There are several reasons why Microsoft Translator may not be the best option for Arabic translation. In this article we show you how Microsoft used their Microsoft Translator to automatically translate their English version of the page below.

Clearly, the Arabic dialect that this tool has learned comes from Egyptian Arabic dialect. In Egypt, it is widely common to flip two letters in Arabic “ى” and “ي” as shown below:

Arabic is a complex language with many nuances and variations

Machine translation tools often struggle to capture these subtleties accurately. This can result in mistranslations or awkward phrasing that may not accurately convey the intended meaning.

Arabic is written from right to left

This can present a challenge for machine translation tools that are designed to work with left-to-right languages. This can lead to formatting errors and other issues that can affect the readability and coherence of the translated text.

In the example below, notice the spaces before the commas. In Arabic, this is not correct. The space is used after the comma.

Microsoft Translator may not have access to the most up-to-date or relevant Arabic vocabulary

This can result in inaccurate translations that may not be appropriate for the specific context.

In the example below, notice how real-time is translated poorly to “the actual time”. Moreover, notice how they translated street signs as “street markings”. And lastly, notice the incorrect usage of “ة” by typing “ه” for the word ترجمة.

Not sophisticated enough to handle more complex or specialised content

Finally, while machine translation tools like Microsoft Translator can be useful for basic translations, they are often not sophisticated enough to handle more complex or specialised content, such as legal or technical documents, which require a high degree of accuracy and precision.

Other Translation Alternatives

You may want to explore other options by looking at different Arabic WordPress themes with Right-to-Left (RTL) option. But these won’t translate the content unless you use a translation plugin.

In conclusion, while Microsoft Translator, Weglot or Google Translate may be useful tools for some purposes, it may not be the best option for accurate and reliable Arabic translation. It is often best to work with a professional translator who has a deep understanding of the Arabic language and culture to ensure the best possible translation quality.

Once you find a professional translator to translate your website from English to Arabic, get in touch with an Arabic SEO consultant to ensure the terminologies and keywords in the content are actually typed in search engines by users. You need to leverage on Arabic SEO keywords to be able to outrank your competitors.