to improve the accuracy of translating more rare and complex phrases.<ref name="Google Translate Community FAQ">{{cite web|title=Google Translate Community FAQ|url=https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dwS4CZzgZwmvoB9pAx4A6Yytmv7itk_XE968RMiqpMY/pub|website=[[Google]]|access-date=March 10, 2015|archive-date=February 21, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150221231830/https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dwS4CZzgZwmvoB9pAx4A6Yytmv7itk_XE968RMiqpMY/pub|url-status=live}}</ref> In August 2016, a [[Crowdsource (app)|Google Crowdsource]] app was released for Android users, in which translation tasks are offered.<ref name="Whitwan, Ryan">{{cite web|last=Whitwam|first=Ryan|date=August 29, 2016|title=New Google Crowdsource app asks you to help with translation and text transcription a few seconds at a time|url=https://www.androidpolice.com/2016/08/29/new-google-crowdsource-app-asks-help-translation-text-transcription-seconds-time/|website=Android Police|access-date=October 11, 2016|archive-date=October 12, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161012081609/http://www.androidpolice.com/2016/08/29/new-google-crowdsource-app-asks-help-translation-text-transcription-seconds-time/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Shankland, Stephen, new Crowdsource app">{{cite web|last=Shankland|first=Stephen|date=August 29, 2016|title=New Crowdsource app lets you work for Google for free|url=https://www.cnet.com/news/new-crowdsource-app-lets-you-work-for-google-for-free/|website=[[CNET]]|publisher=[[Red Ventures]]; [[Paramount Streaming|CBS Interactive]] (at the time of publication)|access-date=July 13, 2017|archive-date=November 8, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108103846/http://www.cnet.com/news/new-crowdsource-app-lets-you-work-for-google-for-free/|url-status=live}}</ref> There were three ways to contribute. First, Google showed a phrase that one should type in the translated version.<ref name="Contribute help" /> Second, Google showed a proposed translation for a user to agree, disagree, or skip.<ref name="Contribute help" /> Third, users could suggest translations for phrases where they think they can improve on Google's results. Tests in 44 languages showed that the "suggest an edit" feature led to an improvement in a maximum of 40% of cases over four years.<ref name="myth 5, GT learns">{{cite web|last=Benjamin|first=Martin|date=April 1, 2019|title=Myth 5: Google Translate learns from its users - Qualitative Analysis of Google Translate across 108 Languages|url=https://www.teachyoubackwards.com/qualitative-analysis/#myth-5|website=Teach You Backwards|access-date=December 25, 2019|archive-date=January 30, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210130084443/https://www.teachyoubackwards.com/qualitative-analysis/#myth-5|url-status=live}}</ref> Despite its role in improving translation quality and expanding language coverage, Google closed the Translate Community on March 28, 2024.

