(It’s not her faultembarazadameans pregnant, whileavergonzadameans embarrassed, who knew?)

For nearly half of its supported languages, the app offers audio translationsand that number keeps growing.

The Good:Google’s translations are incredibly comprehensive, if occasionally clunky.

Google Translate App

Credit: Felix Choo / Alamy

The Bad:When it comes to Asian characters, results can be nonsensical.

On a Chinese menu, “eggplant with basil” somehow became “nine eggplant.”

Number of Languages:249, with at least 70 offering voice translations (at last count).

Off-Line Capability:Downloadable translation packs are available for more than 60 languages.

Overall Assessment:It may not be perfect, but we love the number of languagesand the price.

Saving your translations in an app likeEvernotecan help you create a personalized phrase book.

over and over again.

Number of Languages:Over 100 total, with 38 offering voice translations.

Off-Line Capability:Translate between 38 languages offline without language-pair restrictions.

The Good:The photo translation is the fastest and most accurate around.

It had no problem identifying “eggplant with basil” on the same Chinese menu that stumped Google Translate.

The Bad:The interface is highly sensitive to movement, which makes it difficult to focus.

Another annoyance was only being able to see a few translated words at a time.

Number of Languages:Three (more languages are on the way).

Off-Line Capability:Everything but the supplemental language packs works offline.

Overall Assessment:Without the ability to translate English into any other language, you’ll need other apps.