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Marking Google Translate's 20th birthday, one user said it has helped her in countless situations, from translating her grandmother's Gujarati WhatsApp forwards to explaining an ankle injury to a pharmacist while travelling in Guatemala.
(In Google Translate) Paste or photograph the message, set the 'from' language to [LANGUAGE] or Detect language, and read the English. If something seems odd, try a follow-up in a chatbot: "This message from my [RELATIVE] was machine-translated from [LANGUAGE] as: [TRANSLATION]. What might it really mean, and is there an idiom or tone I'm missing?"
Replace the [PLACEHOLDERS] with your own details before you send it.
How to try it
- Copy the message into Google Translate, or use the camera option for an image or forwarded poster.
- Read the translation, and switch to conversation mode when you want to reply out loud.
- For anything personal or important, check the meaning with a family member who speaks the language.
More home & family use cases
Design a garden bed on a budget with ChatGPT
Quoted $12,500 to landscape her front bed, a columnist gave ChatGPT photos, measurements, her growing zone and a $2,000 budget. Its seven-page planting plan was checked by a local nursery, and she finished the garden for about $2,000.
Help me plan a garden bed. Size and shape: [MEASUREMENTS]. Sun: [FULL/PARTIAL/SHADE]. Climate or hardiness zone: [ZONE/REGION]. Challenges: [E.G. DEER, CLAY SOIL, DROUGHT]. Style: [E.G. COTTAGE GARDEN]. Budget: [BUDGET]. Suggest plants for the back, middle and front, with spacing, a simple grid layout, a shopping list with rough prices and the best time of year to plant.
Grow new plants from broken stems with Claude’s help
After hearing that broken petunia stems could be replanted, a Hacker News user asked Claude how to do it. Following its advice, they started several new petunia plants that are now thriving, and joke that their petunias are basically immortal.
A stem has broken off my [PLANT], and I'd like to grow a new plant from it. I'm in [CLIMATE/REGION], it's [MONTH], and I have [WHAT YOU HAVE: POTS, COMPOST, ROOTING POWDER, A SUNNY WINDOWSILL]. Give me simple step-by-step instructions for taking and rooting the cutting, how to tell if it's working, common mistakes, and when to move it outside or into a bigger pot.
Turn a messy chore list into an ordered cleaning plan with ChatGPT
Feeling overwhelmed before guests arrived, a Homes & Gardens writer gave ChatGPT her jumbled list of chores. It put them in a sensible order (tidy, declutter, dust, then vacuum, with sit-down tasks last) and explained why, which saved her time and energy.
Here's everything I need to get done at home before [DEADLINE]: [LIST CHORES IN ANY ORDER]. I have about [HOURS] hours. Put the tasks in the most efficient order, explain briefly why each comes where it does, add a quick tip for each, and schedule a short break halfway.
Reference: X @AliyaBhatia