=== Statistical machine translation ===
Although Google has deployed a new system called neural machine translation for better quality translation, there are languages that still use the traditional translation method called statistical machine translation. It is a rule-based translation method that uses predictive algorithms to guess ways to translate texts in foreign languages. It aims to translate whole phrases rather than single words then gather overlapping phrases for translation. Moreover, it also analyzes bilingual text corpora to generate a statistical model that translates texts from one language to another.<ref name="Lange, William">{{cite web|last=Lange|first=William|author2=<!-- Staff writer(s); no by-line. -->|date=February 7, 2017|title=Statistical Vs Neural Machine Translation|url=https://daily.unitedlanguagegroup.com/stories/editorials/statistical-vs-neural-machine-translation|publisher=United Language Group|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181115010051/http://daily.unitedlanguagegroup.com:80/stories/editorials/statistical-vs-neural-machine-translation|archive-date=November 15, 2018|access-date=November 27, 2018}}</ref><ref name="United Language Group">{{cite web|author=<!-- Staff writer(s); no by-line. -->|title=Statistical Vs. Neural Machine Translation|url=https://unitedlanguagegroup.com/blog/statistical-vs-neural-machine-translation/|publisher=United Language Group|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190328043726/https://unitedlanguagegroup.com/blog/statistical-vs-neural-machine-translation/|archive-date=March 28, 2019|access-date=February 4, 2022}}<!-- A redesign of ''United Language Group'' replaces 'William Lange' with 'United Language Group' as the author of this article. --></ref>

=== Neural machine translation ===
In September 2016, a research team at Google announced the development of the [[Google Neural Machine Translation]] system (GNMT) to increase fluency and accuracy in Google Translate<ref name="Turovsky, Barak, found in translation" /><ref name="neural network mt">{{cite web|last1=Le|first1=Quoc V.|last2=Schuster|first2=Mike|date=September 27, 2016|title=A Neural Network for Machine Translation, at Production Scale|url=https://ai.googleblog.com/2016/09/a-neural-network-for-machine.html|work=[[Google AI]] Blog|publisher=[[Google]] Inc.|access-date=October 11, 2016|archive-date=May 7, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180507195240/https://ai.googleblog.com/2016/09/a-neural-network-for-machine.html|url-status=live}}</ref> and in November announced that Google Translate would switch to GNMT.

Google Translate's [[neural machine translation]] system used a large [[end-to-end principle|end-to-end]] [[neural network (machine learning)|artificial neural network]] that attempts to perform [[deep learning]],<ref name="Turovsky, Barak, found in translation" /><ref name="zero-shot translation">{{cite web|last1=Schuster|first1=Mike|last2=Johnson|first2=Melvin|last3=Thorat|first3=Nikhil|date=November 22, 2016|title=Zero-Shot Translation with Google's Multilingual Neural Machine Translation System|url=https://ai.googleblog.com/2016/11/zero-shot-translation-with-googles.html|website=[[Google AI]] Blog|publisher=[[Google]] Inc.|access-date=January 11, 2017|archive-date=May 7, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180507195630/https://ai.googleblog.com/2016/11/zero-shot-translation-with-googles.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Fewster, Gill">{{cite web|last=Fewster|first=Gil|date=January 5, 2017|title=The mind-blowing AI announcement from Google that you probably missed.|url=https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/the-mind-blowing-ai-announcement-from-google-that-you-probably-missed-2ffd31334805/|work=[[freeCodeCamp]]|access-date=January 11, 2017|archive-date=March 17, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200317221814/https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/the-mind-blowing-ai-announcement-from-google-that-you-probably-missed-2ffd31334805/|url-status=live}}</ref> in particular, [[long short-term memory]] networks.<ref name="lstm1997">{{cite journal|last1=Hochreiter|first1=Sepp|author1-link=Sepp Hochreiter|last2=Schmidhuber|first2=Jürgen|author2-link=Jürgen Schmidhuber|date=November 15, 1997|title=Long short-term memory|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/13853244|journal=[[Neural Computation (journal)|Neural Computation]]|volume=9|issue=8|pages=1735–1780|doi=10.1162/neco.1997.9.8.1735|pmid=9377276|s2cid=1915014|access-date=May 14, 2017|archive-date=January 22, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122144703/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/13853244_Long_Short-term_Memory|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="lstm2000">{{cite journal|last1=Gers|first1=Felix A.