Dictionaries

Translation - Translation guide - Missing languages - Multilingual

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General Tips

Translation is a tricky business. Each language has its own way of thinking, and it is not enough to exchange one word for another. If it was, translation programmes like Babelfish would be doing your job. The limitations are quite obvious to anyone who ever tried a random newspaper text - or a poem!! - on an automatic translation tool. It takes a human - or better: a group of humans to create an intelligible translation that really carries the thought of the original. Nevertheless, there are tools online which can help you a lot figuring out how to transfer a thought from one language into the other.

If in doubt about a translation,

...try a variety of dictionaries.

• Search the web for "dictionary [language1] [language2]" or the like.
• If you are using firefox, look for "dictionaries" and "language tools" as add-ons on mozilla.org
• Look in forums, browse university webpages
• If you found something interesting, share it in your language team and add it here in the appropriate section(s)

...try synonyms

If a translation does not exactly hit the spot, try to put it another way. Some online dictionaries offer synonyms so e.g. synonyms for "couch" would be "sofa, seat, bench, chaisenongue, divan,..." most of which are not exactly the same, but would help to give you an idea if you had never heard of a couch before. Sometimes synonyms bring you right to the spot, but be careful not to get carried away too far. Always double-check by looking up the translation of the synonym and the synonym of the translation cross-wise as to see wether you are still on track.

...try example sentences

If the tricky part is within the construction of a sentence: Just look up the questionable part!

• google the phrase(part) ("as a quotation") so you might derive the meaning by comparing the phrase in different context.
• If translating from native to foreign language: Use the same trick to see if the prase you chose is something that natives would say also. If you have alternative solutions, google both "quotes" and check the hit-count. Go with the high-score.

...ask your fellow translators

Post the questions, doubts and alternatives in your language team and discuss them

...ask a native speaker

for example your next couchsurfer! Or CouchSearch for someone who is a native speaker of the required language and an intermediate or expert speaker of your native language. Why not! Explain your problem and see who will help.

General Good Addresses

These URLs can be very useful to translate the Couchsurfing webpage, regardless of the language you want to translate into:

• wiktionary - the dictionary from the wikipedia online encyclopedia
• dict.org - a vast collection of English and foreign dictionaries which can simultaneously be searched for synonyms, translations, approximatins, examples... do try this one!!

Link Collection And Advice for the Specific Languages

Please put your good stuff right here so all can profit from what you found!

Catalan

• Diccionari de la llengua catalana (2a Ed.) - On line monolingual dictionary of Catalan, very comprehensive in size and scope; this is the main dictionary for the Catalan language.

• L'Enciclopèdia Catalana - On line monolingual Catalan encyclopedia.

• Catalan Automatic Translator - The Automatic Translation Service of the Generalitat of Catalonia allows to translate online short texts and web pages. It is available for the following language pairs: Catalan ↔ Spanish, Catalan ↔ English, Catalan ↔ French, Catalan ↔ German.

• Cercatem - The Cercaterm is the service of terminologic consultations on line of the TERMCAT. It is a free tool of multilingual consultation that can help you to solving the terminologic doubts in Catalan language.

• Webster's Online Dictionary - Webster's on line Dictionary with Multilingual Thesaurus Translation.

German

• Beolingus - a university project, very accurate and a with a good vocabulary base. Available in Deutsch-Englisch, Deutsch-Portugiesisch, Deutsch-Spanisch
• dict.cc - interactive project.Good vocabulary base, also for colloquial and slang terms. A bit inaccurate through weaknesses in prepositions etc.
• leo.org - interactive project, missing many words, but still handy. Multilingual: Deutsch-Chinesisch Deutsch-Englisch, Deutsch-Französisch, Deutsch-Italienisch, Deutsch-Spanisch,

Marathi

• eshabdakosh.com - English to Marathi