Seminar on Translation

Fall 2020 Stefan Ariel Kristanto

Error Analysis Made by Google Translate in

Translating Sentences in ChildrenBook “Diego’s Safari
Rescue”

Stefan Ariel Kristanto

stefanariel.fang@gmail.com
Universitas Sanata Dharma

Abstract
As the English Letters students, “translation” cannot be separated among us. Although the English Letters
students use “translation” verbally such as when they read literary works. Indeed they have to comprehend the
context of the literary works by reading it. However, they will search on Google Translate if they do not know
the vocabularies that they read. Google Translate is considered accurate when the word-to-word translation is
conducted. But, it is quite less accurate when to translate a sentence. Therefore, the researcher selected the
topic of Error Analysis made Google Translate in translating sentences in a children's book entitled Diego’s
Safari Rescue.
            The research question proposed by the researcher is “What error types are made in “Diego’s Safari
Rescue” by machine translation?” with the objectives are as the following: to reveal types of the errors made by
Google Translate in Diego’s Safari Rescue and to reveal types of the errors made by Google Translate the most.
This area of the research is focusing on translation and technology. Moreover, the researcher used qualitative
and library research. Besides, the researcher classified the data by the number of data in the source text, source
text, number of data in the target text, and target text. 
            This paper tries to take a look at the error analysis occurring in “Diego’s Safari Rescue” by analyzing the
target text conducted by Google Translate in translating sentences. The expected result in this paper is there
are some significant errors made by Google Translate in translating sentences in “Diego’s Safari Rescue”.

