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Instant translation between 46 languages — plus phrase translations checked and corrected by real speakers.
From the blog
Why AI Still Gets These Phrases Wrong, and Native Speakers Don't
Machine translation is astonishingly good at sentences and surprisingly bad at the phrases people actually need. Here's why, and why a native speaker is still the gold standard for the words that matter most.
Translators
Popular phrases
Common questions, answered by speakers.
- How do you say Will You Marry Me in Portuguese?
- How do you say Miss You in Spanish?
- How do you say Happy Birthday in Portuguese?
- How do you say Will You Marry Me in Chinese?
- How do you say Swimming in German?
- How do you say it's raining in French?
- How do you say Awesome in French?
- How do you say Will You Marry Me in French?
- How do you say Will You Marry Me in Greek?
- How do you say Where are you in French?
- How do you say Merry Christmas in Japanese?
- How do you say Excellent in Spanish?
Frequently asked questions
Is BabelFish free?
Yes. The translator is free and needs no account or sign-up: type or paste up to 500 characters, choose the two languages and translate.
How many languages does BabelFish translate?
It translates between 46 languages, in any direction, including Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic and Russian. For languages with their own script, short translations also show the pronunciation in English letters.
What does Babel Fish mean?
The name comes from Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, where the Babel fish is a small yellow fish that, placed in your ear, lets you understand any language. It borrows from the Tower of Babel, the Bible story that explains why people speak different languages.
What happened to the AltaVista Babel Fish translator?
It was retired in 2012, when its address began redirecting to Microsoft’s Bing Translator. AltaVista launched Babel Fish in 1997; AltaVista later passed to Yahoo and was shut down in 2013. The full story is on our AltaVista Babel Fish page.
Is BabelFish.com the same as the old AltaVista Babel Fish?
No. BabelFish.com is an independent translation site and is not affiliated with AltaVista, Yahoo or Microsoft. Both took the name from the same book.
How long has babelfish.com offered translation?
Since 2002. The site also keeps an archive of phrase translations that visitors contributed and corrected over the years.
Is there a BabelFish app?
Not yet: an app is in development. In the meantime the website works in any phone or desktop browser with nothing to install. Details are on the download page.
Can I trust the translations?
Machine translation handles plain sentences well but can miss tone, formality and idiom. Translations marked “Human translation” on phrase pages were written by visitors and reviewed for accuracy; everything else is machine- or AI-generated. For anything important, such as medical, legal or a tattoo, check with a qualified human translator.
Is the text I translate private?
Your text is sent to Microsoft Azure Translator to produce the translation, and may be stored so repeat requests are answered faster. Do not enter passwords or sensitive personal information. The details are in our terms.