Search Engine Tricks for Finding Translations on the Internet
in bilingual/multilingual glossaries or parallel texts on the same page

By Tanya Harvey Ciampi, 6653 Verscio, Switzerland

  1. Search for your term along with common words that identify your target language
  2. Search for your term along with a word that you are certain of in your target language
  3. Search for a bilingual glossary or parallel texts on the same page
  4. Search for your term on a page in your target language
  5. Search for your term on a page in a target-language-speaking country

These techniques supplement the WWW Search Interfaces for Translators at www.multilingual.ch, which are presented as part of my Internet Search Techniques Course for Translators at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences Winterthur (ZHW): Department of Applied Linguistics and Cultural Studies - former School for Translators and Interpreters in Zurich (DOZ) (=> Details of next course...).

IMPORTANT: The techniques described below will help you find translations of all sorts of specialised terms but it is ultimately up to you, the translator, to assess the quality and reliability of the information found.
NOTE: Unless otherwise specified, the search syntax used in these tricks is that of Google. I have chosen Google because of the sheer size of its index, the wide variety of document formats that it searches (html, pdf, doc, xls etc.) - unlike most other search engines - and the advanced search facilities that it offers.

1. Search for your term along with common words that identify your target language

English German Italian French Spanish Portuguese Danish Swedish
the der il et el um og och
is ist è est es uma af är
are und di le los os med för
and die del la las do fra att
of das che de que que en som
with dem un un y não ...
an sind una une para ... ...
for es ha sont ...
from von sono les
... vom la à
ein con le
eine della la
einer dei du
einem gli des
mit nel que
... nella pour
per ...
...
  
NOTE: The common words above may be ignored by some search engines. Google, for example, will tell you if these words have been ignored in your search: you can then force them to be included in your search by enclosing them individually in quotation marks. Examples: keyword "the" "is" / keyword "der" "ist".

Use one, two or more of these words together to refine your search.

Example: Finding a French translation of the English term "jumbo certificate of deposit":

Tip: If you cannot find anything with "jumbo certificate of deposit", increase your results by breaking down your phrase to "jumbo certificate".

In Google, search for:

"jumbo certificate" est

NOTE:
  • Quotation marks to find the exact phrase;
  • "est" is a common word typically found in most French-language texts;
  • This search finds a page in French containing your English term, possibly parallel texts or a bilingual glossary or at least a translation or explanation in French nearby.

For example an English/French bilingual glossary with definitions:


[...]
JUMBO CERTIFICATE OF DEPOSIT
Certificat de très grand dépôt

Certificat de dépôt à valeur faciale élevée dépassant le plus souvent les cent mille dollars lequel peut être émis à la décote, c'est-à-dire à un prix inférieur à la valeur faciale et sans paiement de coupons ou alors présenter une rémunération variable avec taux relevés à intervalles réguliers sur le marché monétaire. Habituellement, le rendement sera supérieur à celui des effets débiteurs du même ordre étant donné que la valeur nominale élevée ne peut offrir la garantie de remboursement fournie par le fond interbancaire de sauvegarde, lequel est limité à des montants de moindre importance
LENDING AT THE PREMIUM
[...]

Source: Entire page (web page)


Similarly, for Italian:

Example: Finding an Italian translation of the English "jumbo certificate":

"jumbo certificate" è "il"

NOTE: This search finds the English phrase "jumbo certificate" and the Italian words "è" and "il" anywhere on the same page (=> page with text in Italian).

 

For example an English/Italian bilingual glossary with definitions:


[...]

JUMBO CERTIFICATE
OF DEPOSIT
Certificato di deposito Jumbo

È un certificato di deposito avente un valore facciale molto alto, solitamente oltre i centomila dollari, il quale può essere emesso a sconto, cioè con un prezzo inferiore al valore facciale e senza pagamenti cedolari, oppure offrire una remunerazione variabile legata a tassi rilevati a scadenza periodica sul mercato monetario. Solitamente il rendimento è superiore a quello di strumenti di debito dello stesso genere, poiché il valore facciale elevato non può offrire la garanzia di rimborso data dal fondo interbancario di tutela, il quale è limitato ad ammontari d’importo inferiore.
[...]

Source: web page

Example: Finding an English translation of the German term "Ersatzurkunde":

Ersatzurkunde "the" "is"

This finds, for example, a translation nearby:


[...]

Conditions for Trading on the Baden-Württemberg Stock Exchange

[...]
3) The purchaser must notify the seller of any defects pursuant to paragraph (1) letter b), c) and d) no later than one month after delivery; otherwise, delivery is deemed to have been approved by the purchaser.

4) If replacement certificates are issued following a court decision with respect to lost securities barring any holder’s title (Ausschlussurteil), such replacement certificates constitute deliverable securities only if the issuer has endorsed each of them as a "Replacement Certificate" ("Ersatzurkunde"), such endorsement bearing a legally binding signature on behalf of the issuer.
[...]