Keywords: google translate, error analysis

1

“Translation Goes Further”
Introduction
Translation studies are the now
established academic discipline related to the
study of the theory, practice, and phenomena
of translation. (Munday, 2016). The
translation is not able to be separated by the
translator, certainly the human translator.
Irrespective of human translation, there is a
machine translation. The most well-known
machine translation is Google Translate.
Google Translate is good if the user translates
“word-to-word” in other languages. But, it
translates less accurately in idioms, phrases,
or sentences. Hence the researcher has a
desire to observe the error analysis made by
Google Translate in bilingual children
literature book entitled “Diego’s Safari
Rescue”.
One example of the error analysis
phenomenon is the omitted concept. For
example, as written by Adiputra (2019) in his
thesis. In the source text “Alkisah hiduplah
seorang raja yang bijaksana.” Was translated
into “There lived a wise king.” In target text.
The expression “Alkisah” of the source text did
not appear in the target text. Whereas, English
has the same expression with “Alkisah”
namely “once upon a time, long ago, or in the
olden days”. Therefore, it makes the TT is not
entirely equal to the ST.   different aspects such as accuracy (fidelity),
The objectives are to reveal types of the
errors made by Google Translate in Diego’s
Safari Rescue and to reveal types of the errors
made by Google Translate the most,  the key aspect of quality. (Koponen, 2010, p.
The theories used by the researcher is
error analysis and translation strategies. The
researcher selected Koponen’s error theory
which is consisted of omitted concept, added
concept, untranslated concept, mistranslated
concept, substituted concept, and explicated
concept.  
The theoretical benefit is giving an idea
of contribution or enriching the concepts to
the readers. The practical benefit is the
readers are able to identify types of the error
made by Google Translate when the readers
discover an error translation made by Google
Translate.              
Google Translate Error Analysis
Google Translate as a Machine Translation
According to Lin and Chien (2009, p.
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Seminar on Translation
Fall 2020
134), Machine translation (MT) is a modern
method of translation through computer
assistance, which is a sub-field of computational
linguistics. As a machine translation, Google
Translate was a machine or software
programmed to translate different languages.
Moreover, Lin and Chien (2009, p. 134) also
stated, The MT software professionally and
cautiously created, and assisted language
experts and linguists to handle linguistic
differences in typology, grammatical
differences, and idioms.
According to Vauquois (1998), MT is
aimed at enabling a computer to transfer
natural language utterances or to process a
natural language in terms of lexical, syntactic
and semantic dimensions. On the other side,
Thriveni (2002) argued that “one language
cannot express the meaning of another;…
different languages predispose their speakers to
think differently….” The author argued that
natural translation of cultural interpretation
and recognitions conducted by the translator
should be a more precise way to do translation
since the cultural and literature senses either in
the texts or in the speeches cannot be
thoroughly revealed by a machine.
Koponen’s Error Analysis
Translation quality can be evaluated by
fluency, and fitness for purpose. In using a
machine translation system for information
purposes, the accuracy of semantic content is
1)
Koponen’s Error Theory classified the
error types into 6 categories. The error
classification described focuses on
mismatches of semantic components
(individual concepts and relations between
them) in the source and target texts. The
researcher selected the individual concepts as
the theory, the error types are added concept,
omitted concept, mistranslated concept,
untranslated concept, substituted concept,
and explicated concept.
Mistranslated concept is when the
incorrect selection of terms in a specific
context, the wrong formation of terms, or the
literal translation of a term in the target text.
In order to comprehend the concept, the
researcher will provide an example found in
Adiputra (2019) thesis. Source Text: “The
Seminar on Translation
Fall 2020
poor kitty is out …” Target Text: “Kucing
miskin keluar …” take a look at the word
“poor” translated into miskin. Indeed poor is
equivalent to miskin, but in that context it is
incorrect. The correction is “kucing malang
keluar.”
Added concept is a concept that is not
present in the source text but appears in the
target text or a word that appears in the
target text, but is redundant. For example,
“She liked the hotel-keeper.” à “Dia
menyukai penjaga hotel Prusia. There is an
added word “Prusia” in the target text
whereas the source text did not mention the
word “Prusia”.
Omitted concept is a concept in the
source text that is not conveyed in the target
text or a word that should appear in the
target text because it is not redundant in this
language. For example, “Mandi di pancuran
pastinya terasa segar.” à “Showering
certainly feels fresh.” The concept of
pancuran does not exist in the target text.
Even though the whole meaning of the
sentences is not critically affected, it is still
considered as an error because the setting of
place in the TT becomes unknown.
Explicated concept is when the TT
concept explicitly states information left
implicit in ST without adding information.
For example, “There were a big palms…” à
“Ada pohon besar…” The concept palms in
the target text should be translated “pohon
palem”, but Google Translate only translated
“pohon” which makes the concept explicitly
states information left implicit without
adding information. 
Untranslated concept is when a
source language word that appears in the
target. For example, “Kakek penunggu danau
akhirnya merasa iba.” à “Grandfather of
