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Monday, March 28, 2005
www.localtranslation.com
Got an e-mail from this outfit, offering to put a free translation button on the site. It is a bare bones translator, and with a few problems. Here are a few examples:
French: Je voudrais un verre d'eau, s'il vous plaît.
Translation: I would like water glass, please.
Proper translation: I would like a glass of water, please.
French: Savez-vous où se trouve le boucher?
Translation: Do you know where is to stop it?
Proper translation: Do you know where the butcher is?
To be fair, "boucher" means both "butcher" and "to plug".
On the other hand, it did this one nicely:
French: Je n'aime pas du tout manger les champignons.
Translation: I do not like at all to eat mushrooms.
And look at this:
French: Lorsque j'avais six ans, j'ai vu une fois un magnifique image de la Forêt vierge dans un livre qui s'appelait Histoires vécues. - Le Petit Prince
Translation: When I was six years old, I saw once a splendid image of the Virgin forest in a book which was called lived Histoires. - The Small Prince
Proper translation: Once, when I was six years old, I saw a magnificent picture from the Virgin Forest in a book called True Life Stories. - The Little Prince
Hardly perfect, but it gets to the substance of the thing.
In any case, if you're looking for another translator to fuss with, localtranslation.com offers a resource for getting the gist of things, particularly if you know a little of the language but don't want to sort the whole thing out yourself. The free button has, by the way, been set up at multilingua.info.
posted by gbarto at 3:44 PM
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