Google has a mobile app, Google Translate, which is simply amazing IMHO. It’s not that it works that well yet, however what it is attempting to do and currently does well enough that I use it quite often, is allow you to point your mobile device at, say a sign, and it translates that sign in real-time.
Here in my castle, an AirBnB condo decorated in what I like to refer to as Nuevo Portuguese Gaudy, there is a picture on the wall with text naturally in Portuguese.
Here is Google Translate in action:
The text in the framed wall picture is in Portuguese and the text on the phone’s screen is >>mostly<< English. For some reason calma is calma on both and perhaps the correct English is calmer.
My translation at this moment (esta momento – that one is easy) is:
It’s not true that the night is calmer than the day
Google Translate is most useful when I’m out and about, a stranger in a strange – to me anyway – land. Strange not in a odd way, but an unfamiliar one.
I’ve tested this text:
não. não. é Verdade que hoje a noite esta mais calma.
online with:
- google translate
- lexilogos
- online-translator.com
- Microsoft Bing
and none of them provide the same translation and I’m still not exactly sure what is the best english translation.
So, I’ll ask a Portuguese amigo next chance and update this post with their translation.
