title: Difference between the google translate API
body: <p>I am building an Open Source Chrome extension based on Google translate (<a href="https://github.com/MagTun/Customizable-Google-Translate-Chrome-extension/blob/master/README.md" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>). </p>
  
  <p>I have read the other questions about Google translate API (like this <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/43155233/google-translate-api-paid-vs-google-translate-api-free">one</a> and this <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/q/8085743/3154274">one</a>) but I still don't have my answer. 
  I found several URLs for Google translate like these:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><p><a href="https://translate.googleapis.com/translate_a/single?client=gtx&amp;sl=en&amp;tl=fr&amp;dt=t&amp;q=father&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;oe=UTF-8" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://translate.googleapis.com/translate_a/single?client=gtx&amp;sl=en&amp;tl=fr&amp;dt=t&amp;q=father&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;oe=UTF-8</a>  </p></li>
  <li><p><a href="https://clients5.google.com/translate_a/t?client=dict-chrome-ex&amp;sl=en&amp;tl=fr&amp;dt=t&amp;q=father" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://clients5.google.com/translate_a/t?client=dict-chrome-ex&amp;sl=en&amp;tl=fr&amp;dt=t&amp;q=father</a></p></li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>It seems all the URL are a different combination of 3 parts:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><p>a base URL : </p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><code>translate.googleapis.com/translate_a/</code>  </li>
  <li><code>https://translate.google.com/translate_a/</code>  </li>
  <li><code>https://clients5.google.com/translate_a/</code></li>
  </ul></li>
  <li><p>the first argument after the <code>translate_a/</code>: either <code>single</code> or <code>t</code></p></li>
  <li><p>the clients which can be <code>gtx</code>, <code>t</code> or <code>dict-chrome-ex</code> [or <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/43155233/google-translate-api-paid-vs-google-translate-api-free">apparently any ID</a>]</p></li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>So far I have seen differences in the JSON returned. 
  This <a href="https://translate.googleapis.com/translate_a/single?client=gtx&amp;sl=en&amp;tl=fr&amp;dt=t&amp;q=father&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;oe=UTF-8" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://translate.googleapis.com/translate_a/single?client=gtx&amp;sl=en&amp;tl=fr&amp;dt=t&amp;q=father&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;oe=UTF-8</a> returns this json:</p>
  
  <pre><code>[[["père","father",null,null,1]
  ]
  ,null,"en"]
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>While this <a href="https://clients5.google.com/translate_a/t?client=dict-chrome-ex&amp;sl=en&amp;tl=fr&amp;dt=t&amp;q=father" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://clients5.google.com/translate_a/t?client=dict-chrome-ex&amp;sl=en&amp;tl=fr&amp;dt=t&amp;q=father</a> returns this json:</p>
  
  <pre><code>{"sentences":[{"trans":"père","orig":"father","backend":1},{"src_translit":"ˈfäT͟Hər"}],"dict":[{"pos":"noun","terms":["père"],"entry":[{"word":"père","reverse_translation":["father","dad","parent","papa"],"score":0.70910621,"previous_word":"le","gender":1}],"base_form":"father","pos_enum":1},{"pos":"verb","terms":["engendrer","concevoir"],"entry":[{"word":"engendrer","reverse_translation":["generate","engender","give rise to","beget","breed","father"],"synset_id":[52561],"score":0.00017133754},{"word":"concevoir","reverse_translation":["design","conceive","devise","plan","form","father"],"synset_id":[52561],"score":4.8327973e-05}],"base_form":"father","pos_enum":2}],"src":"en","alternative_translations":[{"src_phrase":"father","alternative":[{"word_postproc":"père","score":1000,"has_preceding_space":true,"attach_to_next_token":false}],"srcunicodeoffsets":[{"begin":0,"end":6}],"raw_src_segment":"father","start_pos":0,"end_pos":0}],"confidence":1,"ld_result":{"srclangs":["en"],"srclangs_confidences":[1],"extended_srclangs":["en"]},"query_inflections":[{"written_form":"father","features":{"number":2}},{"written_form":"fathers","features":{"number":1}}],"target_inflections":[{"written_form":"père","features":{"gender":1,"number":2}},{"written_form":"pères","features":{"gender":1,"number":1}},{"written_form":"père","features":{"number":2}},{"written_form":"pères","features":{"number":1}}]}
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>So my question is what are the (other than this one) differences between the different combinations given above. 
  In which case should I use one rather than the other (except for the returned JSON). Is there one that is depreciated or that supports more request?</p>
  
  <p>For the meaning of the queries: <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/a/29537590/3154274">https://stackoverflow.com/a/29537590/3154274</a></p>