|author1-link=Felix Gers|last2=Schmidhuber|first2=Jürgen|author2-link=Jürgen Schmidhuber|last3=Cummins|first3=Fred|date=October 1, 2000|title=Learning to Forget: Continual Prediction with LSTM|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/12292425|journal=[[Neural Computation (journal)|Neural Computation]]|volume=12|issue=10|pages=2451–2471|citeseerx=10.1.1.55.5709|doi=10.1162/089976600300015015|pmid=11032042|s2cid=11598600|access-date=May 14, 2017}}</ref><ref name="bridging the gap" /><ref name="Metz, Cade">{{cite magazine|last=Cade|first=Metz|date=September 27, 2016|url=https://www.wired.com/2016/09/google-claims-ai-breakthrough-machine-translation/|title=An Infusion of AI Makes Google Translate More Powerful Than Ever|magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]|access-date=May 14, 2017|archive-date=November 8, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108101324/https://www.wired.com/2016/09/google-claims-ai-breakthrough-machine-translation/|url-status=live}}</ref> GNMT improved the quality of translation over SMT in some instances because it uses an [[example-based machine translation]] (EBMT) method in which the system "learns from millions of examples."<ref name="zero-shot translation" /> According to Google researchers, it translated "whole sentences at a time, rather than just piece by piece. It uses this broader context to help it figure out the most relevant translation, which it then rearranges and adjusts to be more like a human speaking with proper grammar".<ref name="Turovsky, Barak, found in translation" /> GNMT's "proposed architecture" of "system learning" has been implemented on over a hundred languages supported by Google Translate.<ref name="zero-shot translation" /> With the end-to-end framework, Google states but does not demonstrate for most languages that "the system learns over time to create better, more natural translations."<ref name="Turovsky, Barak, found in translation" /> The GNMT network attempts [[interlingual machine translation]], which encodes the "semantics of the sentence rather than simply memorizing phrase-to-phrase translations",<ref name="zero-shot translation" /><ref name="Boitet, Christian" /> and the system did not invent its own universal language, but uses "the commonality found in between many languages".<ref name="McDonald, Chris">{{cite web|last=McDonald|first=Chris|date=January 7, 2017|title=Ok slow down|url=https://medium.com/@chrismcdonald_94568/ok-slow-down-516f93f83ac8|website=[[Medium (website)|Medium]]|access-date=January 11, 2017|archive-date=June 22, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170622021412/https://medium.com/@chrismcdonald_94568/ok-slow-down-516f93f83ac8|url-status=live}}</ref> GNMT was first enabled for eight languages: to and from English and Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish and Turkish.<ref name="Turovsky, Barak, found in translation" /><ref name="neural network mt" /> In March 2017, it was enabled for Hindi, Russian and Vietnamese,<ref name="Davenport, Corbin">{{cite web|last=Davenport|first=Corbin|date=March 6, 2017|title=Google Translate now uses neural machine translation for some languages|url=https://www.androidpolice.com/2017/03/06/google-translate-now-uses-neural-machine-translation-languages/|website=Android Police|access-date=April 26, 2017|archive-date=April 27, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170427002944/http://www.androidpolice.com/2017/03/06/google-translate-now-uses-neural-machine-translation-languages/|url-status=live}}</ref> followed by Bengali, Gujarati, Indonesian, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu in April.<ref name="Hager, Ryne">{{cite web|last=Hager|first=Ryne|date=April 25, 2017|title=Google adds Indonesian and eight new Indian languages to its neural machine translation|url=https://www.androidpolice.com/2017/04/25/google-adds-indonesian-eight-new-indian-languages-neural-machine-translation/|website=Android Police|access-date=April 26, 2017|archive-date=April 26, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170426153834/http://www.androidpolice.com/2017/04/25/google-adds-indonesian-eight-new-indian-languages-neural-machine-translation/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Since 2020, Google has phased out GNMT and has implemented deep learning networks based on [[transformer (deep learning architecture)|transformer]]s.<ref name="Caswell, Isaac, recent advances">{{cite web|last1=Caswell|first1=Isaac|last2=Liang|first2=Bowen|date=June 8, 2020|title=Recent Advances in Google Translate|url=http://research.google/blog/recent-advances-in-google-translate/|website=Google Research Blog|publisher=[[Google]] Inc.|access-date=May 8, 2024}}</ref>

