How to Translate Languages Using Google Sheets
There are more efficient ways to keep track of important foreign language vocabulary than a portable dictionary. If you’re learning a new language or doing basic translations, try using the Google Translate formula in Google Sheets to quickly access a list of what you know or want to know.
This method was posted on Reddit by user u / mk4rim at r / LifeHacks, but the background information actually comes from tech writer and educator Jake Miller. Miller shared this video in 2018, but it is taking on new life on Reddit. At the time, he shot this video showing the basic formulas that are inserted into Google Sheets to connect your spreadsheet to Google Translate:
In a post on the topic, Miller writes:
Enter a word in one language into a cell, and then use the formula = GoogleTranslate (text, source_language, target_language) in another cell to automatically translate it! You can even drag the fill handle at the bottom of a formula cell downward to apply that formula to multiple cells.
This formula works for all languages supported by Google Translate, and there are over 100 of them! It even outputs results with correct letters and alphabet, not just our English letters ABC . You just need to know the two letter language code, which you can find in this list .
To do this, you need to learn the basic code. Watching Miller view this on a shared screen helps, but there is also a supporting document that u / bar10005 refers to in a Reddit post that lays out the specific code in case you missed it:
Usage example
GOOGLETRANSLATE (“Hello World”, “en”, “es”)
GOOGLETRANSLATE (A2; B2; C2)
GOOGLETRANSLATE (A2)
Syntax
GOOGLETRANSLATE (text; [source_language, target_language])
text – the text to be translated. The text value must be enclosed in quotation marks or be a reference to a cell containing the corresponding text.
source_language – [ OPTIONAL – “auto” by default ] – The two-letter source language code, for example, “en” for English or “ko” for Korean, or “auto” for automatic language detection. omitted, target_language must also be omitted.
target_language – [ OPTIONAL – system default language ] – The two-letter target language code, for example, “en” for English or “ja” for Japanese.
People can use this feature in different ways; many may just want to use it as a study guide on a laptop, but if you use it on the go, you can download the Google Sheets app for your phone. This will allow you to check and edit if you, as a tourist, come across new words.
Tabular translations are a great addition to your language learning process, but are limited when you get into the territory of phrases and colloquial expressions. For example, u / danielks_13 pointed out that some concepts are not translated verbatim:
Bienvenido does not mean welcome, but rather welcome. De nada would be an appropriate way to say “welcome” in Spanish.
Be sure to check for words that represent more complex ideas than hamburger. Otherwise, it’s an easy way to track your progress and accumulate all those new nouns.