Source: http://www2.boerse-stuttgart.de/pdf/eng/7usancen_englisch.pdf

Technique no. 1 produces different results from technique no. 4 as the presence of terms in, say, French (imagine a page with assembly instructions in 8 languages) does not necessarily mean that the search engine has classified the page as being a page in French. Consequently technique no. 1 generally yields more results than technique no. 4.

 

2. Search for your term along with a word that you are certain of in your target language

Example: Finding a French translation of the English term "jumbo certificate of deposit":

"jumbo certificate" certificat

NOTE:
  • "certificat" is a word that we would expect to find in the French translation of the term "jumbo certificate";
  • This search finds the English phrase "jumbo certificate" and the French word "certificat" anywhere on the same page: possibly parallel texts or a bilingual glossary or at least a translation or explanation in French nearby.

For example an English/French bilingual glossary with definitions:

[...]
JUMBO CERTIFICATE
OF DEPOSIT
Certificat de très grand dépôt

Certificat de dépôt à valeur faciale élevée dépassant le plus souvent les cent mille dollars lequel peut être émis à la décote, c'est-à-dire à un prix inférieur à la valeur faciale et sans paiement de coupons ou alors présenter une rémunération variable avec taux relevés à intervalles réguliers sur le marché monétaire. Habituellement, le rendement sera supérieur à celui des effets débiteurs du même ordre étant donné que la valeur nominale élevée ne peut offrir la garantie de remboursement fournie par le fond interbancaire de sauvegarde, lequel est limité à des montants de moindre importance
LENDING AT THE PREMIUM
[...]

Similarly, for Italian:

Example: Finding an Italian translation of the English "jumbo certificate":

"jumbo certificate" certificato

In Altavista you can use the letter wildcard (*) to increase your results:

jumbo certificate* AND (certificato OR certificati)

NOTE:
  • Parentheses ( ) around the terms to which the Boolean operator OR refers (this is called "nesting your search");
  • The letter wildcard (*) allows you to cover singular and plural at the same time;
  • Specify the singular and plural of the Italian words using OR instead of another wildcard as you wish to specify the exact Italian words in order to identify your target language (and a wildcard here would not achieve that: "certificat*" is not specific enough and would end up searching for texts in English, French etc. as well).

Again in Altavista:

Example: Finding an English translation of the German "steuerpflichtig":

steuerpflichtig* AND tax

The letter wildcard allows you to cover "steuerpflichtig", "steuerpflichtige", "steuerpflichtiger", "steuerpflichtigen" etc.

This finds for example the following German/English bilingual tax glossary:

[...]
Tax Haven
Steueroase.
to shift income/assets to a tax haven: Einkünfte/Vermögensgegenstände in eine Steueroase verlagern
[...]
Taxpayer
Steuerpflichtiger
[...]

Source: http://www.pinkernell.de/glossary.htm

With this particular technique, searches involving target language German (or, for that matter, any language that joins words together) can sometimes be more difficult, depending on the part of the word that you are looking for:

Example: Finding a German translation of the English "jumbo certificate":

Problem: If you search for "zertifikat", although you might find "Jumbo-zertifikat" (considered two separate words because of the hyphen), you will NOT find for example "Jumbozertifikat" (providing the term existed in German).

Although in Altavista you can use the letter wildcard to search for "Jumbo*" [*=0-... additional characters] - of little use in this particular example as it is the first part of the word that we are looking for - you CANNOT search for "*zertificat" as you can only use "*" after at least 3 characters.

In this particular case your best option is technique no. 1.

 

You can narrow your search even further by determining the exact sequence of your terms:

Example: Finding an English translation of the German "Anlageerfolg":

"anlageerfolg investment"

NOTE:
  • "Anlage" is probably translated as "investment": it is "erfolg" that we are looking for;
  • The search engine ignores symbols and punctuation in its searches, which is why in the case of "anlageerfolg = investment ..." (as in a bilingual glossary), the two terms appear to the search engine as the phrase "anlageerfolg investment ...", without the symbol;
  • This search is likely to find a bilingual glossary or a translation/explanation nearby.

For example:

[...]
4.4.2. Vergleich Aktienindizes-Investmentfonds
Investmentgesellschaften vergleichen in Rechenschaftsberichten den Anlageerfolg (Investment-Performence) ihrer Fonds mit der Entwicklung eines Aktienindex. Für einen Vergleich sind nur solche Indizes geeignet, die für den Markt, auf dem der Fonds tätig ist, repräsentativ sind (siehe Abb. 6). Ein Vergleich eines auf Chemiewerte spezialisierten Fonds sollte also mit einem Chemie-Branchenindex, wie dem CDAX-Chemie, erfolgen.
[...]

Source: http://www.fmi.uni-passau.de/~zimmerth/aktienindizes/kapitel4.html

NOTE: The search engine has ignored the parenthesis.

Or else try the other way round:

"investment * anlageerfolg"

NOTE:
  • Here the * is a word wildcard and stands for ONE word. In this case we expect one word only in between; For two words, use: * * (with a space on either side of each *). Always use the word wildcard in between words, placing a space on either side of each asterisk.
  • This search finds the exact sequence of words with any ONE word in the place of the asterisk, again: this is likely to find a bilingual glossary or a translation/explanation nearby.

