Yandex Translate

translate.yandex.com

11 Voted

Yandex Translate is an online translation service that offers translation in 95 languages, including English, Arabic, Russian and Greek. It is also available as a free mobile application that allows for offline translation.

 

A good feature of Yandex Translate is the ability to add translations into collections that can be accessed and shared at any time. You can create collections by categories, such as kitchen utensils or everyday phrases, and once shared, can be accessed by the entire Yandex community. You can also rate the quality of translations by either giving a thumbs up or thumbs down, suggest amendments and listen back to audio to find out how to pronounce words and phrases.

 

Another great feature available on the mobile app is the option to download languages so that you can access translations offline. For me, this has been incredibly useful when travelling abroad when I have wanted to quickly find out how to say a word but have not wanted to incur data roaming charges. It also means that you don’t have to wait for a slow connection to load results, being instead able to instantly translate entire phrases.

 

One thing that I was initially excited about but have since discovered needs a significant amount of work is the voice input feature. This has the potential to be a fantastic element of the website, allowing users to practice their speaking skills by using the microphone on their laptop or phone to speak in their target language, or even just quickly translate words from their native language. However, in its current form it is basically useless and needs vast amounts of improvement if it is to be used to provide accurate translations.

Pros
  • 95 languages available
  • Add and share words and phrases to Collections
  • Ability to download languages to phone for use in offline mode
Cons
  • Voice input feature in need of considerable improvement