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Quiz about Fun with EnglishGerman Machine Translation
Quiz about Fun with EnglishGerman Machine Translation

Fun with English-German Machine Translation Quiz


This quiz contains ten German sentences as translated from English by an online MT tool. Can you guess the source text? Pay close attention to the multiple choice possibilities, then you should be fine. Good luck!

A multiple-choice quiz by PearlQ19. Estimated time: 6 mins.
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Author
PearlQ19
Time
6 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
317,760
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Tough
Avg Score
6 / 10
Plays
624
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Question 1 of 10
1. Guess the original English source text of this machine translation output: "Obgleich er ein Jäger ist, schießt er nicht tut." Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. Guess the original English source text of this machine translation output: "Führen Sie mich zur Leitung Grube." Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. Guess the original English source text of this machine translation output: "Bitte, liegen Sie nicht zu mir." Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. Guess the original English source text of this machine translation output: "Es wird in vielen Ländern verboten, um Dichtungen zu jagen." Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. Guess the original English source text of this machine translation output: "Der Zählimpuls ging zum Herzog." Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. Guess the original English source text of this machine translation output: "Führen Sie meinem Sekretär bitte die Liste." Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. Guess the original English source text of this machine translation output: "Der Löwe zog für die Tötung ein." Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. Guess the original English source text of this machine translation output: "Wir reisten in eine große Fläche." Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. Guess the original English source text of this machine translation output: "Einige Leute erhalten Vergangenheit ihre Vergangenheit." Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. Guess the original English source text of this machine translation output: "Der Lord ist mein Schäferhund; Ich wünsche nicht."

Answer: (9 Words; famous quote from the Bible; punctuation not necessary and NO full stop at the end)

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Guess the original English source text of this machine translation output: "Obgleich er ein Jäger ist, schießt er nicht tut."

Answer: Although he is a hunter, he does not shoot does.

"Does", as in plural of "doe", confused the system, so despite the word being the last one in the sentence (indicating the object rather than the predicate), it was mistaken for a verb.
The correct translation should be "Obwohl er Jäger ist, schießt er keine Hirschkühe".

A note on the questions: I had to add an explanation of what the questions meant to each one, just in case they get picked up out of context for one of the challenges. Sorry for the repetitions.
2. Guess the original English source text of this machine translation output: "Führen Sie mich zur Leitung Grube."

Answer: Lead me to the lead mine.

This sentence is a little older (taken from another term paper I wrote two years ago), and by now "lead" (as in the metal) has been added to the dictionary of the MT tool. But back then, I couldn't for the life of me get "Bleigrube" or "Bleimine" as a translation for "lead mine".
Correct translation: "Bringen [or führen] Sie mich zur Bleigrube."
3. Guess the original English source text of this machine translation output: "Bitte, liegen Sie nicht zu mir."

Answer: Please don't lie to me

The MT tool is unable to distinguish between "lie-lied-lied" and "lie-lay-lain". "To lie" is always translated as "liegen", and the German "lügen" is always translated as the irregular verb. This leads to very funny, very ambiguous translations which I probably shouldn't repeat here ;)
Correct translation: "Bitte lüg[e] mich nicht an."
4. Guess the original English source text of this machine translation output: "Es wird in vielen Ländern verboten, um Dichtungen zu jagen."

Answer: It is prohibited in many countries to hunt seals.

"Dichtung" (apart from "poetry") is indeed "seal" (in the technical sense), but those seals are rarely hunted, I believe, unless there's a sale at a home improvement store. The seals I'm talking about here should have been translated as "Robben" or "Seehunde". A note on the side: as soon as I changed "to hunt seals" to "seal hunting", it was correctly translated as "Robbenjagd".
Correct translation: "Es ist in vielen Ländern verboten, Robben zu jagen."
5. Guess the original English source text of this machine translation output: "Der Zählimpuls ging zum Herzog."

Answer: The count went to the duke.

I have no idea why the system kept translating "count" (as in the title) as "Zählimpuls" ("counting impulse"). But it created a couple of interesting new book titles, such as "The Counting Impulse of Monte Christo" or "Counting Impulse Dracula". Strangely enough, "countess" and "county" were always translated correctly...
Correct translation: "Der Graf ging zum Herzog."
6. Guess the original English source text of this machine translation output: "Führen Sie meinem Sekretär bitte die Liste."

Answer: Please pass the list to my secretary.

For some obscure reason, "pass" was always translated as "führen". To my knowledge, there is no situation where "pass" actually means "führen", but the MT system seems to disagree. Changing "pass" to "pass on" solves the problem, by the way.
Correct translation: "Leiten Sie bitte die Liste an meinen Sekretär/meine Sekretärin weiter."
7. Guess the original English source text of this machine translation output: "Der Löwe zog für die Tötung ein."

Answer: The lion moved in for the kill.

This was a tricky one, and it doesn't surprise me that the MT couldn't handle it. Phrasal verbs are complex, as anyone who ever learned English as a foreign language would certainly confirm...
For this sentence, I would prefer a free translation such as "Der Löwe machte sich zum Sprung bereit" ("The lion got ready to pounce"), as it implies the same thing but sounds much more natural. A literal translation would not work, as "die Tötung" is not idiomatic.
8. Guess the original English source text of this machine translation output: "Wir reisten in eine große Fläche."

Answer: We traveled in a big plane.

Although this translation does not make any sense, I love the way the MT used correct grammar (the accusative case = "We traveled into a big flat surface"). An interesting note on the side: if you add "which was flown by a pilot" at the end, the translation changes and uses "Flugzeug" ("plane") instead of "Fläche". So keywords can sometimes help out.
Correct translation: "Wir reisten in einem großen Flugzeug".
9. Guess the original English source text of this machine translation output: "Einige Leute erhalten Vergangenheit ihre Vergangenheit."

Answer: Some people get past their past.

Phrasal verbs again: the MT mistook "get" for the main verb, so "past" became "Vergangenheit", and the whole sentence was rendered meaningless.
Correct translation: ""Einige Leute [or "Manche Menschen"] überwinden ihre Vergangenheit."
10. Guess the original English source text of this machine translation output: "Der Lord ist mein Schäferhund; Ich wünsche nicht."

Answer: The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want

No, I'm not making fun of the 23rd psalm, so please don't take offense if you're religious. I honestly thought that something this well-known (and widely quoted and referred to) might have a dictionary entry. Obviously, that was not the case. Nothing is right in this sentence - vocabulary, grammar, tense...
Correct German version: "Der Herr ist mein Hirte; mir wird nichts mangeln."
Source: Author PearlQ19

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Leau before going online.
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