Bet the key

So, I looked up one of the phrases used for the Verb[て] + B grammar point, ともこは鍵(かぎ)をかけ 出(で)かけました。, which contains this phrase: 鍵(かぎ)をかける. If you put it into Google the community has translated it as ‘bet the key’ - it even gets Google’s verified logo. However, from the Bunpro example it seems to mean ‘to lock the door’ or something similar.
Just thought I’d verify this so I can suggest an edit in Google and hopefully get it corrected eventually!

Cris

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Try replacing かけるwith 掛ける

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懸(か)ける is to bet or to stake. @s1212z is correct that 掛(か)ける is the correct kanji for the situation, but it is usually only written using kana, therefore 鍵をかける looks natural.

Google translate will always do this if you don’t have the right kanji. For some reason recently on HelloTalk there have been a lot of Chinese people pretending to be young Japanese girls. I can usually tell straight away who they are so I simply respond to their messages in hiragana knowing they’ll put it into Google translate and get something that’s totally inaccurate. It’s quite funny seeing them respond actually…

Anyway yeah feel free to suggest the edit to Google, but it’s pretty much well-known that Google translate isn’t very good and I can’t see it getting that much better any time soon :joy:

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If you’re using Chrome, you can install Rikaikun (I think it’s Rikaichan for FF?) and you’ll often find set phrases like these. Also when in doubt, Jisho is your friend: https://jisho.org/search/kagiwokakeru

But yeah, Google is pretty bad, but without kanji, it’s even worse x’D

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Random about the Chinese ‘young Japanese girls’ :face_with_hand_over_mouth:
Anyway, thanks guys. I’ve made the suggestion and, who knows, maybe after some years it will show correctly :stuck_out_tongue:
It is a shame Google isn’t better, but at least if you apply a little common sense you can usually tell when it’s nonsense. Doesn’t help when the original is a bit nonsensical though. Or when they use katakana for emphasis:
夏の空見上げてサケんだ。
Google thinks “I looked up at the summer sky and it was salmon.” I saved that one; it made me laugh.

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Ha, yeah that spelling would definitely be interpreted by google as salmon

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