A Study on ChatGPT-4o’s Capacity in English-Spanish Translation

Abstract

This study assessed the ability of ChatGPT-4o to translate Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel “Love in the Time of Cholera” from Spanish into English. Twenty participants, all of whom were either native Spanish speakers or had majored in Spanish and studied the language for at least three years, evaluated the translation of twenty excerpts. The results indicated that participants were generally satisfied with the accuracy and fluency of the translations, feeling that the translated text conveyed the meaning of the original effectively. However, there was a consensus that there was room for improvement, particularly in handling complex expressions and cultural contexts. The study concluded that while ChatGPT-4o performed well in terms of accuracy and fluency, further improvements are necessary in cultural adaptation to ensure that cultural nuances and contextual information are accurately conveyed. This highlights the ongoing need for enhancement in machine translation to fully capture the subtleties of cultural references and intricate language use.