Wrong Google translation with APIs - correct translation from google search pages

[Federico Bari]

I need to translate a list of medicine active ingredients. Using the API I get wrong translations from time to time; for the very same active ingredients for which I get an erroneous translation, I have the right translation from the Google search web page. Here is an example for the active ingredient "CALCIO LATTOGLUCONATO" in Italian original language

• I get (wrong) "LATTOGLUCONATO FOOTBALL" translation with the API
• I get (correct) "CALCIUM LACTOCLUCONATE" translation from Google search web form (https://www.google.com/search?q=ferromaltoso+traduzione+inglese&oq=ferromaltoso&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j69i57.2606j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8), see below screenshot

Here is the code for the API setting in PHP (but could be done in any other language)

function translateText($text, $source_language, $translation_language){ 

     //$post_array = $this->input->post(); 

     $params= array( "q" => $text, 

                              "target" => $translation_language, 

                              "format" => 'text', "source" => $source_language, 

                              "model" => 'base', 

                              "key" => // here my personal key ); 

                             

     $url = 'https://translation.googleapis.com/language/translate/v2'; 

      return postCURL($url, $params); 

 }

I think it is worth underlining that this is not a coding bug/issue, it is an issue referred to the Google Translate API. Could change something using a different model instead of the "base" one?

Thanks.

Here is the screenshot of the correct result from the Google web search page translator:

[Adam Bittlingmayer]

Yeah, they're not guaranteed to use the same models, nor even to be deterministic.

[Efim (Cloud Platform Support)]

Please provide the following information.

1. Full API request and response without any personal, or sensitive information.

2. What is the coding language?

[Jovi Juan]

Sorry to jump in here, but I am having a similar problem. I'd like to note this is a common, yearslong complaint/issue in sheets via the =googletranslate() function.

I was hoping to get around the problem by directly accessing the api via python, but that seems to be a waste of time, given the above note.

It seems like this is the intended behaviour (at least in sheets)? Can someone confirm that? I got that info from the community discussion board.

https://support.google.com/translate/thread/109491177/google-sheets-googletranslate-command-not-consistent-with-translate-google-com?hl=en

Is it possible to access the good api that powers translate.google.com?

Thanks for your help. 

[Jun (Cloud Platform Support)]

Hi,

It looks that you'll need to reach out to the Google Docs Editors Help Community [1] for your issue regarding the GOOGLETRANSLATE(text, [source_language, target_language]) [2] at Google Sheet, as this google group is for general discussions about Cloud Translation API [3]. 

[1] https://support.google.com/docs/community?hl=en

[2] https://support.google.com/docs/answer/3093331?hl=en

[3] https://cloud.google.com/translate/docs/advanced/quickstart#translate_v3_translate_text-python