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What system does Google Translate use for typing Thai with English keyboard?

nitayagirl

By nitayagirl
in Thai Language

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nitayagirl Apprentice Member

nitayagirl

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Love the Google Translate feature that enables you to type Thai using English keyboard. But there are some words I just cannot get it to recognize. For example: เที่ยว - none of these work: thiao (RTGS), theeao, theow, thiow

 

Does anyone know what system Google uses for typing Thai with English keyboard? RTGS works for some words, but not for others.

 

Here are some other problem words that I have worked out:

 

นิ้ว - niw

เลย - loei

เหลว - lew

googletranslate.png

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Badger18 Advanced Member

Badger18

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One way to tell that someone has used Google speech input / speech to text is that there are no ๆs, so I doubt their Latin text input supports those characters.

 

Seems like there's quite a learning curve to this system... wouldn't it be better just to learn the Thai keyboard layout?

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Oxx Gold Member

Oxx

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2 hours ago, Badger18 said:

wouldn't it be better just to learn the Thai keyboard layout?

The problem with Thai is that there are so many potential ways to spell a single word, what with 8 ways to represent "th", four ways to write "s" &c..  Plus there are the complex tone rules, and not to ignore the fact that more than 30% of Thai words are spelled irregularly.  What (tonless) transcription schemes such as Google's offer is a way to bypass the ludicrous complexity and allow people to find the correct spelling without having to search through a dozen or more potential spellings, even if they know Thai script.

The major problem with the Google system is that it's (AFAIK) completely undocumented and doesn't match any existing common transcription system.  But then, Google doesn't care about Thai.  Note the utterly pointless transliteration (not transcription) that it offers in Google Translate.

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Badger18 Advanced Member

Badger18

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1 hour ago, Oxx said:

What (tonless) transcription schemes such as Google's offer is a way to bypass the ludicrous complexity and allow people to find the correct spelling without having to search through a dozen or more potential spellings, even if they know Thai script.

Is that OP's problem though? I didn't get that impression. Could be wrong of course.

 

If it is the problem, this doesn't seem like a great solution, because you are just replacing one semi-familiar spelling system with another.

 

If I want to check a spelling I will just guess and see if it comes up in a dictionary, or else put in the English term and see what comes back as the Thai equivalent.

 

I wouldn't have said that Thai spelling is that bad. Yes there are cases where there are a dozen potential spellings but not very many, plus most of those spellings - though possible in theory - are going to be pretty unlikely.

 

Your figure of 30% seems high to me. I'm not saying it's wrong but where did you get it from?

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JayClay Gold Member

JayClay

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43 minutes ago, Badger18 said:

If I want to check a spelling I will just guess and see if it comes up in a dictionary, or else put in the English term and see what comes back as the Thai equivalent.

Another great way to check a spelling is to use the mic feature of Google translate and say the Thai word. I find it helps if you use it in a sentence as it gives the AI a bit of context to work with.

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Badger18 Advanced Member

Badger18

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I have privacy issues (or is it just paranoia) with voice recognition and Google assistant etc. etc. so have all that disabled. In a way this may have benefited me, bc it meant I had to use my phone keyboard for text messages. Actually the reason I know that ๆ is a giveaway is that locals told me that's how they knew I was typing my messages rather than speaking them into my phone.

 

...but yeah absolutely, for the non-paranoid that would be a good way of doing it.

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nitayagirl Apprentice Member

nitayagirl

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On 11/20/2021 at 6:43 PM, nitayagirl said:

Does anyone know if there is a way to type "ฯ" (pai-yan noi) and "ๆ" (mai ya-mok) with the English keyboard in google translate?

 

I have to switch to the Thai on-screen keyboard input in Google Translate to type these characters. It would be good if you could type them using English letters or symbols.

 

There is a way to display and choose words with ฯ and ๆ using the dictionary lookup feature in GT, but it only works for the first word or phrase you type in the input box i.e. you can't use it for words mid-sentence.

 

For example, to get บ่อยๆ

1. Type "boi" and hit enter. GT will produce บ่อย

2. Now GT will lookup บ่อย and display similar Thai words, including บ่อยๆ

3. Select บ่อยๆ with mouse click or arrow keys and enter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

ss1.png

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Badger18 Advanced Member

Badger18

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8 hours ago, nitayagirl said:

I have to switch to the Thai on-screen keyboard input in Google Translate to type these characters. It would be good if you could type them using English letters or symbols.

 

If you have a separate numeric keypad you can get them by holding down left alt and typing 3631 and 3654. You do have to type the numbers on the numeric keypad though (and numlock must be on).

 

Otherwise just install the Thai keyboard, then you have hotkey to change layouts / q / hotkey to change back and hotkey / shift + o / hotkey.

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nitayagirl Apprentice Member

nitayagirl

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22 hours ago, Badger18 said:

If you have a separate numeric keypad you can get them by holding down left alt and typing 3631 and 3654. You do have to type the numbers on the numeric keypad though (and numlock must be on).

 

Otherwise just install the Thai keyboard, then you have hotkey to change layouts / q / hotkey to change back and hotkey / shift + o / hotkey.

Alt Keycodes don't work for Thai language in Google Translate.

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nitayagirl Apprentice Member

nitayagirl

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On 11/26/2021 at 5:51 PM, Badger18 said:

You'd have to do it in a notepad window and copy over then. TBH I don't get why you don't just install the Th keyboard even if you're knly going to use it for a few characters.

 

I do have the Thai keyboard but I would like to be able to just type away in Thai using the English keyboard without having to ever swap to the Thai keyboard or another program.

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Oxx Gold Member

Oxx

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1 hour ago, JayClay said:

I don't think most Thais know it either

I'm pretty sure they do.  They will have been taught in school when learning to write, and Thai teachers are very strict about handwriting.

 

Whether they actually apply it when posting on Facebook, probably not.

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