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Google translate provided the following:

Did you make the granola? --> Haben Sie das Müsli zu machen?

Why is it not presented as

Haben Sie das Müsli gemacht?

What's the best way to ask this?

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  • it says "Haben sie das Müsli machen" on my computer... still abysmal, but a bit better
    – Emanuel
    Sep 27, 2014 at 21:58

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Google translate is a machine. It has severe issues even with primary school grammar. This becomes especially obvious on letting it translate questions with Do you...? or Did you...?. Try with the following:

Do you watch the show? - Haben Sie die Show zu sehen? --> Awfully incomprehensible.
Did / Do you see the unicorn? - Haben Sie das Einhorn sehen? --> Why both the same but still wrong?
Do you make any granola? - Haben Sie keine Müsli zu machen? --> Why "keine"???
Do you smell of granola? - Kennen Sie Müsli riechen? --> Ouch!
I made you some granola. - Ich habe Ihnen einige Müsli. Germans don't use verbs.

Now let's try to fool it:

Made you the granola? shudder - Sie machte das Granola? Why she?
Have you made the granola? Eeek! - Haben Sie das Müsli gemacht? Correct German!! This appears to be by accident!

So, please don't believe what a stupid robot tells you.

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    Just to add to that... Google translate does a more than average job for Spanish to English as far as my experience goes but it fails epically with German to English due to sentence structure and the comparatively vast and specific German basic vocabulary
    – Emanuel
    Sep 25, 2014 at 23:15
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Both version are incorrect. The correct sentence would be:

Haben Sie das Müsli gemacht?

"Haben Sie das Müsli zu machen?" means "Do you have to make the the granola?"

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  • Thanks, I wonder why it translated it like that. "Gemachen" was a typo, by the way. My apologies.
    – Joshua Michael Wanger
    Sep 25, 2014 at 20:56
  • Actually "Haben Sie das Müsli zu machen" would rather translate to "Are you to make the granola?". The translation "Haben Sie das Müsli zu machen" is simply wrong for the original sentence "Did you make the granola".
    – Thorsten Dittmar
    Sep 26, 2014 at 7:19
  • Well, I see right now that my sentence is dead wrong. It should be "Do you have to make the granola", got the verb order wrong. This could be used? "Are you to make the granola" would be possible too, of course.
    – Veredomon
    Sep 26, 2014 at 11:22
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Google Translate is a "word linker" that is based on a large translation memory. It has no clue about what you have written. It is a good bilingual dictionary for content words, a nonsensical bilingual dictionary for grammatical words, and a funny "word thrower" for clauses.

My tip: for anything above the word rank, use this tool only from the language you are learning to a language you already know. This is ok for getting the general meaning. But do not use it to formulate a clause in any circumstance. In my opinion, this tip should be a disclaimer in their site.

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"Haben Sie das Müsli zu machen?" means "Do you have to make the granola?".

"Did you make the granola" in correct German: "Hast du das Müsli gemacht?"

(Looks like the robot translated the English phrase word by word)

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