== Accuracy ==
Google Translate is not as reliable as human translation. When text is well-structured, written using formal language, with simple sentences, relating to formal topics for which training data is ample, it often produces conversions similar to human translations between English and a number of high-resource languages.<ref name="conditions">{{cite web|last=Benjamin|first=Martin|date=March 30, 2019|title=The 5 conditions for satisfactory approximations with Google Translate - Conclusions: Real Data, Fake Data & Google Translate|url=https://www.teachyoubackwards.com/conclusions/#conditions|website=Teach You Backwards|access-date=December 26, 2019|archive-date=December 24, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191224074713/https://www.teachyoubackwards.com/conclusions/#conditions|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="McGuire, Nick" /> Accuracy decreases for those languages when fewer of those conditions apply, for example when sentence length increases or the text uses familiar or literary language. For many other languages vis-à-vis English, it can produce the gist of text in those formal circumstances.<ref name="empirical evaluation">{{cite web|last=Benjamin|first=Martin|date=March 30, 2019|title=Empirical Evaluation of Google Translate across 107 Languages|url=https://www.teachyoubackwards.com/empirical-evaluation/|website=Teach You Backwards|access-date=December 26, 2019|archive-date=December 24, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191224074716/https://www.teachyoubackwards.com/empirical-evaluation/|url-status=live}}</ref> Human evaluation from English to all 102 languages shows that the main idea of a text is conveyed more than 50% of the time for 35 languages. For 67 languages, a minimally comprehensible result is not achieved 50% of the time or greater.<ref name="in-depth study" /> A few studies have evaluated Chinese,{{citation needed|date=December 2019}} French,{{citation needed|date=December 2019}} German,{{citation needed|date=December 2019}} and Spanish{{citation needed|date=December 2019}} to English, but no systematic human evaluation has been conducted from most Google Translate languages to English. Speculative language-to-language scores extrapolated from English-to-other measurements<ref name="in-depth study" /> indicate that Google Translate will produce translation results that convey the gist of a text from one language to another more than half the time in about 1% of language pairs, where neither language is English.<ref name="non-english pairs">{{cite web|last=Benjamin|first=Martin|date=March 30, 2019|title=Non-English Pairs - Empirical Evaluation of Google Translate across 107 Languages|url=https://www.teachyoubackwards.com/empirical-evaluation/#non-english|website=Teach You Backwards|access-date=December 26, 2019|archive-date=December 24, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191224074716/https://www.teachyoubackwards.com/empirical-evaluation/#non-english|url-status=live}}</ref> Research conducted in 2011 showed that Google Translate got a slightly higher score than the [[University of California, Los Angeles|UCLA]] minimum score for the English Proficiency Exam.<ref name="Aiken, Milam">{{cite journal|last1=Aiken|first1=Milam|last2=Balan|first2=Shilpa|date=April 2011|title=An Analysis of Google Translate Accuracy|url=https://translationjournal.net/journal/56google.htm|journal=Translation Journal|volume=16|issue=2|access-date=November 29, 2018|archive-date=November 20, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181120001925/http://translationjournal.net/journal/56google.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> Due to its identical choice of words without considering the flexibility of choosing alternative words or expressions, it produces a relatively similar translation to human translation from the perspective of formality, referential cohesion, and conceptual cohesion.<ref name="Li, Haiying">{{cite journal|last1=Li|first1=Haiying|last2=Graesser|first2=Arthur|last3=Cai|first3=Zhiqiang|date=May 3, 2014|title=Comparison of Google Translation with Human Translation|url=https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1187/d4bc0c83804c15cd6cc1b43670d27f5fe9b6.pdf|journal=Proceedings of the Twenty-Seventh International Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society Conference|publisher=FLAIRS Conference|s2cid=14905135|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181205193307/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1187/d4bc0c83804c15cd6cc1b43670d27f5fe9b6.pdf|archive-date=December 5, 2018|access-date=November 29, 2018|via=[[Semantic Scholar]]}}</ref> Moreover, a number of languages are translated into a sentence structure and sentence length similar to a human translation.<ref name="Li, Haiying" /> Furthermore, Google carried out a test that required native speakers of each language to rate the translation on a scale between 0 and 6, and Google Translate scored 5.43 on average.<ref name="McGuire, Nick" />

