Google Translate

[Jennie]

Do also remember that Google Translate can be used for sites or documents that haven't provided translation. You can enter the text and ask Google Translate to translate the text or you can enter a webpage and have the entire page translated.

eg: if you put that website address into the box for Google Translate it will translate it for you. It is of course not perfect but it is a whole lot better than staring at text that might as well be in double dutch.

I would be lost without Google Translate and despite the 'gobbledegook' it can churn out, a great tool.

And wonder of wonders, Google has started compiling a "Latin" translate! Yes!! All those hidden references in parish registers and other early documents may, with a few incomprehensible words or phrases thrown in, be "legibilis"* .

Legible* = Courtesy of Google Translate

 

[GrahamSimons]

You may well find that Babelfish provides better translations. Worth experimenting: I certainly prefer it. http://www.babelfish.com/

 

[Jennie]

You may well find that Babelf ish provides better translations. Worth experimenting: I certainly prefer it. http://www.babelfish.com/

Thanks for the above suggestion. I've just been trying it out and sorry, I still prefer Google Translate but perhaps it depends on how much information you want to translate at a time?

I find using Google Translate for translating suits all my purposes from single words to longer passages of text. It is all done on one page and IMO quicker and smoother. It provides two larger boxes enabling you to view both sets of the before and after information, side by side in the same layout style as I put in the first box. This I find another useful finding aid when trying to check and translate into English by myself the bits that went wrong!

I did a simple comparison check by using a few lines from a French poem, these were the results:
Original French:
A pied tout autour de la terre
A pied tout autour de la mer
Tout autour du soleil
De la lune et des étoiles
A pied, à cheval, en voiture, et en bateau

The Learn-French-Help translation given for primary school children:
On foot all around the earth
On foot all around the sea
All around the sun
The moon and the stars
On foot, by car, by horse, and by sail.

Babel Fish Translation I tried this three times and with the same initial errors at the start of the translation.This website also tells me “Did you know machine translation is only 70% accurate? Get this translated by a certified human translator for only $0.90.........

A a pied foot all around the Earth on foot around the sea all around the Sun Moon and stars on foot, horseback, car, and boat (English)

Google Translate Translation
A walk around the earth
A walk around the sea
Around the sun
The moon and stars
On foot, on horseback, by car and by boat

Thanks, Graham, I enjoyed experimenting, have I won you over?