I hear that students are already beginning to use Google-Translator to do their Sanskrit homework.
I just did a little experiment. Taking a few of the english translations in Apte's "The Student's Guide to Sanskrit Composition" and comparing what Google Translator gave as a sanskrit translation of these, and comparing to the original sanskrit quotes . A couple of surprising things stood out. Surprising because these are fundamental things nothing subtle. Google translator seems to use sanskrit past active participle to translate english simple past. It doesn't seem to apply visarga sandhi, a completely mechanical process.
In these examples, the yellow highlighted sanskrit is the citation from Apte, the blue highlighted sanskrit is the google sanskrit translation of Apte's english translation given below.
Rama saw govinda
rāmo
govindamapaśyat
rāmaḥ govindaṁ
dṛṣṭavān
I Salute the parents
of the universe, Parvati and Paramesvara.
jagataḥ pitarau
vande pārvatīparameśvarau
viśvasya
mātāpitarau pārvatīṁ parameśvaraṁ ca namāmi
He washed his hands
and feet.
hastau pādau
cākṣālayat
saḥ hastapādau
prakṣālitavān।
She shut her eyes
sā locane
nyamīlayat |
sā netrāṇi
nimīlitavatī
So says the revered
Shankara
iti śrīśaṁkārācāryāḥ
|
tathā vadati pūjyaḥ
śaṅkaraḥ।
Thou art, therefore,
a friend.
tasmāt sakhā tvam
asi
tena tvaṁ mitram
asi