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zolkie

Joined: 26 Feb 2009
Replies: 60
Location: Maryland, USA
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Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2009 4:13 pm Post subject: Translators?

A quick google search yields many different sites for document translation (both English to Polish and Polish to English).
Anyone have any experience with any of them they'd like to share? Which do you like the best? the least?

kruse

Joined: 25 Aug 2008
Replies: 6

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Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2009 5:38 pm Post subject:

Zolkie
I find that google translate is as good as any of the ones available and I use it regularly. Although I can speak Polish at a reasonable level I never learnt to read or write in the language. Being able to speak polish helps considerably when using the translator as I can usually decipher whether the translation makes sense.
Alternatively when I get an email or letter written in polish using the translator provides an english translation I can understand. Although translators are not perfect for me they are a very helpful tool.

BobK
PO Top Contributor

Joined: 11 Nov 2008
Replies: 231
Location: Portland, Oregon USA
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Posted: Mon May 04, 2009 3:47 pm Post subject:

I have found that Google does a good job on Russian and Polish.

There was one online Polish translation (poltran.com) that did an awful job, I found no other free automatic ones.

I had many handwritten Russian documents translated at another web site by an expert, and their translations matched the Google translations VERY close (a very few words didn't translate).

I will warn you, Google's German <-> English translation is on par with all the other free auto translations ... TERRIBLE. I believe that German's unique grammer throws computer translation for a loop.

Bob K.

NancyM
PolishOrigins Matka Chrzestna

Joined: 14 Dec 2007
Replies: 185
Location: Massachusetts, USA
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Posted: Wed May 06, 2009 9:38 am Post subject:

I have used Google to translate Polish to English, and it seems good enough to get the gist of the meaning, but certainly not perfect ... one time the Polish word for "Godmother" was translated as "Mother Cartilage"

I would advise caution using Google or any other free translation device.

Zenon
PolishOrigins Team Leader

Joined: 28 Apr 2007
Replies: 1532
Location: Poland
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Posted: Thu May 07, 2009 3:43 pm Post subject:

NancyM wrote:

... one time the Polish word for "Godmother" was translated as "Mother Cartilage"

Well Nancy, as you already know, google translate was pretty "close" in its translation: 'godmother' in Polish is 'matka chrzestna', and 'cartilage' is 'chrząstka' . Only two letters difference Very Happy

theeast

Joined: 29 Jun 2009
Replies: 4

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Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 5:02 pm Post subject: Translator

I found a translation site that does several things. It is imtranslator.com

You can translate from language to another.

It has a spellcheck and dictionary.

It can say words by clicking on the speaker button. For instance, there was no translation from Polish to English for the word "wojka". I played it for my mother, who can speak but can't read Polish, and she said the word meant "uncle".

It also has a keyboard that you can set to any language. You can either use your mouse to click on the letters, or you can use your own keyboard that will work like the one shown on the screen.

I did have trouble with the Russian keyboard because it didn't have "i" on it. Some words will not translate and I think it could be from different dialects in the early 20th century.

Zenon
PolishOrigins Team Leader

Joined: 28 Apr 2007
Replies: 1532
Location: Poland
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 4:52 am Post subject: Re: Translator

theeast wrote:

For instance, there was no translation from Polish to English for the word "wojka". I played it for my mother, who can speak but can't read Polish, and she said the word meant "uncle".

"Wojka" is from the old Polish. Now there is in use word "wujek" for an uncle.

BobK
PO Top Contributor

Joined: 11 Nov 2008
Replies: 231
Location: Portland, Oregon USA
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 7:21 pm Post subject:

Zenon wrote:

NancyM wrote:

... one time the Polish word for "Godmother" was translated as "Mother Cartilage"

I found a 'feature' with google translate some time ago. When you get a 'strange' word while translating a sentence, retry just that one word. You may well get a list of possible translations. Pick the one most apt to fit.

Bobk

carolt71

Joined: 07 Jan 2009
Replies: 63

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Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2009 4:44 pm Post subject: NEW TOOLBAR TO TRANSLATE

SEARCH DOWNLOAD NEW GOOGLE TOOLBAR AND THEN JUST CLICK TRANSLATE. ITS AWESOME
CAROL

Zenon
PolishOrigins Team Leader

Joined: 28 Apr 2007
Replies: 1532
Location: Poland
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Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2009 4:52 am Post subject:

Zenon wrote:

NancyM wrote:

... one time the Polish word for "Godmother" was translated as "Mother Cartilage"

Nancy,

I suggested "improvement" for this translation and it already translates 'matka chrzestna' correctly - godmother Smile

Intituive09

Joined: 22 Aug 2009
Replies: 1
Location: AZ - USA
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Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 3:56 pm Post subject:

For any one interest I have also used http://www.translatica.pl/. Between Google and Translatica I get a better concept when translating from Polish to English.

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