When used as a dictionary to translate single words, Google Translate is highly inaccurate because it must guess between [[polysemy|polysemic word]]s. Among the top 100 words in the English language, which make up more than 50% of all written English, the average word has [[most common words in English|more than 15 senses]],<ref name="polysemy Wiktionary">{{cite web|last=Benjamin|first=Martin|date=April 1, 2019|title=Polysemy in top 100 Oxford English Corpus words within Wiktionary|url=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bHK7BE2kMDh57Ttt0qfQwGrfACrCzG-91BgdLPoc-5o/edit#gid=0|website=Teach You Backwards|access-date=December 26, 2019|archive-date=December 26, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191226113823/https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bHK7BE2kMDh57Ttt0qfQwGrfACrCzG-91BgdLPoc-5o/edit#gid=0|url-status=live}}</ref> which makes the odds against a correct translation about 15 to 1 if each sense maps to a different word in the target language. Most common English words have at least two senses, which produces 50/50 odds in the likely case that the target language uses different words for those different senses. The odds are similar from other languages to English. Google Translate makes statistical guesses that raise the likelihood of producing the most frequent sense of a word, with the consequence that an accurate translation will be unobtainable in cases that do not match the majority or plurality [[text corpus|corpus]] occurrence. The accuracy of single-word predictions has not been measured for any language. Because almost all non-English language pairs pivot through English, the odds against obtaining accurate single-word translations from one non-English language to another can be estimated by multiplying the number of senses in the source language with the number of senses each of those terms have in English. When Google Translate does not have a word in its vocabulary, it makes up a result as part of its algorithm.<ref name="Ooga Booga" />

== Limitations ==
Google Translate, like other automatic translation tools, has its limitations, struggles with [[polysemy]] (the multiple meanings a word may have)<ref name="mathematics, polysemy">{{cite web |last=Benjamin |first=Martin |date=April 1, 2019 |title=Polysemy – words with multiple meanings - The Astounding Mathematics of Machine Translation |url=https://www.teachyoubackwards.com/mt-mathematics/#polysemy |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210116010212/https://www.teachyoubackwards.com/mt-mathematics/#polysemy |archive-date=January 16, 2021 |access-date=December 26, 2019 |website=Teach You Backwards}}</ref><ref name="McGuire, Nick" /> and [[idiom#Multiword expression|multiword expression]]s (terms that have meanings that cannot be understood or translated by analyzing the individual word units that compose them).<ref name="party terms">{{cite web |last=Benjamin |first=Martin |date=April 1, 2019 |title=Party terms (or multiword expressions) – words that play together - The Astounding Mathematics of Machine Translation |url=https://www.teachyoubackwards.com/mt-mathematics/#party-terms |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210116010212/https://www.teachyoubackwards.com/mt-mathematics/#party-terms |archive-date=January 16, 2021 |access-date=December 26, 2019 |website=Teach You Backwards}}</ref> A word in a foreign language might have two different meanings in the translated language. This might lead to mistranslation. Additionally, grammatical errors remain a major limitation to the accuracy of Google Translate.<ref name="study Google Translate">{{cite SSRN |title=A Study of Google Translate Translations: An Error Analysis of Indonesian-to-English Texts |last1=Rahmannia |first1=Mia |last2=Triyono |first2=Sulis |date=May 31, 2019 |ssrn=3456744}} International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Translation (IJLLT) 2(3):196-200, 2019. Retrieved August 26, 2020</ref> Google Translate struggles to differentiate between ''imperfect'' and ''perfect'' [[grammatical aspect|aspect]]s in Romance languages. The [[subjunctive mood]] is often erroneous.{{Citation needed|date=July 2023}} Moreover, the formal second person ({{lang|fr|vous}}) is often chosen, whatever the context.{{Citation needed|date=July 2023}} Since its English reference material contains only "you" forms, it has difficulty translating a language with "you all" or formal "you" variations.

