# Google Translate - forcing formal/informal, masculine/feminine etc.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-translate-forcing-formal-informal-masculine-feminine-etc/648767>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 30, 2013, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-translate-forcing-formal-informal-masculine-feminine-etc/648767 "2013-01-30T01:58:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\
**Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-translate-forcing-formal-informal-masculine-feminine-etc/648767/1 "2013-01-30T01:58:41Z")

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Is there a way to force Google Translate to specify the formal/informal and/or masculine/feminine form of words (specifically going from English to French?)

I did some searching and found a page on a Google discussion site which said you can enter, for example, “you(informal)” but that does not seem to work.

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**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\
**Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-translate-forcing-formal-informal-masculine-feminine-etc/648767/2 "2013-01-30T07:46:00Z")

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Not sure about French, but I figured Japanese would be similar and I’ve concluded that there’s no good way. Putting (informal) next to something just put (informal) next to it in the translated text.

I did have SOME success by, say, using I vs I’m

I am a cat  
I’m a cat

but the translation still wasn’t very good (the latter was translated in an informal **feminine** way for no good reason, the former had a bizarre coupling of a very pompous pronoun followed by a very formal verb).

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**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\
**Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-translate-forcing-formal-informal-masculine-feminine-etc/648767/3 "2013-01-30T13:24:28Z")

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> [@Jragon](#):
>
> I am a cat  
> I’m a cat
> 
> but the translation still wasn’t very good (the latter was translated in an informal **feminine** way for no good reason, the former had a bizarre coupling of a very pompous pronoun followed by a very formal verb).

Let me guess: wagahai ha neko de aru

If so, it’s the title of a well-known novel.

I think this is a good example of how Google Translate works - by searching for examples of similar strings of words that have been translated before.

This approach may work fairly well for some language pairs, but, for the moment at least, it does a really, really bad job of translating English to Japanese or vice versa.

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**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\
**Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-translate-forcing-formal-informal-masculine-feminine-etc/648767/4 "2013-01-30T13:33:43Z")

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> [@hibernicus](#):
>
> Let me guess: wagahai ha neko de aru
> 
> If so, it’s the title of a well-known novel.

Ah, yes, that would be it. Still completely useless to any poor first year student who wants to look up how to say “I am a cat,” unfortunately.

ETA: My Japanese-\>English tests went a bit better, but I suspect that’s because with very simple sentences it’s easier to go from a language with a huge amount of formality and gender rules to one with very few.