Translating With Siri

A new feature in iOS 11 is the ability for Siri to translate your speech into Mandarin, French, German, Italian or Spanish. You can simply ask Siri to translate a word or phrase. Siri will speak the translation aloud, which could help you communicate while traveling. You can also see the text in both languages on the screen.

You can also watch this video at YouTube (but with ads).

Video Transcript: So a new feature in iOS 11 is the ability for Siri to translate something for you. This works pretty well. All you've got to do is just ask using natural language.  How do you say hello in French? Bonjour. 
So you can use that How Do You Say in a language for just about anything. You can do longer phrases. How do you say where's the nearest train station in German? Wo its der machete Bahnhol? You can get rid of the how do you say as well. Where is the nearest train station in Mandarin. 
So this can be really handy for translating something. You can hear it and then try to repeat it. Or you can just let Siri speak for you. So you can tell Siri to say something in the language and then the person that you're trying to communicate with can hear Siri say it. You can also, of course, show them the screen which may help clarify things even more. 
It only works right now going from English to either Mandarin, German, French, Italian, or Spanish. Hopefully more languages will be added soon and hopefully the ability to go the other way will be added as well. 
You can also use the terminology to translate X into Y.  So, translate where is the nearest ATM into Mandarin. You can also use the phrase how do I say. How do I say purple in French? How do I say 833 in French? So it could be useful there for learning phrases that you may want to repeat yourself.

Comments: 12 Responses to “Translating With Siri”

Law Thim Fook

8 years ago

Gary, looks like this only works for American English and not British English. FYI, I've just tried it.

Jeff White

Apparently this feature is not available in Canada yet.

Bill

Hi Gary,

I like the Video and thought I would try it, but apparently Siri can't translate from British English to other languages at this point, which is a great disappointment as you can imagine!

Bill.

ETL

Just tried Siri on iPad. Asked it to translate into Spanish. The reply was - Sorry, I can't translate from Canadian English yet!!! Really???

Ray Butler

Tried Siri to translate from English to Spanish as I’m going abroad soon. Very disappointed this didn’t work. Hopefully will soon be fixed. ☹️

Ally

Just change Siri's language to English (US) and it works just fine.

tim

when i try this siri shows a message box with websites and says this is what i found and says the pharse i said, but doesn't give the translation.

Terry

Definitely works beautifully with US English; just in time for a trip to Italy!

Martin Peachey

Sad that it that it will only work in US English. Looks like the. Rest of the English speaking world will have to wait not that we don’t buy enough Apple products.

"Ally" is correct: Just go to Settings>Siri & Search>Language and select English (United States).

timothy pritchard

when i try this siri shows a message box with websites and says this is what i found and says the pharse i said, but doesn’t give the translation

Gary Rosenzweig

timothy: Make sure you are using iOS 11 and make sure Siri is set to US English.

Comments Closed.

Translating With Siri

Comments: 12 Responses to “Translating With Siri”

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