porters Lake finally felt iba.” The word “iba”
is left untranslated by the machine
translation in the target text. It could be the
word “iba” in Bahasa Indonesia is
unavailable in machine translation’s
dictionary. Hence the machine translation
did not translate the word.
Substituted concept is when TT
concept is not a direct lexical equivalent for
ST concept but can be considered as a valid
replacement for the context. For example,
“Pangeran Jaya memberikan adik-adiknya
kesempatan“ à “Prince Jaya gave his siblings
3
Stefan Ariel Kristanto
a chance”. The TT concept reduces what has
been conveyed in ST. in ST, adik-adiknya
signifies the younger siblings, but in TT it is
only translated into siblings. Therefore, it will
create less specific information than the ST
intended to
Error in the Children Book
Diego’s Safari Rescue
The following discusses the error types
made by Google Translate in translating
sentences. The discussion is presented part by
part, followed by an explanation of the error in
each sentence. Before getting deeper discussion
the error types, the researcher would like to
show to the readers the percentage of errors.
The errors found in Diego’s Safari Rescue
are 12 errors which consist of 4 mistranslated
concepts (33.3%), 3 omitted concepts (25%), 1
added concept (8.3%), 1 explicated concept
(8.3%), 3 untranslated concepts (25%), and no
substituted concept (0%).
Mistranslated Concepts
No Source Text N Target Text
o
32 Elephants 3 Gajah
/1 have super 2 memiliki
0/ strong / batang yang
trunks! 1 sangat kuat!
ST
0
/
G
T
Datum no 32/10/ST and 32/10GT with
the bold word indicates there is a
mistranslation in the word “trunks”. According
to Oxford Dictionary, trunks means “the thick
main stem of a tree, that the branches grow
from” or “the long nose of an elephant”. If we
translate trunk into Bahasa Indonesia, it could
be “batang (pohon)” or “belalai”. Based on the
datum above, Google Translate failed to
choose the accurate translation of the word
“trunks” in which it translated “trunks”
into batang instead of belalai whereas the text
discusses the elephants. Therefore, it can be
classified as mistranslated concept in the
category of noun as the part of speech.
 Seminar on Translation
“Translation Goes Further”
Fall 2020
No Source Text N Target Text 5/ drum! Put / drum ajaib!
o ST your hands 1 Letakkan
16 Rescue Pack 1 Rescue Pack but in front 5 tangan Anda
/5 can 6 dapat of you, and / tetapi di
/ transform / berubah drum, drum, G depan Anda,
ST into 5 menjadi apa drum! T dan drum,
anything we / pun yang drum, drum!
need: G kami
T butuhkan: Datum no 59/15/ST and 59/15/GT
with a bold word indicates the mistranslated
Datum no 16/5/ST and 16/5/GT with concept in Verb as the part of speech.
the bold word indicates that there is a According to Oxford Dictionary, the word
mistranslation in pronoun as the part of “beat” means “to defeat somebody in a game or
speech. The word “we” can be translated into competition” or “to hit something hard several
kami or kita in Bahasa Indonesia. Perhaps times”. In Bahasa Indonesia, the word beat can
some of the readers look kami or kita as in be translated to be “mengalahkan” or
common. But, it is actually different. “memukul”. In this case, Google Translate
According to Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia failed to choose the accurate translation of the
(KBBI), kami means “yang berbicara word beat. It created an inaccurate translation
bersama dengan orang lain (tidak termasuk because it persuades the readers to defeat the
yang diajak berbicara); yang menulis atas magic drum whereas in the context of the
nama kelompok, tidak termasuk pembaca” or sentence, it should be Diego persuading the
“the listeners (person or persons you are readers to hit the magic drum hard. 
talking to) are excluded from the topics.” In
simple, ‘kami’ means ‘we’ but not you. In No Source Text N Target Text
certain cases, it can also mean ‘us’ but you o
are excluded. (Differences between ‘Kita’ and 47 But 4 Tapi gajah
‘Kami’ in Indonesian – The Examples, 2018) /1 elephants 7 bisa
Meanwhile, according to Kamus Besar 3/ can scare / menakut-
Bahasa Indoensia (KBBI), kita means ST away lions 1 nakuti singa
by stomping 3 dengan
“pronomina persona pertama jamak, yang
their feet / menghentakk
berbicara bersama dengan orang lain G an kaki
very loudly.
termasuk yang diajak bicara” or “first person T mereka
pronoun but it includes the person/persons sangat keras.
you are talking to.” In simple, it can be
translated as ‘we’ and you too or in some Datum no 47/13/ST and 47/13/GT
cases it can be ‘us’ and you too. The word with a bold word indicates the mistranslated
‘kita’ has exclusive characteristic in which concept in Adverb as the part of speech. In
the speaker includes listeners in the activity agreement concord, there is a rule which must
or condition. (Differences between ‘Kita’ and be followed. It is “… Verb + adverb”. In the
‘Kami’ in Indonesian – The Examples, 2018). source text, it is clear that the word
Go Diego Go is an American animated “stomping” is the verb, the word “their feet” is
educational interactive children's television an object, and the word “very loudly” is the
program although the readers also can read adverb. But, in the target text translated by
it in books. Due to interactive children’s Google Translate, it used an incorrect rule
television program or interactive children’s “Verb +adjective”. The word “menghentakkan”
book, Diego usually interacts with the is the verb, “kaki mereka” is the object, and
watchers or the readers in which the readers “sangat keras” in the adjective. It is incorrect
or the watchers are children. Therefore, the in agreement concord. Google Translate
use of “kita” is more appropriate than “kami”. should add the word “dengan sangat keras” to
make it to be an adverb. Hence the correct
No Source Text N Target Text translation must be “Tapi gajah bisa menakut-
o
Let’s beat 5 Ayo
nakuti singa dengan menghentakkan kaki
59
/1 the magic 9 kalahkan mereka dengan sangat keras.”

