60 languages, Ukrainian and Tamil among them

Nualingo works between any two of 60 languages. Ukrainian and Tamil are on the list, and so are Welsh, Swahili, Kazakh, Gujarati and Basque. You can pair any of them with any other: Ukrainian with Thai, Tamil with German, Welsh with Swahili.

That is a lot to promise in one line. So here is where the list comes from, what you can reasonably expect from a pair few people use, and what we do before a pair gets its own page on this site.

Where the 60 languages come from

We didn't pick the list. It is every language the speech service behind Nualingo recognises, under the names that service gives them. We check our list against the service's own, so if a language is added or removed on their side, we find out rather than drifting out of step.

That also explains the gaps. If the service doesn't recognise a language, we can't offer it, however much we would like to. Amharic and Burmese, for example, are not on the list today.

Any two, each in its own script

You choose your language and theirs. Neither has to be English. Before a conversation starts, Nualingo checks that the service can translate between the two you picked, and tells you plainly if it can't.

Each language is listed in its own script: українська, தமிழ், ไทย, 中文, Cymraeg. That is for the other person. When you hold the phone out, they can find their own language and check it is the right one without reading a word of English.

What to expect from a less common pair

We would rather be straight with you here. We have not run all 60 languages ourselves, and we can't give you an accuracy figure for a pair we haven't measured. A pair with no page on our site may work very well. It may also stumble more than English and Spanish do. The only way to know is to try it on something that doesn't matter much.

The mistakes we have seen in our own test runs give a fair idea of what to watch for:

• Clock times. In a German and Thai run, the Thai way of saying seven in the evening came out in German as ten at night.
• Short phrases losing their context. In Hindi, a clause meaning I would really like to was heard as a sentence on its own and came out as I'm really hungry.
• Regional variety. European Portuguese came back as Brazilian Portuguese.
• Tone. Vietnamese between partners came out more formal than a couple would actually speak.

None of these is peculiar to one language. They are the kinds of slip any pair can make, along with names, places and family terms. Check anything that matters, such as a time, an amount or an address, and if a translation looks odd, say it another way.

How we test a pair before it gets its own page

Every pair can be used. Only some have their own page, and a pair gets one only after a conversation in it has run through the finished app. We record an everyday exchange: two people arranging dinner, with a greeting, a question, a time and a request to pick up bread and fruit on the way home. We play it into the app as its microphone, then write down every turn: what was heard, what the translation said, whether the voice read it out, and whether any words went missing.

Each run is written up, mistakes included, before the pair is added. So far that covers English with Thai, Spanish, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Chinese and Hindi, plus German with Thai and Spanish with Portuguese. When a run turns up something people should know, it goes on the pair's page, which is why the German and Thai pages warn about evening times.

Ukrainian and Tamil haven't had their run yet. You can use them today; they just don't have a page. The test has limits too. A recording played straight into the app has no room echo and no background noise, so it shows how the words and the translation come through, not how a busy café will go.

When to use a professional interpreter

For medical, legal or official matters, use a professional interpreter, whatever your pair. Every screen in the app says so, because Nualingo can make mistakes, and in those settings a mistake costs far more than a mix-up over dinner. With a pair we haven't tested, there is even less reason to take the risk.

For everything else, try your pair. Three minutes a day are free on each device, with no account. That is long enough to say hello and see how your two languages come through.

Nualingo can make mistakes. For medical, legal or official matters, use a professional interpreter.