Hi. It looks like the board has been "dead" for quite a while. So, I guess I'm resurrecting it :). Here's my question: I was reading a conversation about a couple of movies, and there were two sentences which caught my attention. One said, "The movie is set in ancient China." and the other said (about a different movie), "The movie takes place in Italy." Am I right in thinking that when we're talking about a movie's being set in a place, we're referring to where the plot takes place, like the movie Mummy (the first one) is set in ancient Egypt, and that when we're talking about where a movie takes place, we're discussing where it has been filmed, so technically, a movie can never take place in ancient China? Correct me, please, if I'm wrong. I'll be grateful.

Орлин: You should ask Fencer. I am not sure how he decides to add languages. I believe people interested in a particular language also contribute to its being implemented and translated onto the site.

Zdravo svima! Je li moguće dodati hrvatski jezik na našem siteu? Ja ne vidim razlog da ne može jer već ima npr. bugarski i slovački. Hrvatski mi je najvoljeniji jezik nakon maternjeg bugarskog. A ima li Hrvata na Brain Kingu? Vjerojatno ne bi bilo problem uvesti na siteu i bosanski ili srpski, koje ja također volim.

rod03801: If you find odd things funny that explains why you think I'm funny! I once used google translate here for some Czech translation (English to Czech) and did I ever butcher it!

Artful Dodger: No, I never trust google translate. Unless it's something I was pretty sure about anyway. I just felt it was funny how it was saying the opposite, and the placements of the "not" part of the translation, which changed the meaning to the opposite.
I find odd things funny

Pedro Martínez: thanks!

Artful Dodger: You're right, Dan. That's exactly what it means.

rod03801: Hmmm, you're probably right. I said happy birthday to a friend in German (they live in Germany) and that was the response. I love the way Google translates it!

Artful Dodger: Not that Google Translate can be trusted, but it suggests the opposite.

"Thanks, Dan. I'm not certain that you speak so well Deutch"

Dank, Dan. Ich habe nicht gewissen, dass du so gut Deutch sprichst.

I think it says something like, "Thanks Dan. I didn't know that you speak German so well." ?

Anyone here wants to trade Hindi for Hebrew?

Jaak: I see. It's similar to English, and easy to understand for me.

TAROU: It is right translated but we like to write shorter:
Palun kasuta autopassi!

Carl: I got it on an Estonian board.
Please use auto pass = Palun kasuta automaatset passi

I have missed Pedro Martinez. Does anyone here or elsewhere know what has become of him?

Does anyone know how to write this in Estonian please. Please use auto pass.

Milioi: Thank you! I knew they were alike...
imTranslator changed the sentence to "Byl to sami hodin jízdy".... what did the translator think of it??

TAROU: Czech translation is very similar to Slovak version, it could be like "To byl hod, samé jedničky."
It is just quite interesting how could get from "jednotky" to "journeys" :)

Milioi: Oh. Good! Thank you very much.
It looks as if I made a terrible wrong translation. Will you tell me its Czech translation for my learning, if you please?

TAROU: Toto = That, bol = was, hod = (dice) roll, samé = only, jednotky = ones (on the dice)

lizrising: "It was very the journey of hours." ( It was the very time travel )

I translated your sentence into Czech by using "imTranslator", and into English by myself.
So I have no confidence in it...

Toto bol hod samé jednotky.
maybe... Toto=The, bol=(it) was, hod=of hours, samé=itself, jednotky=journey

vino: Thank you! That makes a lot more sense.

lizrising: What a roll! Three times one!

Walter Montego: I got the same translation. It was said in my opponent's first move in a Ludo game and I have no idea what that might mean.

lizrising: Pedro might be able to help you. I am waiting for his return to continue a few games. I'm sure he'll check out your post when he returns. He has extensive knowledge of many languages, though I do not know if he knows Slovak.

"This was the very hour drive." <----- Is what I got.

I tried Google translate. The words make sense, but without context it looks like gibberish to me too. Are the Slovak words spelled correctly and in proper tense? I was told this language, Czech, and others in this area can be very strict on these things.

Can anyone translate this? Google Translate gave me gibberish.