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Seminar on Translation
Fall 2020 Stefan Ariel Kristanto
T ginya!

Datum no 50/14/ST and 50/14/GT

indicates there is an error in added concept in
Added Concept pronoun as the part of speech. It is actually
can be considered as a too literal translation.
No Source Text N Target Text It is actually will be more efficient if Google
o Translate translated the sentence to be
26 Our special 2 Kamera
“Danau itu sangat dalam, tapi kita harus
/8 camera, 6 khusus kami,
menemukan cara untuk menyeberang!” the
/ Click, will / Click, akan
ST help us find 8 membantu word “to get across it!” the word it actually
out where / kami refers to the word “the lake”. Hence it is
they are. G mengetahui needless to translate into “menyeberanginya”
T di mana because it is clear that the word it refers to
mereka the lake. Moreover, it makes the target text to
berada. be a little bit redundant.

Datum no 26/8/ST and 26/8/GT Omitted Concept

indicates that there is an error in added
concept in verb as the part of speech. The No Source Text N Target Text
word “berada” makes the sentence to be o
redundant. It is enough to translate into 31 Erin the 3 Erin si gajah
/1 elephant 1 berkata dia
“Kamera khusus kami, Click, akan membantu
0/ says she can / bisa
kami mengetahui dimana mereka.” 1 menggunaka
ST use her trunk
to pull the 0 n belalainya
trees out of / untuk
No Source Text N Target Text the way. G menarik
o T pepohonan
42 The magic 4 Gendang agar tidak
/1 drum made 2 ajaib menghalangi.
2/ the giraffes’ / membuat
ST necks long 1 leher jerapah
2 menjadi
Datum no 31/10/ST and 31/10/GT
again!
/ panjang lagi! indicates that there is an error in omitted
G concept in noun as the part of speech. Google
T Translate did not translate the word “the way”
in the target text. It made the sentence
Datum no 42/12/ST and 42/12/GT incomplete. Pull is a transitive verb, a verb
indicates that there is an error in added which requires an object to complement a
concept in verb as the part of speech. Google sentence. Hence Google Translate seems
Translate added the word “menjadi” in the unable to differentiate between a transitive
target text, meanwhile, there is no indication verb and an intransitive verb. Google
of the word “become” in the source text. It Translate should translate “Erin si gajah
will be more effective if it translated to be berkata dia bisa menggunakan belalainya
“Gendang ajaib membuat leher jerapah untuk menarik pepohonan agar tidak
panjang lagi.” menghalangi jalan.”

No Source Text N Target Text Explicated Concept

o
50 The lake is 5 Danau itu No Source Text N Target Text
/1 very deep, 0 sangat o
4/ but we’ve got / dalam, tapi 10 It’s hidden in 1 Itu
ST to find a way 1 kita harus /4 a cave on top 0 tersembunyi
to get across 4 menemukan / of the tallest / di dalam gua
it! / cara untuk ST mountain. 4 di puncak
G menyeberan / gunung
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 Seminar on Translation
“Translation Goes Further”
Fall 2020
G tertinggi. Datum no 45/13/ST and 45/13/GT
T indicates an error in the untranslated concept
in interjection as the part of speech. The word
Datum no 10/4/ST and 10/4/GT “Uh-oh” in English is left untranslated by
indicates an error in explicated concept in Google Translate. It could be that the word
pronoun as the part of speech. It seems there “Uh-oh” in English is unavailable in Google
are no errors in the target text. But, indeed Translate dictionary so it did not translate the
the use of it can be translated to be “ini/itu” . word “Uh-oh”. The possible translation of “Uh-
In English, “it” can be a pronoun (kata ganti) oh” for the interjection is gawat.
or an impersonal (pokok kalimat). In this
case, “it” refers to a pronoun which the noun No Source Text N Target Text
or the animal’s names mentioned in advance. o
Hence Google Translate could not to identify 49 Yay! We 4 Yay! Kami
since there is no sentences mentioned in /1 helped Erin 9 membantu
4/ the Elephant / Erin si Gajah
advance. If datum 9/4/ST related to this
ST scare away 1 menakuti
datum the translation of it should be the lion. And 4 singa itu. Dan
“drum/gendang ajaib”. we made it / kami berhasil
to the lake. G mencapai
Untranslated Concept T danau.