Due to differences between languages in investment, research, and the extent of digital resources, the accuracy of Google Translate varies greatly among languages.<ref name="McGuire, Nick" /> Some languages produce better results than others. Most languages from Africa, Asia, and the Pacific, tend to score poorly in relation to the scores of many well-financed European languages, Afrikaans and Chinese being the high-scoring exceptions from their continents.<ref name="in-depth study" /><ref name="Freitas, Connor">{{cite journal|last1=Freitas|first1=Connor|last2=Liu|first2=Yudong|date=December 15, 2017|title=Exploring the Differences between Human and Machine Translation|url=https://cedar.wwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1060&context=wwu_honors|journal=[[Western Washington University]]|page=5|access-date=December 5, 2018|archive-date=August 1, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801044508/https://cedar.wwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1060&context=wwu_honors|url-status=live}}</ref> No languages indigenous to Australia are included within Google Translate. Higher scores for European can be partially attributed to the [[Europarl Corpus]], a trove of documents from the [[European Parliament]] that have been professionally translated by the mandate of the [[European Union]] into as many as 21 languages. A 2010 analysis indicated that French to English translation is relatively accurate,<ref name="Shen, Ethan">{{cite web|last=Shen|first=Ethan|date=June 2010|title=Comparison of online machine translation tools|url=https://www.tcworld.info/e-magazine/translation-and-localization/comparison-of-online-machine-translation-tools-34/|url-access=registration|website=TCWorld|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110210034229/http://www.tcworld.info/index.php?id=175|archive-date=February 10, 2011|access-date=July 23, 2010}}</ref> and 2011 and 2012 analyses showed that Italian to English translation is relatively accurate as well.<ref name="Pecoraro, Christopher, original">{{cite web|last=Pecoraro|first=Christopher|date=August 17, 2011|title=Microsoft Bing Translator and Google Translate Compared|url=https://www.chrispecoraro.com/microsoft-bing-translator-and-google-translate-compared/index.html|website=chrispecoraro.com|access-date=April 8, 2012|archive-date=February 21, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190221001943/http://chrispecoraro.com/microsoft-bing-translator-and-google-translate-compared/index.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Pecoraro, Christopher, update">{{cite web|last=Pecoraro|first=Christopher|date=January 30, 2012|title=Microsoft Bing Translator and Google Translate compared (update)|url=https://www.chrispecoraro.com/microsoft-bing-translator-and-google-translate-compared-2/index.html|website=chrispecoraro.com|access-date=April 8, 2012|archive-date=February 22, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190222131938/http://chrispecoraro.com/microsoft-bing-translator-and-google-translate-compared-2/index.html|url-status=live}}</ref> However, if the source text is shorter, rule-based machine translations often perform better; this effect is particularly evident in Chinese to English translations. While edits of translations may be submitted, in Chinese specifically one cannot edit sentences as a whole. Instead, one must edit sometimes arbitrary sets of characters, leading to incorrect edits.<ref name="Shen, Ethan" />

The service can be used as a dictionary by typing in words. One can translate from a book by using a scanner and an OCR like Google Drive. In its Written Words Translation function, there is a word limit on the amount of text that can be translated at once.<ref name="Translate written words" /> Therefore, long text should be transferred to a document form and translated through its Document Translate function.<ref name="Translate written words" />

== Open-source licenses and components ==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Language !! [[WordNet]] !! License
