Google Translate is now adding contextual translations for terms with numerous meanings

Translations are the one area where the power of AI really shines through. Even though Google has made some progress in this area, the company is certainly not done improving its service. It is well known that enabling conversations between parties who speak completely different languages is difficult. The company revealed some new contextual tools that will be added to Google Translate today at an AI-focused event in Paris. These tools could help speakers avoid a variety of common blunders in the future.

Particularly if you are attempting to learn a language for the first time, contextual translation appears to represent a significant improvement in terms of accuracy. Translate will begin displaying various variants of words with various meanings, as demonstrated on stage at Google’s event (which is now, regrettably, marked as private on YouTube), allowing you to select the option that best reflects what you are attempting to convey.

In the given example, “novel” can essentially refer to three distinct concepts in English: a novel, something new, or something special. Since novel, nouveau, and original are distinct words in French, it’s easy to see how the app could misspell a sentence in the absence of context. In point of fact, if you’ve ever attempted to complete your high school language homework using Translate, you know how badly this can go.

When translating English, Spanish, French, Japanese, and German, Google will now offer multiple meanings for each word thanks to this contextual upgrade. In addition to accuracy, the objective is to ensure that your sentence reads and sounds natural to native speakers. It is a crucial step in making bilingual conversations a breeze, whether you are writing an email to a coworker halfway around the world or talking to them in person.

Recently, offline support for 33 additional languages and a complete Material You redesign on Android have shown that Translate has received some love. This particular contextual update is expected to be released in the coming weeks, but Google claims to be adding additional language support later this year.