Toto bol hod samé jednotky.

puupia: LOL, it's fun indeed. I typed “What the hell are you talking about, moron?” and it ended up with “Do you like silly stories?”

fukuhara: Translation Party is a quite amusing application. It translates english phrases into japanese and then back to english. It continues translating between those two languages until it gets same english phrase two times in a row. Phrase in this link is from the description of this board. Experiment with different phrases and you might get some amazing results.

I have very limited knowledge of japanese but i still find this site very good fun. It should be even better if you're fluent in both languages. It really shows how automated translation still has a long way to go.

Milioi, Gouwe gozer: In my opinion, bad translation is always worse than no translation (and the translation of “príjemnú hru” as “enjoyable game” is as bad a translation as one can be). If people want to use Google Translator, so be it, but they should be aware of the fact that they will rarely get a translation of the original sentence, especially in the case of linguistically distant languages.

Milioi: I agree with you but I started the same discussion a few months ago too and is hopeless in my opinion Some people here just accept ONLY the most perfect translation and all other translations are wrong, bull or worse so I didn't reply anymore
I use " http://imtranslator.com/ " and it gives another different translation. But it gives me the idea what way I have to think about a translation, that's important and enough in my opinion I didn't ask for a perfect line, I asked for a translation, and that's what I receive It is usefull for me

Pedro Martínez: I agree that Google Translate is not perfect, but it is much better to have translation from there, when you do not understand a word. You can at least find out what the sentence could be about. And anyway the translation wasn't so bad this time, was it?

fukuhara: Thanks, but I'll keep using google translator for now. Let me know if you found another links worth checking on.

h657: Software translation has its limits particularly between Japanese and English is just terrible it still needs help from human experts.

Pedro Martínez:

Pedro Martínez: Thanks Pedro! Yea, you're right, google translator sucks.

h657: Hey, today I decided to try this chess variant. Enjoy the game. Štefan.

Google Translator sucks.

aaru: this translate.google.com will help me enjoy not only playing but communicate with everyone around the world. Thanks again aaru. :)

h657: http://translate.google.com/#

aaru: thank you so much for your help :)

Hello, today I took courage, and try variations of this type of chess, enjoyable game. Stephen. - google translator ;)

Can anyone tranlate this for me, please. Ahoj dnes som nabral odvahu a skúsim tento druh šachovej variacie, príjemnú hru. Štefan.

rod03801: Interesting. So native speakers might have different ideas on the same subject. Thanks for your comment, and looking forward to seeing more replies from native speakers. You and your friends may not realize it, but you're of great help to me. I appreciate that.

King Reza: Personally, I agree with you, in the post where you expanded upon your question. To me, each time, #1 is the only one that sounds correct to me.

GTCharlie: Ahh, I see. Thanks.

King Reza: 2 sounds best when making a veiled accusation, 3 would work if the speaker showed doubt about his statement,like after a pause "... didn't she?"

fukuhara: Perhaps it's wiser to state what I really have in mind rather than try to implicitly make native speakers confirm or reject it:

The tag question must be based on the main verb in the statement and must agree with the subject of the main verb as well, right?

In 1, there's no problem. I know that. But 3, grammatically speaking, is quite parallel with 1. So, again, grammatically speaking, 3 should be well-formed. However, it seems semantically speaking, it sounds odd.

2, on the other hand, seems to be grammatically wrong, at least as far as my knowledge of grammar says. But it seems to be OK to native speakers despite the fact that the tag question is based not on the main verb and its subject, but on the verb used in the embedded clause and its subject.

In other words, I want native speakers to tell me if a tag question can be based on the embedded clauses or not. Here are more examples which may help:


(For the sake of semantic problems, I won't use 'I' to start my sentences)

Statement: He knows you know she went out last night,....?


Possible tag questions:

1) doesn't he?
2) don't you?
3) didn't she?

(My knowledge says only number 1 is OK)

But, if I change the 'he' at the beginning of my statement with 'I', it seems things change:

Statement: I know you know she went out out last night, ...?

1) don't I?
2) don't you?
3) didn't she?

Here, it seems, based on the replies I got, that strikingly number 2 is OK, while nothing has really changed compared with the previous example.

I want natives to comment on my assumptions, please. Just tell me if they sound OK or not. Thanks in advance.

King Reza:
3) Sounds strange because the speaker ask what he think to himself. It is only possible in thought. But strange as a question.