HOW TO Understand and be understood

Translate fast

To start using Translate pick the language you want to translate from — say English — then tap the second drop–down to pick the language that you want to translate to, eg Italian. Then simply type your word or phrase.

Talk, don’t type

If you’re in a reasonably quiet environment, tap the microphone icon and you can talk instead of type. This works brilliantly but is a little impatient; if you pause, it will assume you’re finished and stop listening to you.

Have a chat

If you tap the Conversation icon then the side–by–side icon you’ll see something that feels magical; real time two–way conversation in a split–screen display that enables each of you to speak and see each other translated.

Make it big

If you tap the enlarge icon at the bottom left of the translated text, the Translate app will change its display mode to show large text. That’s handy for situations where the person you’re talking to can’t really hear you.

See what you said

As soon as you’ve finished talking, the Translate app will take you back to the same screen as before. Whether you typed it or used your voice, the translated text can be read aloud if you tap the Play button.

Go pictographic

Translate can turn your text into pictographic languages such as Chinese. If there’s a possible ambiguity in the results, the app may ask you to refine your phrase; sometimes words can have multiple possible translations.

Learn as you go

Everyday’s a school day with the Translate app; tap on a word in the text and it’ll bring up the Dictionary to tell you its meaning and some of its variants — here, looking up “good” brings up these Italian examples.

Check your history

As you translate words and phrases, the app will keep track. Swipe down on the current translation to see what you’ve already translated. If you’d like one read out, tap to make it the current translation.

Go offline

You can’t be sure of getting a signal when you travel, so it’s a good idea to use the Manage Languages option to download the language(s) you’ll need. It’s in the drop-down for choosing the destination language.