I think much of the Google Translate trouble people get into involves things that they don't even notice are idiomatic/metaphorical statements--like, I wouldn't normally think of "I have her" meaning "I am about to get possession of a person (to do bad things to them)" as idiomatic. It's very easy not to notice that stuff about your own language until you realize it doesn't translate into another one.
Re: Beta/resource/Q&A thread
I think much of the Google Translate trouble people get into involves things that they don't even notice are idiomatic/metaphorical statements--like, I wouldn't normally think of "I have her" meaning "I am about to get possession of a person (to do bad things to them)" as idiomatic. It's very easy not to notice that stuff about your own language until you realize it doesn't translate into another one.