I usually double check my English using Google Translate. I paste my phrase in English (translated by myself) and I see how it translates it back to Italian. If the meaning is the one I had in mind then I'm quite sure I translated Italian to English correctly (almost, at least).
But I'm quite surprised today because I wrote this sentence in Google Translate
I'll be on vacation from August, 1st to August, 25th so the
support will be discontinued for a while
and it translated to Italian in a way that the meaning is this:
As the support will be discontinued for a while, I'll be on vacation
from etc…
I changed the English sentence to:
I'll be on vacation from August, 1st to August, 25th therefore the
support will be discontinued for a while
and I got the correct meaning, which is that I can't ensure the availability of support because I'll be on vacation.
Is Google Translate right? I always use so and never use therefore so I'm worried I said a lot of nonsense all these years!
Best Answer
No, it is not. Google Translate is an awful, awful thing in situations like these.
So is perfectly fine the way you used it (I'd personally get rid of the because it's fine to say I'll be on vacation … so support will be discontinued for a while).
The reason (maybe) GT was freaking out about it is that the conjunction so can be used in a few other ways and can mean other things. For example, it can be used as such, to indicate a goal or an aim. In this case, it means "in order to" or "in order that"
This way, therefore would not work at all. Translate gets very confused about things like this, since it's not entirely sure how you're using such versatile little words.
And, on top of that, so can also be an adverb (kind of). It can mean to such an extent or to the same extent or simply as a reference to something that is true:
Etcetera. And on top of that there's a whole bunch of tiny expressions and idioms that use so in a way that isn't covered by this answer, or the New Oxford American Dictionary, from which I drew inspiration.
That said (back to your question), therefore works too, and is more specific to your sentence. But to me, it sounds a bit more weird, like you're speaking too robotically. Other ways you could've done that:
All of these are fine, and since some of the words used may also have other possible meanings, Google Translate will be garbage on all of this.