A question about Thai translation ...

[steven100]

If I type a A4 page letter in English language will it be understood / readable when I translate it to Thai language or as I suspect the sentences will all be messed up and as such unreadable to a Thai.  ??

If so .....  I have to have it drafted by a Thai translator  ??

 

Thanks.

 

[Matzzon]

Yes, if you are trying to use Google or an automatic digital translation program, it will always be messed up. Mostly totally unreadable. 

If it is a document that need to be right, then the only option is a Thai translation office.

[Oxx]

Whilst Matzzon is correct, Google translate is definitely getting better for English-Thai.  I took the OP's first original posting, translated it to Thai, and then back again.  The result is:

 

"If I type the A4 page characters in English, will it be understandable / readable when I translate into Thai or I wonder if the whole sentence will be messy and illegible in Thai ??

Then ..... must be drafted by a Thai translator ??

 

thank."

 

Not too bad.

 

The intermediate Thai was:

 

"ถ้าฉันพิมพ์ตัวอักษรหน้า A4 เป็นภาษาอังกฤษมันจะเข้าใจ / อ่านได้เมื่อฉันแปลเป็นภาษาไทยหรือฉันสงสัยว่าประโยคทั้งหมดจะยุ่งเหยิงและอ่านไม่ออกเป็นภาษาไทย ??

ถ้างั้น ..... ต้องร่างโดยนักแปลไทย ??

 

ขอบคุณ."

[Matzzon]

2 hours ago, Oxx said:

Whilst Matzzon is correct, Google translate is definitely getting better for English-Thai.  I took the OP's first original posting, translated it to Thai, and then back again.  The result is:

 

"If I type the A4 page characters in English, will it be understandable / readable when I translate into Thai or I wonder if the whole sentence will be messy and illegible in Thai ??

Then ..... must be drafted by a Thai translator ??

 

thank."

 

Not too bad.

 

The intermediate Thai was:

 

"ถ้าฉันพิมพ์ตัวอักษรหน้า A4 เป็นภาษาอังกฤษมันจะเข้าใจ / อ่านได้เมื่อฉันแปลเป็นภาษาไทยหรือฉันสงสัยว่าประโยคทั้งหมดจะยุ่งเหยิงและอ่านไม่ออกเป็นภาษาไทย ??

ถ้างั้น ..... ต้องร่างโดยนักแปลไทย ??

 

ขอบคุณ."

Yes, absolutely. They are getting better, but yet soo far away to be able to use as a reliable translation. Sure it is a good tool for people that do not know Thai and are chatting with a Thai that do not know english. Mostly they can at least guess what it should be and get it quite right. ???? 

[tgw]

@steven100

 

it depends what the subject matter is.

 

if you want to convey something relatively simple or something mildly technical, automatic translation by google will be sufficient to be understandable by Thais, provided you write the original English as clearly and simply as possible (no idioms, no colloquialisms, no fancy syntax, avoid pronouns and relative clauses) and then double-check the translations using reverse translation. http://thai-language.com/BulkLookup and https://www.thai2english.com/ are good tools for that.

 

Many Thai words have alternative meanings that are quite different, so if your reverse translation does not at least loosely match the original meaning, you have to check google translate for alternative words. Reverse translation will also make it clear where additional adjectives or descriptions are needed.

 

Process:

1- write simple English

2- translate to Thai

3- reverse translate using another translation tool

4- choose alternates in google translate, correct mistakes, add words to make it clearer

5- reverse translate again

repeat until satisfactory

 

 

[steven100]

very well explained tgw.  thanks for that

[tgeezer]

Good advice especially "Write simple English." 
This is not simple English. 

What effect does the size of the paper or characters have on translation? 
Even if "พิมท์ตัวอักษรหน้า A4 " print letters A4 if "หน้า A 4" = page A4 is standard Thai-grit for "A4 size" but I can't see it. 
 
If the question is not about substituting Thai words for English words, then the question should have been: If I write in English can it be translated into Thai? 
Edit: Sorry, Post No. 3 took me off topic. 

The question was "If I translate it to Thai language." 
Surely that depends on the OP's language skills. 
Does anyone understand the question? 

Edited September 19, 2020 by tgeezer