Thread: Would you be so kind to translate this lil letter please? :)

thank you very much, if i say it like this is it wrong? i went to google translater


Здравствуйте, как поживаете?

Вы говорите по-английски? Если нет, то я постараюсь говорить на русском
Меня зовут Сара, я надеюсь, вы меня поняли и оценили мои усилия, чтобы попытаться говорить на русском. Я просто посылаю Вам это сообщение, потому что я хочу вам сказать, что я восхищаюсь вами очень много, и я хотел бы продолжать говорить с вами. я надеюсь, что вы примите мое предложение дружбы.

Originally Posted by sararozaryo

thank you very much, if i say it like this is it wrong? i went to google translater


Здравствуйте, как поживаете

Sara, the Google translation is mostly correct, although perhaps too formal-sounding and a bit artificial, like a textbook. For example, it uses the polite/plural forms for "you" instead of the familiar/singular forms (similar to the difference between vous and tu in French). There's also a small grammar mistake in the last sentence (примите should be примете). However, your Russian friend would certainly understand the Google translation -- there aren't any huge errors.

Regarding your question about whether to trust Google translator -- I'm a native English speaker, but I can speak and read Russian not too badly (although far from native fluency). I can also read simple Spanish sentences, and understand some basic points about Spanish grammar, but I can't speak Spanish at all, except for expressions like "buenos tardes" and "gracias". And I know absolutely nothing about Hungarian -- can't speak, can't read it, don't even know any words.

So -- personally, I would trust Google Translate a lot for English/Russian translations (because my understanding of Russian grammar is generally very good)...

...trust it a little bit for English/Spanish (because I know little bit of Spanish grammar)...

...but not trust it at all for English/Hungarian.

To put it another way, the more that you know about Language A and Language B, the more useful and trustworthy Google Translate is as a time-saving tool to help you when translating between A and B.