Due to the nature of random sentence generators, there may be some unnatural-sounding sentences and some mistakes. 文生成プログラムの性質のため、不自然さや、間違いがある場合もあります。
These are computer-made sentences (コンピューターの作った文章), so they may not always be good sentences. However, if one language makes sense, usually the other makes sense, too.
Examples of "Less-Than-Natural" sentences / Errors / Mistakes / Bugs
These are the kinds of mistakes that you might see. These are probably not sentences that a human would ever produce.
* Even teachers must flash Stuart a quick smile here.
* ここでは先生でもステュアートに向かってちらりと笑顔を見せなければならない。
* He was coming home for hours.
* 何時間も家へ帰ていた。
* I choose a friend two hours every day.
* 毎日二時間友達を選ぶ。
About this Random Sentence Generator (この文章自動生成プログラムについて)
For years, I've been experimenting with creating computer programs to produce English-Japanese sentence equivalents.
I often update this program, so as the years go by, the sentences sound more and more natural.
This is always "Under Construction" (工事中).
I often change the code and the variables used, often limiting the number of patterns so I can test different variables.
This means that the program you are using today may be different from the program you'll get the next time you visit.
To help you read the Kanji, use Firefox with the Rikai-chan plugin. Both are free.
Earlier versions of my random sentence generator also generated a Romaji version of each sentence, but with Firefox and Rikai-chan, this is no longer necessary. However, the challenge of getting the sentences into Romaji was fun.
Bug Reports -- Help Me Improve This
If you see any bad sentences (strange or just wrong), please copy and paste the sentence pair into the bug report form. There is a link to this form on the "generator" page.
A Brief History of My Experiments with Computer-Generated Sentences
Around 1983, I began writing monolingual random sentence generators, one in English and one in Japanese (Romaji) on the Apple ][ computer.
Sometime before 1987, I began working on a bilingual English-Japanese random sentence generator on an NEC 9801 computer, after also writing monolingual random-sentence generators on this computer.
The English Sentence Machine, written in Flash ActionScript, is a cross between a "mad-lib" and a random-sentence generator.
In 2006, I started the Perl version of a Bilingual English-Japanese Random Sentence Generator. A lot of the code was ported over from other programs I had already written. It was also possible to use a lot of the same raw data.
A related project that I did was to write a random music generator -- not the totally random notes thing that you may have heard before, but something to produce natural-sounding music. I limited it to only producing blues and was able to get it to sound as if a human were playing the music.
What the Program Does
This is not a complete list, but if you aren't that familiar with this kind of thing, then perhaps you might be interested in some of the things the computer program does.
English verb conjugation
Takes a verb like "swim" and produces: swim, swims, swimming, swam & swum.
Regular verbs follow all the rules and irregular verbs are all identified.
Japanese verb conjugation
A little more involved than the English, though not as many exceptions to rules.
Things in English
singular / plural
countable / non-countable
a / an
proper pronouns
Things in Japanese
を、が、に、で、
Examples of Problems Dealt With:
English has one form, but Japanese has 2 forms.
Brian swims. = ブライアンは泳ぐ。(Dictionary Form)
Brian employs 100 workers. = ブライアンは１００人の労働者を雇っている。 (TE IRU Form)
Counters in Japanese: １本、２枚、３匹、etc.
... more information to come ... (Almost everything a grammar book deals with, had to be dealt with.)
I'll add more to this list when I have time. It's more fun to spend my time programming than it is to write "about" pages. :-)