(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.
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.
