English to Spanish app for phone

Google Translate app works amazingly well on iOS phones. I assume its even better on Droids......

My wife is natively bilingual (and has a masters' degree in Spanish). She says Google Translate started out pretty bad but has gotten MUCH better for Spanish. Of course, you have to be able to get to Google to use it, so may not be useful in the context(s) you describe.

Google play store. Once you find one you like you hit download and it is automatic. It will even place an icon for you. If you have apple same thing in apple store.

The best thing with Google Translate is it allows you to take a photo of a Spanish sign, and it will translate for you!

As long as you plan ahead, you can download a language so it works without cell coverage (google translate)

Extremely handy.

Though it did have a bit of trouble when we were at the sushi restaurant in Italy Sunday. Didn't seem to get that their were Italian and Japanese words mixed together.

Good to know that Google Translation works offline. Apparently, with some limitations i.e. fewer choices when offline. If it works offline at all - recent reviews noted that it doesn't.

I never installed it, and don't think I will. With a proper system it's not that difficult to learn basics tenses, verb conjugations and a few hundred words. Took me about 2 years at a very leisurely pace, I think less than 150 hours spent in total. For when I'm short of words, I'm using a free dictionary app - DicDroid, it provides words and common short phrases.

DicDroid is a dictionary, not a translator. I would not rely on a Google Translator for anything beyond basics, because, as any translator app, it can and will screw up on the basic level already. Like translating "Did you see it?" as Simple Past "lo viste?", while in Spanish they more often use Present Perfect "lo has visto". Or, when you dial "Have you seen it?", it gives "la has visto" - almost correct, except for La. Spanish language is "muy macho", things are always assumed to be masculine unless otherwise specified.

navegator wrote:

I do not have the ability to upload anything from my tablet, or I do not know how, chose one and let me know how dumb I am please.

Upload from tablet or download to tablet? In any event, check the Help of your particular browser. I would "guess" that it's either Win8, or another unwieldy browser skin, difficult to get to any controls.

Almot wrote:
Good to know that Google Translation works offline. Apparently, with some limitations i.e. fewer choices when offline. If it works offline at all - recent reviews noted that it doesn't.

I never installed it, and don't think I will. With a proper system it's not that difficult to learn basics tenses, verb conjugations and a few hundred words. Took me about 2 years at a very leisurely pace, I think less than 150 hours spent in total. For when I'm short of words, I'm using a free dictionary app - DicDroid, it provides words and common short phrases.

DicDroid is a dictionary, not a translator. I would not rely on a Google Translator for anything beyond basics, because, as any translator app, it can and will screw up on the basic level already. Like translating "Did you see it?" as Simple Past "lo viste?", while in Spanish they more often use Present Perfect "lo has visto". Or, when you dial "Have you seen it?", it gives "la has visto" - almost correct, except for La. Spanish language is "muy macho", things are always assumed to be masculine unless otherwise specified.

We would take the opposite side to your arguement. It's pretty easy to learn the basics but the translation software is most useful as you go beyone the standard vacation oriented phrases or what a 3000 word translation dictionary can provide.

While always a good idea to get some basics down, if you are staying for any significant length of time, you will run into issues that the vacation oriented phrases won't cover. We've used it all the time when in stores where it isn't always obvious what you are buying.

If you are unsure what a product is, it's very handy to be able to type in what's on the lable and have the app spit out the answer. Say you are looking for a cut of meat or you need some work done on the RV, your basic phrase book is unlikely to cover it well but we've had excelent luck with translators.

True, you won't get a perfect translation but unless you are speaking to a grammar teacher, it does suprisingly well and most people understand you may be off on the tense or masculine/feminine but they still get it. Most of the time, they are quite happy you are trying and occasionally with help you with the correct translation once they know what you are trying to say.

We are huge fans of such a great tool.

Valhalla 360, I'm already past "vacation-oriented phrases" :) - those took me just a few days before my very first trip. Numbers, directions, greetings etc. Couple of pages. No need to use any app for that.

Learning 5-6 tenses and using them requires memorizing both dictionary (including short phrase blocks) AND grammar. DicDroid is not a "phrase book", it's a dictionary. Don't know exactly how many words it contains, but so far it's been able to find auto part names when I needed them. I'm pretty sure that in offline mode I wouldn't get a lot more words from Google Translator or any other smartphone app.

When I need to know what the product is, I might use a smartphone dictionary - after all, label is a few words, not a "phrase". Sometimes I ask - Is it something like (whatever I think it is similar to, in Spanish), or - What is it for, or - What kind of (meat, cheese, poultry etc). Very often there is no "label", all you see is some "meat" in the tray, and you have to ask.

RV and auto repairs? Doesn't happen very often, and usually all you need to know is a part name. (And the address of good and not too greedy mechanic). Again, I might crack the Droid open, or point to that part and say - I need to buy/replace/fix this, or - I have a problem here. Or whatever phrase comes to my mind. Something always comes, if you take efforts to learn. Ex, if I forgot how to say "inflate the tires" I would say "Need a little more air in tires". With polite intro like "I think...", if the situation requires. Might even ask them (if I forgot and can't see the numbers on the tire) - How many should it have, 35, 40? - everybody knows that it's PSI, what else can it be when you are talking about tires, duh.

My point was - translators are doing a crappy job with grammar, and so-so job of providing the right vocabulary. It needs a human brain to filter and sort things out. And, if there is a fairly functional brain, why not using it for what it was designed for, i.e. learning. Talking is fun. And, if you are staying there for long time, it's more than just fun - it's a necessity.

Colloquialisms seem to confound most translation programs, and Spanish spoken in Mexico differs from Spanish spoken in Spain.