(German) die Banditin -> (Spanish) el bandido
(Spanish) la bandida -> (German) der Bandit
So it always turns a female bandit into a male one.
https://blog.research.google/2016/11/zero-shot-translation-w...
But I just tested some end-to-end translations of some random simple sentences from German and Spanish Wikipedia. The translations are identical whether I translate them directly or via English as an intermediate step. This didn’t prove that Google Translate is using English (or some other interlingua), but at least demonstrates doesn’t not use one. :)
German example:
de = Wikipedia ist ein Projekt zum Aufbau einer Enzyklopädie aus freien Inhalten.
de:en = Wikipedia is a project to build an encyclopedia of free content.
en:es = Wikipedia es un proyecto para construir una enciclopedia de contenido gratuito.
de:es = Wikipedia es un proyecto para construir una enciclopedia de contenido gratuito.
Spanish example:
es = Wikipedia es una enciclopedia libre, políglota y editada de manera colaborativa.
es:en = Wikipedia is a free, polyglot and collaboratively edited encyclopedia.
en:de = Wikipedia ist eine freie, polyglotte und gemeinschaftlich bearbeitete Enzyklopädie.
es:de = Wikipedia ist eine freie, polyglotte und gemeinschaftlich bearbeitete Enzyklopädie.
I am not sure but I think I heard Google Translate always goes via English.
That's my understanding, yes.