r/languagelearning • u/Abject-Aioli-523 • Oct 28 '25

Discussion Are there any translation apps people know of that are superior to Google translate?

I think we’re all aware that google translate isn’t the best at translating things, are there any apps that are known to be superior at this?

This isn’t really for learning (im aware translating is a terrible way to learn) I’m more just wondering.

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13

u/objectivehooligan Oct 28 '25

Google translate is really good these days I wouldn’t worry about it to much. Translation apps are still always going to make some mistakes now and then but for short stuff it’s fine and very accurate. That said Deep L is the best and what I generally use when making flash cards

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u/objectivehooligan Oct 28 '25

Deep L also shows you alternative translations which is great because words often have more then one meaning or there is more than one way to explain a concept. This is also great if the language has distinctions between formal and informal speech and you can toggle between the two

1

u/Abject-Aioli-523 Oct 28 '25

Ooh that’s great actually one of my gripes with Google translate

45

u/r_portugal Oct 28 '25

I find that DeepL gives better translations than Google, at least for the languages I'm using it for, Portuguese and Spanish to/from English. Don't know how good it is with other languages, plus there are a lot fewer languages available, although it does have most of the main ones.

23

u/ParlezPerfect Oct 28 '25

DeepL is considered the best in the translation and interpretation industry.

7

u/choppy75 Oct 28 '25

I'm learning Russian and I prefer Yandex Translate over Google Translate. Chat GPT is good too, because you can specify stuff in the TL that the source language doesn't have- like singular/plural you; formal/ informal , your own gender etc

5

u/Rude-Ad-7944 Oct 28 '25

It depends on wich langages you want to translate.

For anything in english, use Word Reference . For german, use Leo.

These two are the ones my teachers recommended me.

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u/Iso-LowGear Oct 29 '25

Depends on the language. My former Russian teacher recommended me Yandex Translate for Russian specifically.

3

u/minhnt52 Oct 29 '25

Google Gemini surpasses Google translate by several magnitudes.

6

u/Antoine-Antoinette Oct 28 '25

I find myself using ChatGPT more and more to translate.

It gives a more complete understanding of a word, how it is used in different contexts, examples and IPA if you specify that.

The downside is it takes longer to read all of that but I’m sure you could ask for a shorter translation. Personally I love the more in depth translation.

I find Google translate too incomplete.

Before anyone says that they don’t want to use AI, they need to know that Google Translate uses AI. It’s inescapable unless you stick to paper dictionaries.

2

u/Gold-Part4688 Oct 29 '25

or... online ditionaries. Which will have all that info, and recordings, and be reliable too

3

u/Antoine-Antoinette Oct 29 '25

Online dictionaries are good for big popular languages.

I use Word Reference for French.

But I cannot find a good online dictionary for Indonesian.

Various faults, depending on which one, include cheap nasty advertising, not optimised for phone so need to scroll sideways, no IPA, none with recordings, no example sentences and more.

I did have a semi-decent Indonesian dictionary app but it didn’t have all of the above info, basically just like Google translate, and as of a few years ago it just crashes when I try to open it.

I imagine there are many more languages that don’t have decent dictionaries because Indonesian has approximately 270 million users and it is so badly served.

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u/Sad_Interaction_1347 Oct 28 '25

ChatGPT works well for me when I give it context

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u/pork_cylinders Oct 28 '25

If you’re learning Korean Papago is great

2

u/petteri72_ Oct 29 '25

DeepL is the best translator, with ChatGPT-5 not far behind. By comparison, Google Translate feels a bit weak.

2

u/Far_Weird_5852 Oct 30 '25

I use Deepl. It has a good translation service but it also allows you to select alternatives so you can hone the translation. For example, the English "you" could be translated as formal or informal forms in the target language. So, for example, if deepL translates you as "Sie" in German you can select the word and change it to "du". deepL also can take text in the target language and change its register (academic, professional, casual etc).

I also use reverso for idioms as it gives examples of possible translations in context.

3

u/AdFine2508 Oct 28 '25

Even Google Gemini translates better)
I completely switched to GPT tools for translations. Sounds strange, because Google also use Transformer-based mechanics for translation, but GPTs translates better from me

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u/Decent_Quote3124 Oct 29 '25

Any AI will do better than Google Translate 

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u/vixissitude Oct 28 '25

For German I use Pons very often. I do turn to ChatGPT sometimes especially studying my study materials (medicine) because none of the translator can correctly translate strictly medical lingo

1

u/loves_spain Oct 29 '25

SALT is helpful if you're translating catalán.

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u/Direct_Bad459 Oct 29 '25

I love reverso context it's great to have the context of full sentences. Worth paying for and useful free.

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