No Source Text N Target Text Datum no 49/14/ST and 49/14/GT

o indicates an error in the untranslated concept
15 Who can 1 Siapa yang
in interjection as the part of speech. The word
/4 help? Rescue 5 bisa
/ Pack! To / membantu? “Yay” in English is left untranslated by Google
ST activate 4 Paket Translate. It could be that the word “Yay” in
Rescue Pack, / Penyelamata English is unavailable in Google Translate
say G n! Untuk dictionary so it did not translate the word
“Activate!” T mengaktifkan “Yay”. The possible translation of “Yay” for the
Rescue Pack, interjection is hore.
ucapkan
"Activate!" No Source Text N Target Text
o
Datum no 15/4/ST and 15/4/GT 29 Al rescate! 2 Al rescate!
indicates there is an error in the /9 To the 9 Untuk
untranslated concept in verb as the part of / rescue! / menyelamatk
speech. The word “activate” is left ST 9 an!
/
untranslated by Google Translate. It could be
G
that the word “activate” in English is T
unavailable in Google Translate dictionary so
it did not translate the word activate. A Datum no 29/9/ST and 29/9/GT
possible translation of “activate” for the verb indicates an error in noun as the part of
is aktifkan. speech. “Al rescate” is originally Spanish. If it
is translated from Spanish à English by Google
Translate, the translation will be “to the
No Source Text N Target Text
o rescue”. The word “Al rescate” in Spanish is
45 Uh-oh! I 4 Uh oh! Saya left untranslated by Google Translate when it
/1 hear a lion 5 mendengar comes to English à Indonesia. It could be that
3/ roaring! / singa the word “Al rescate” in Spanish is unavailable
ST 1 mengaum! in Google Translate dictionary in English so it
3 could be the Google Translate left the
/ sentence untranslated due to a language
G difference. But, the researcher has a
T
comparison. Please, take a look at the table
below:
6
Seminar on Translation
Fall 2020 Stefan Ariel Kristanto

No Source Text N Target Text

o
54 Excellente! 5 Luar biasa!
/1 Put your 4 Letakkan
4/ arms out in / tangan Anda
ST front of you, 1 di depan
and swim, 4 Anda, dan
swim, swim! / berenang,
G berenang,
T berenang!

Datum above indicates that Google

Translate English à Indonesia is able to
translate the Spanish of “Excellente” to be
“Luar biasa” in Bahasa Indonesia. It could be
that Google Translate is able to translate
some words outside the language of the
source text and the target text.

Concluding Remarks
Diego’s Safari Rescue is a children book
by Go Diego Go! Program. The program is to
persuade the children to do something with
Diego as the main character. Due to the
interactive children program, the book
should be in a simple sentence and surely an
effective sentence. Based on Koponen’s error
theory, Google Translate evidently made
some significant errors in translating
sentences in Diego’s Safari Rescue.
Google Translate is not too good to
translate sentences accurately. Due to the
artificial intelligent product, Google
Translate does not have a logical aspect
unlike the human translators do. Human
translator admittedly should do the
translation due to the logical aspect
possession to translate some sentences
especially containing cultural and literature
senses.

References

Adiputra, M. (2019). The one example of the error analysis phenomenon is error in lexicosemantics. For
the example: in the source text “Luaran dari penelitian ini berupa software untuk mencari dan
menghapus file yang di duplikat pada media penyimpanan computer.” Translated in. Yogyakarta:
Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Koponen, M. (2010). Assessing Machine Translation Quality with Error Analysis . Electronic
proceedings of the KäTu symposium on translation and interpreting studies , 1-12.
Lin, & Chien. (2009). Machine Translation for Academic Purposes . Proceedings of the International
Conference on TESOL and Translation 2009 , 133-148.
Munday, J. (2016). Introducing Translation Studies Theories and Application. New York.
Napitupulu, S. (2017). Analyzing Indonesian-English Abstract in View of Translation Errors By Google
Translate . International Journal of English Language and Linguistics Research Vol. 5, 15-23.
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 Seminar on Translation
“Translation Goes Further”
Fall 2020
ratyhlicious. (2018, May 22). Differences between ‘Kita’ and ‘Kami’ in Indonesian – The Examples.
MasteringBahasa.com.
Thriveni, C. (2002). Cultural elements in translation: The Indian perspective. . Translation Journal. .
Vauqois, B. (1998). A survey of formal grammars and algorithms for recognition. IFIP Congress-68
(Edinburgh), 254-260.

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