ChatGPT translation prompts Thread poster: James McVay
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James McVay 
United States
Local time: 02:55
Russian to English
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Several months have passed since ChatGPT was introduced and made generally available, and it's begun attracting attention from professional translators. I've seen a few discussions on YouTube about it. Among the most informative are those by Tom Gally, who is a former Japanese-English translator and current professor in Japan. Here's a link to one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=najKN2bXqCo.... See more Several months have passed since ChatGPT was introduced and made generally available, and it's begun attracting attention from professional translators. I've seen a few discussions on YouTube about it. Among the most informative are those by Tom Gally, who is a former Japanese-English translator and current professor in Japan. Here's a link to one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=najKN2bXqCo. Japanese poses some significant challenges for MT, because it makes parsimonious use of personal pronouns. In the video, Gally discusses that particular detail about Japanese in some detail and addresses the different ways Google Translate and ChatGPT deal with the issue. He goes a step further and dicusses how well ChatGPT handles translation of literary Japanese in another video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KKDCp3OaMo&t=459s.
I posted a short discussion here soon after I began experimenting with ChatGPT to help me in my study of Ukrainian. I've made some progress since then and figured I'd share some of what I've learned.
The quality of ChatGPT's translations is highly dependent on the wording of the prompt. In the second Gally video, on literary translation, he provides a very simple prompt: “The following Japanese text is the opening passage of the novel [title in Japanese] by Natsume Soseki. Translate this passage into natural and smooth modern English.” He would obviously modify this prompt depending on what he is translating.
I've gone a bit further in my prompt engineering. I realized early on that — properly prompted — ChatGPT can write very good English prose in a variety of styles. I decided to see if I could leverage that capability to improve the style of its translations. Here is my latest iteration of a translation prompt:
You are a highly experienced and capable translator. You work to produce translations step by step.
You will identify the language of the text and translate it in four steps:
Step 1. Provide a direct translation of the text.
Step 2. Provide an explanation of any colloquialisms and differences between the direct translation and a comprehensible translation that may be confusing to a non-native speaker of the source language.
Step 3. Revise the direct translation by applying the insights gained from step 2 and using more idiomatic and natural language to do so. Pay particular attention to English word order.
Step 4. Now you are the editor tasked with reviewing the translation for accuracy and style.Please compare the translation with the original source language text, analyze it for clarity and accuracy and explain any changes that need to be made to the revised text in Step 3. Make the changes without adding unnecessary or redundant information. Then display your final version of the text beginning on a new line.
When you complete the task, review this prompt in preparation for the next text to be translated.
Continue applying this prompt to all source language text provided throughout this chat.
I'll give just one short example of the result:
Source text:
Зеленський повідомив, що розповів Ердогану про гуманітарні та екологічні наслідки російського теракту на Каховській ГЕС, зокрема про ризики для ЗАЕС, і передав список нагальних потреб України для ліквідації лиха.
Step 1: Direct translation:
"Zelensky reported that he informed Erdogan about the humanitarian and ecological consequences of the Russian terrorist attack on the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Station, particularly the risks for the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant, and handed over a list of urgent needs for Ukraine to mitigate the disaster."
Step 2: Explanation:
In this text, there are a few terms and references that may require clarification. "Zelensky" refers to Volodymyr Zelensky, the President of Ukraine. "Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Station" is a specific power station mentioned in the text. "Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant" is the full name of the power plant referred to as "ZAES" in the original text. The phrase "mitigate the disaster" implies taking measures to lessen the negative effects of the situation.
Step 3: Revised translation:
Zelensky informed Erdogan about the humanitarian and ecological consequences of the Russian terrorist attack on the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Station. He specifically highlighted the risks posed to the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant and provided a list of urgent requirements for Ukraine to address the situation.
Step 4: Editor's review:
The revised translation captures the essence of the original text while using more idiomatic language. The term "informed" in step 3 conveys the idea of Zelensky sharing information with Erdogan. The phrase "address the situation" in the final sentence is a more concise and natural way to express the need to mitigate the disaster. Overall, the revised translation maintains accuracy and clarity.
Final version:
Zelensky informed Erdogan about the humanitarian and ecological consequences of the Russian terrorist attack on the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Station. He specifically highlighted the risks posed to the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant and provided a list of urgent requirements for Ukraine to address the situation.
This prompt forces ChatGPT to "think" about what it's doing and consider the meaning of the words used, both in the original Ukrainian text and in its translation of that text. As you can see, with this prompt ChatGPT not only translates and revises the source text, it explains the choices it makes in revising the initial, direct translation.
It isn't apparent from this short example, but ChatGPT remembers how it translated text earlier in a chat, i.e., it remembers the context of a translation. And that can affect how it translates subsequent segments. Also, if it gets the gender of an English pronoun wrong because it didn't recognize the English gender of its antecedent, you can point out its mistake and it will correct it.
In my opinion, the final version of the translation is in more natural English than the direct translation first provided. You or I might do some light editing to the final version, but I think it's pretty good as is. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 08:55
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
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| Can’t comment much | Jun 7, 2023 |
I don’t work in these languages, but..
Zelensky reported that he informed…and Zelensky informed… are two different things, semantically.
In the latter case, it may be third party reporting. I am not sure what’s more true to the source, but these kinds of things shouldn’t just be randomly dropped.
[Edited at 2023-06-07 20:05 GMT]
| | | | James McVay
United States
Local time: 02:55
Russian to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
The article is based on statements released by the offices of the presidents of Turkey and Ukraine about the recent conversation between Zelensky and Erdogan.
It was clear from the context that, in the example I provided, Zelensky was reporting on that conversation in the statement his office released. ChatGPT knew that, because it had translated the article's previous content in the same chat. Also, it may have adjusted the translation to more closely reflect the style of US news ... See more The article is based on statements released by the offices of the presidents of Turkey and Ukraine about the recent conversation between Zelensky and Erdogan.
It was clear from the context that, in the example I provided, Zelensky was reporting on that conversation in the statement his office released. ChatGPT knew that, because it had translated the article's previous content in the same chat. Also, it may have adjusted the translation to more closely reflect the style of US news articles. The wording "Zelensky reported that he informed" is both awkward and unnecessary.
Attention to context is a ChatGPT strength. Other machine translation engines can't take context into account.
Here's the translation of those two sentences, which follow one after the other in the original.
"The Ukrainian President also announced that he had spoken with his Turkish counterpart.
"Zelensky informed Erdogan about the humanitarian and ecological consequences of the Russian terrorist attack on the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Station. He specifically highlighted the risks posed to the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant and provided a list of urgent requirements for Ukraine to address the situation."
I should probably add that I haven't paid for a subscription to ChatGPT, which would let me use ChatGPT 4, the most recent model. ▲ Collapse
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