# Google Translate Fails

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-translate-fails/847922>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [February 14, 2020, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-translate-fails/847922 "2020-02-14T04:22:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![GMANCANADA](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gmancanada/32/2837_2.png) [@GMANCANADA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GMANCANADA)\
**Post date:** [February 14, 2020, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-translate-fails/847922/1 "2020-02-14T04:22:08Z")

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I came across a video on Youtube where a singer does “Google translate fails”:

  
She sings the “google translated” version of a popular song and it’s inevitably pretty silly. However, she doesn’t really explain how she does the translation (and I can’t find one) i.e: presumably she goes from the original English to some other language, then back to english, but what language?

On a couple videos she says it at the start e.g.: ABBA from english to swedish then back to english), but in general there’s no explanation.

Just curious if anyone has any idea? There are lots of these types of videos and websites with google text fails. Do the creators just keep picking different languages until they get the dumbest translation?

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**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\
**Post date:** [February 14, 2020, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-translate-fails/847922/2 "2020-02-14T21:41:27Z")

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Well, I think it would be more interesting if the round translation was correct. So why not choose the largest comic book?

[spoiler]An English-Italian-Russian-Japanese-Greek-German-English rendering of:

Well, I suppose it would be rather less humorous if the back and forth translation was accurate, so why not select for maximum comedic effect?

It’s actually a lot closer to the original than I was expecting so… comedy fail, I guess.[/spoiler]

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**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\
**Post date:** [February 14, 2020, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-translate-fails/847922/3 "2020-02-14T22:26:52Z")

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If you like that one, [this](https://www.themarysue.com/google-translate-fresh-prince/) should make your life flip, turn upside down.

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**Author:** ![GMANCANADA](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gmancanada/32/2837_2.png) [@GMANCANADA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GMANCANADA)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-translate-fails/847922/4 "2020-02-15T01:12:10Z")

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I’m surprised, but not surprised, that someone thought of these.

Some are very funny and creative.