Google website translator: How AVOID translation?

[The Doodle Dandy]

Using Google's website translator, from Swedish to 6-8 other languages.

Problem: it also translates names of people, places, streets, etc. which not only looks idiotic but also gives non-swedish users completely wrong and useless information.

Example of Swedish text and Google's translation (my comments in parenthesis):

"...finns hos Björn Lövstrand (a name), Blomstergatan 22 (street address), Stockholm" translates to "..is at Bear Leafbeach, Flower street 22, Stockholm". What it translates to in other languages than English, I don't even dare to think of...

Which means that none except Swedish spoken people will find the place.

So, can I in some way exclude certain phrases from being translated?

[Mikl]

Yes, this should be possible. Google has a tool which allows the webmaster to "polish" the translation. I'm not sure exactly how it works, but it can presumably let you specify that the translated version of a particular word is exactly the same as the original. But I expect you would have to do that with every individual language separately.

You might find the following references useful:
https://translate.google.com/manager/
http://googleblog.blogspot.co.uk/200...tion-with.html
http://translate.google.com/translate_tools

Mike

[The Doodle Dandy]

Yes, this should be possible. Google has a tool which allows the webmaster to "polish" the translation. I'm not sure exactly how it works, but it can presumably let you specify that the translated version of a particular word is exactly the same as the original. But I expect you would have to do that with every individual language separately.

You might find the following references useful:
https://translate.google.com/manager/
http://googleblog.blogspot.co.uk/200...tion-with.html
http://translate.google.com/translate_tools

Mike

Thanks for reply!

However, I have gone through the pages you're linking to, and as far as I could see, there no way to downright exclude a phrase. You were just guessing, right? :-)

The only workaround, which might or might not work, is to use the tool that suggests alternative translations. With that, I can tell Google to translate "Björn" into "Björn" (i.e. no actual translation at all). This has to be done for each language I have listed. Whether Gooogle then will use my suggestion or not is arbitrary.

But if I have texts about someone named "Björn", and also some text about wildlife and the animal "björn" (bear), it's out the drain again...

I'm a bit baffled that this - in my opinion pretty obvious flaw - hasn't been adressed by Google. In my case it's merely about an address in the site footer. I "solved" it by simply writing the text as an image instead.....

[Mikl]

I can tell Google to translate "Björn" into "Björn" (i.e. no actual translation at all). This has to be done for each language I have listed.

That's exactly what I was suggesing. I thought I'd made that clear. And I also mentioned the obvious point about having to do it separately for each language.

I take your point about Björn the name and björn the animal. I can only suggest that your override should be on Björn Lövstrand (in this example) rather than Björn by itself. But I don't know if the tool allows you to do that.

Mike

[joebert]

I'm a bit baffled that this - in my opinion pretty obvious flaw - hasn't been adressed by Google.

Have you considered letting Google know the tool isn't translating what in English would be called proper nouns the way you'd like?