|-
| Albanian || Albanet || [[Creative Commons license|CC BY 3.0]]/[[GNU General Public License#Version 3|GPL 3]]
|-
| Arabic || [[Arabic WordNet]] || [[Creative Commons license|CC BY-SA 3.0]]
|-
| Catalan || Multilingual Central Repository || [[Creative Commons license|CC BY 3.0]]
|-
| Chinese || Chinese Wordnet || Wordnet
|-
| Danish || DanNet || Wordnet
|-
| English || Princeton WordNet || Wordnet
|-
| Finnish || FinnWordNet || Wordnet
|-
| French || WOLF (WOrdnet Libre du Français) || [[CeCILL]]-C
|-
| Galician || Multilingual Central Repository || [[Creative Commons license|CC BY 3.0]]
|-
| Haitian Creole || MIT-Haiti Initiative || [[Creative Commons license#Version 4.0|CC BY 4.0]]
|-
| Hebrew || Hebrew Wordnet || Wordnet
|-
| Indonesian || Wordnet Bahasa || [[MIT License|MIT]]
|-
| Italian || MultiWordNet || [[Creative Commons license|CC BY 3.0]]
|-
| Japanese || Japanese Wordnet || Wordnet
|-
| Malay || Wordnet Bahasa || [[MIT License|MIT]]
|-
| Norwegian || Norwegian Wordnet || Wordnet
|-
| Persian || Persian Wordnet || Free-to-use
|-
| Polish || [[plWordNet]] || Wordnet
|-
| Portuguese || OpenWN-PT || [[Creative Commons license|CC BY-SA 3.0]]
|-
| Spanish || Multilingual Central Repository || [[Creative Commons license|CC BY 3.0]]
|-
| Thai || Thai Wordnet || Wordnet
|}
Irish language data from [[Foras na Gaeilge]]'s New English-Irish Dictionary. (English database designed and developed for Foras na Gaeilge by Lexicography MasterClass Ltd.) Welsh language data from Gweiadur by Gwerin.

Certain content is copyrighted by [[Oxford University Press]], United States. Some phrase translations come from [[Wikitravel]].<ref name="open-source licenses and components">{{cite web|author=<!-- Staff writer(s); no by-line. -->|title=Open source components and licenses.|url=https://translate.google.com/intl/en/about/license/|website=Google Translate|publisher=[[Google]] Inc.|access-date=February 4, 2022|archive-date=January 20, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220120075835/https://translate.google.com/intl/en/about/license/|url-status=live}}</ref>

== Reviews ==
Shortly after launching the translation service for the first time, Google won an international competition for English–Arabic and English–Chinese machine translation.<ref name="Nielsen, Michael">{{cite book|last=Nielsen|first=Michael A.|author-link=Michael Nielsen|date=October 3, 2011|title=Reinventing discovery: the new era of networked science|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=afqfFW8WV9cC|location=[[Princeton, New Jersey|Princeton]], [[New Jersey|NJ]]|publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]|page=125|isbn=978-0-691-14890-8|access-date=February 24, 2012|archive-date=March 26, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326164801/https://books.google.com/books?id=afqfFW8WV9cC|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Translation mistakes and oddities ===
Since Google Translate uses statistical matching to translate, translated text can often include apparently nonsensical and obvious errors,<ref name="Gomes, Lee">{{cite web|last=Gomes|first=Lee|date=July 22, 2010|title=Google Translate Tangles With Computer Learning|url=https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0809/technology-computer-learning-google-translate.html|website=[[Forbes]]|access-date=July 22, 2010|archive-date=November 29, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201129075202/https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0809/technology-computer-learning-google-translate.html|url-status=live}}</ref> often swapping common terms for similar but nonequivalent common terms in the other language,<ref name="Weinberg, Nathan">{{cite web|last=Weinberg|first=Nathan|date=September 10, 2007|title=Google Translates Ivan the Terrible as "Abraham Lincoln"|url=https://google.blognewschannel.com/archives/2007/09/10/google-translates-ivan-the-terrible-as-abraham-lincoln/|website=Blog News Channel|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070912175216/http://google.blognewschannel.com/archives/2007/09/10/google-translates-ivan-the-terrible-as-abraham-lincoln/|archive-date=September 12, 2007|access-date=July 22, 2010}}</ref> as well as inverting sentence meaning.