|
Kittybriton
|
 |
« on: 22:28:31, 19-08-2007 » |
|
This is the first site I have found that offers such a wide range of languages for online translation!
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
Click me -> About meor me -> my handmade storeNo, I'm not a complete idiot. I'm only a halfwit. In fact I'm actually a catfish. |
|
|
|
time_is_now
|
|
« Reply #1 on: 12:45:30, 20-08-2007 » |
|
Thanks Kitty! I've a feeling I tried to use that one for Romanian-English once, and got rather lost. But that doesn't mean to say it was really bad - none of them are perfect! This one's not at all bad as such things go, though it has fewer languages than the one you mentioned. Certainly helps me with my dodgy Portuguese from time to time, as well as understanding t-p's Russian.  |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
The city is a process which always veers away from the form envisaged and desired, ... whose revenge upon its architects and planners undoes every dream of mastery. It is [also] one of the sites where Dasein is assigned the impossible task of putting right what can never be put right. - Rob Lapsley
|
|
|
|
|
teleplasm
Gender: 
Posts: 49
|
|
« Reply #3 on: 13:38:27, 20-08-2007 » |
|
I gave it a line from Ernest Dowson to translate into Latin:
"I have been faithful to thee, Cynara, in my fashion."
Result:
"EGO have been fidelis ut thee Cynara , in meus formo."
This is hilarious, of course, but it shows that all the "translator" can do is look up words in a dictionary and string them together without regard for grammar or syntax. That being said, it's no worse than others I've come across.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
time_is_now
|
|
« Reply #4 on: 14:52:48, 20-08-2007 » |
|
all the "translator" can do is look up words in a dictionary and string them together without regard for grammar or syntax That's a strikingly accurate description of some contributors to this forum. |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
The city is a process which always veers away from the form envisaged and desired, ... whose revenge upon its architects and planners undoes every dream of mastery. It is [also] one of the sites where Dasein is assigned the impossible task of putting right what can never be put right. - Rob Lapsley
|
|
|
teleplasm
Gender:
Posts: 49
|
|
« Reply #5 on: 15:12:33, 20-08-2007 » |
|
all the "translator" can do is look up words in a dictionary and string them together without regard for grammar or syntax That's a strikingly accurate description of some contributors to this forum. But not to "the other place", of course.  |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
TimR-J
Guest
|
|
« Reply #6 on: 16:27:21, 20-08-2007 » |
|
Does anyone know if all these online translators (babelfish.altavista.com is my usual go-to choice, followed by poltran.com for help with Polish stuff) run off the same software as each other, or if some are actually better than others (ie - has anyone done or seen a comparison of the same text into the same language between sites)? I have a feeling Google and Babelfish are the same, or at least I've never seen any appreciable difference between them.
|
|
|
|
« Last Edit: 16:58:19, 20-08-2007 by TimR-J »
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
time_is_now
|
|
« Reply #7 on: 16:31:30, 20-08-2007 » |
|
My impression is that the one I linked to above is able at least to cope with some fairly basic grammatical/syntactical issues, whereas some really do seem just to translate word for word.
I might try and run a few tests later and see if I can give you some examples.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
The city is a process which always veers away from the form envisaged and desired, ... whose revenge upon its architects and planners undoes every dream of mastery. It is [also] one of the sites where Dasein is assigned the impossible task of putting right what can never be put right. - Rob Lapsley
|
|
|
|
TimR-J
Guest
|
|
« Reply #8 on: 16:41:23, 20-08-2007 » |
|
Don't go to any trouble on my account - I was just being lazy in asking!
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
increpatio
|
|
« Reply #9 on: 16:44:15, 20-08-2007 » |
|
OOoh I think I spy a game! Nicht zu irgendeiner Mühe auf meinem Konto gehen - ich war gerechtes Sein faul beim Bitten!
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
time_is_now
|
|
« Reply #10 on: 16:45:14, 20-08-2007 » |
|
No, I'd already planned to do that before you asked. Having posted about the other two I've used I was interested to find out how scientific my impressions were, or whether I'd just happened to get a good result and unreasonably attributed it to using a different site ...
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
The city is a process which always veers away from the form envisaged and desired, ... whose revenge upon its architects and planners undoes every dream of mastery. It is [also] one of the sites where Dasein is assigned the impossible task of putting right what can never be put right. - Rob Lapsley
|
|
|
|
time_is_now
|
|
« Reply #11 on: 16:48:15, 20-08-2007 » |
|
Hmmmm. First impressions not great - which site was that from, incre? 'Auf meinem Konto' has distinctly bank-related implications, to my ears at least, and as for ich war gerechtes Sein faul beim Bitten! well, that's a quite hilarious example of how word-for-word translation doesn't work. The trick is to back-translate afterwards, and your German result goes back into English as something like: Not to go to some tiredness or other on my account - I was an unjust form of being who asked you lazily. |
|
|
|
« Last Edit: 16:53:14, 20-08-2007 by time_is_now »
|
Logged
|
The city is a process which always veers away from the form envisaged and desired, ... whose revenge upon its architects and planners undoes every dream of mastery. It is [also] one of the sites where Dasein is assigned the impossible task of putting right what can never be put right. - Rob Lapsley
|
|
|
|
Daniel
|
|
« Reply #12 on: 16:50:47, 20-08-2007 » |
|
OOoh I think I spy a game! Nicht zu irgendeiner Mühe auf meinem Konto gehen - ich war gerechtes Sein faul beim Bitten!
Using t-i-n's link I got the following; 'To any trouble on my account do not go - I was fair, his decayed with the request!' which adds an element of bleakness missing from the original, I feel. |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
time_is_now
|
|
« Reply #13 on: 16:51:58, 20-08-2007 » |
|
Aha! It seems my favouring of http://translation2.paralink.com/ wasn't a complete placebo effect after all. That one turns Tim's sentence into: Gehen Sie zu keinen Schwierigkeiten auf meiner Rechnung - ich war gerade im Fragen faul! which is really not bad at all, except that it (not unreasonably) misunderstands his 'I was just being lazy' as 'I was being lazy a minute ago' rather than 'I was only being lazy'. Daniel, I think you were translating German to English rather than English to German there? |
|
|
|
« Last Edit: 16:54:12, 20-08-2007 by time_is_now »
|
Logged
|
The city is a process which always veers away from the form envisaged and desired, ... whose revenge upon its architects and planners undoes every dream of mastery. It is [also] one of the sites where Dasein is assigned the impossible task of putting right what can never be put right. - Rob Lapsley
|
|
|
|
TimR-J
Guest
|
|
« Reply #14 on: 16:56:34, 20-08-2007 » |
|
My messageboard voice probably isn't the fairest test (or maybe it is?) of a translator, but I'm impressed by the paralink one. I'll roadtest that for a while and see if it does me any better.
"The vodka is strong but the meat is rotten."
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