<ref name="Twisted Translations, Bohemian Rhapsody">{{cite web|author=Twisted Translations|author-link=Malinda Kathleen Reese#Twisted Translations|date=February 10, 2015|title=Google Translate Sings: "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwOH3YsraNs|website=[[YouTube]]|publisher=[[Google]] Inc.|access-date=April 26, 2016|archive-date=April 14, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160414040612/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwOH3YsraNs|url-status=live}}</ref> Novelty websites like [[Translation Services USA#Bad Translator|Bad Translator]] and Translation Party have used the service to produce humorous text by translating back and forth between multiple languages,<ref name="Topolyanskaya, Alyona">{{cite web|last=Topolyanskaya|first=Alyona|date=January 28, 2010|title=Google Lost in Translation|url=https://www.mn.ru/news/20100128/55406807.html|website=[[The Moscow News]]|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100813111824/http://www.mn.ru/news/20100128/55406807.html|archive-date=August 13, 2010|access-date=July 22, 2010}}</ref> similar to the children's game [[Chinese whispers|telephone]].<ref name="Kincaid, Jason">{{cite web|last=Kincaid|first=Jason|date=August 7, 2009|title=Translation Party: Tapping Into Google Translate's Untold Creative Genius|url=https://techcrunch.com/2009/08/07/translation-party-tapping-into-google-translates-untold-creative-genius/|website=[[TechCrunch]]|publisher=[[AOL]]|access-date=March 17, 2017|archive-date=January 22, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122145835/https://techcrunch.com/2009/08/07/translation-party-tapping-into-google-translates-untold-creative-genius/|url-status=live}}</ref>

==== Replying to @sarah_mcdonald(s) ====
Certain texts in Japanese have shown to be translated to "Replying to @sarah_mcdonald(s)" in English, often with no relation to the source text. Examples include "もーるるるるるるるる", "バチバチで草" and "絵にfう".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Google Translate |url=https://translate.google.co.in/?sl=ja&tl=en&text=%E7%B5%B5%E3%81%ABf%E3%81%86&op=translate |access-date=2025-05-05 |website=translate.google.co.in}}</ref> This has been asked on multiple platforms, including [[YouTube]].<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7ItUqd0qWMhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7ItUqd0qWM |title=Weird Google Translation - Replying to Sarah McDonald {{!}} Weird Wednesday |date=2024-12-18 |last=Elle Stone |access-date=2025-05-05 |via=YouTube}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{div col|colwidth=35em}}
* [[Apertium]]
* [[Babel Fish (website)|Babel Fish]] (discontinued; redirects to the main Yahoo! site)
* [[Baidu Fanyi]]
* [[Comparison of machine translation applications]]
* [[DeepL Translator]]
* [[Google Dictionary]]
* [[Google Translator Toolkit]]
* [[Jollo]] (discontinued)
* [[List of Google products]]
* [[Microsoft Translator]]
* [[PROMT]]
* [[Reverso (language tools)|Reverso]]
* [[Smartcat]]
* [[Speech Recognition & Synthesis]]
* [[SYSTRAN]]
* [[Translate (Apple)]]
* [[Word Lens]] (discontinued; merged into Google Translate app)
* [[Yandex Translate]]
{{div col end}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
{{portal|Language}}
* {{official website|url=https://translate.google.com/?hl=en}}
* [https://translate.google.com/contribute?hl=en Contribute]

{{Google LLC}}
{{Android}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Google Translate]]
[[Category:Internet properties established in 2006]]
[[Category:Machine translation software]]
[[Category:Natural language processing software]]
[[Category:Products introduced in 2006]]
[[Category:Translation websites]]