The word wildcard also works in Altavista (with one * or more). In Altavista's Advanced Search you do not need the quotation marks to search for a phrase. But do use all lower-case letters in your search to obtain maximum results as AV is case sensitive.

 

In Altavista you could also try the Boolean operator NEAR:

anlageerfolg NEAR investment

NOTE: "NEAR" narrows your search, finding the terms within about 8 words of one another.

 

3. Search for a bilingual glossary or parallel texts on the same page

Search for your term along with the names of your source language and target language in various languages. An OR should be placed between the variants in the various languages.

NOTE: Remember that Google imposes a limit of 10 words in its searches. If you overstep this limit, the words at the end of your search string will be ignored.

Example: Finding an English translation of the Italian "raccomandata A.R.":

"raccomandata A.R." italiano OR italian OR italienisch OR italien inglese OR english OR englisch OR anglais
[languages expressed in It, En, De, Fr]

"raccomandata A.R." italian OR italiano OR italienisch english OR inglese OR englisch OR inglés
[languages expressed in En, It, De, Es]

NOTE:
  • This search finds the term "raccomandata A.R." along with any of the four versions of the word "French" and any version of the word "English" and is likely to find a bilingual or multilingual list of terminology or perhaps parallel texts on the same page (e.g. a multilingual product catalogue, instructions etc.);
  • No OR between last term for Italian and first term for English: here an AND is implied;
  • Express your source and target languages in 2 to 4 related languages (i.e. in languages that are geographically/culturally very close). Since Google's limit is 10 words, with 4x2=8 words identifying the languages, that leaves you with 2 words: the maximum permissible length of your search term in this example is 2 words.

This finds for example the following Italian/English/French multilingual postal glossary:

[...]
RACCOMANDATA A.R. – CON AVVISO DI RICEVIMENTO  (Registered letter with a return receipt)
Italiano English Français
Destinatario Addressee Destinataire 
Mittente Sender Destinateur / expéditeur
Da restituire a To return to Retourner à
Da compilare a cura del mittente To be filled in by sender A remplir pas l’expéditeur
[...]      

Source: Entire page (web page)

This type of search can sometimes find parallel texts on different pages, whereby the words referring to the different languages (italian, italiano etc.) are the text of hyperlinks pointing to the same page in a different language.

 

4. Search for your term on a page in your target language

In Google, click on Language Tools and select your target language. Now search for your source language term. Remember to enclose phrases in quotation marks.

This search yields similar results to those of technique no. 1.

 

5. Search for your term on a page in a target-language-speaking country

If you find a French term, say, on a website in, say, the United Kingdom, you may well find an English translation of your term somewhere, either on the same page or on a different page.

If the URL contains a language code, modify it to obtain the page in your target language if available. Alternatively, use the site's search engine, if available, to locate the required page by searching for codes, people's names or other elements that are bound to remain the same in the other language.

In Google, click on Language Tools and select a target-language-speaking country. Now search for your source language term. Remember to enclose phrases in quotation marks.

Google is currently the best search engine for this type of search: By restricting your search to, say, Germany, you will find not only websites with the .de domain, but also .com, .org, .net, .gov etc. websites residing on servers in Germany.

How does that work? Google's country filter narrows down your search based on the IP addresses of the servers hosting the web pages (IP address=numeric address: each region is assigned a specific range of numbers), regardless of the websites' domain names.

 

*****************************************

 

Try these techniques for yourselves:

Translation required Techniques (using Google)
De>En Vermögensverwaltungsauftrag Vermögensverwaltungsauftrag deutsch OR german englisch OR english
Finds http://www.ubs.com/g/pb/solutions/port_mgmt.html with a language link. Click on "English" to find "portfolio management mandate" on a separate page.
En>De bull market "bull market" deutsch OR german englisch OR english
It>En cacciavite a stella "cacciavite a stella" screwdriver
It>En tredicesima tredicesima salary
It>En raccomandata A.R. "raccomandata a.r." registered
"raccomandata ar" registered
En>It battery earth lead "battery earth lead" batteria del OR della

 

Glossary

glossary List of specialised terms and their definitions.
bilingual glossary List of specialised terms and their definitions along with their translations in another language. Sometimes, however, you may find only the translations, without the definitions.
parallel texts Entire pages, paragraphs, sentences, phrases or individual words present in two or more languages, with one being the translation of the other.
source language The language of the term that you need to translate.
target language The language into which you need to translate your term.
term Word or phrase.
phrase Exact sequence of words as opposed to the words anywhere on the page.
case sensitive A search engine that is "case sensitive" will search for your term exactly the way you have written it, taking notice of any capital letters. To search for ALL combinations of upper and lower case (thus increasing your results), always write your search term in lower-case letters. (Google is not case sensitive, Altavista is.)
letter wildcard A symbol that replaces any letters (e.g. *). To be used when you are not sure of the ending of a word or would like to cover more than one ending. Attach directly to the end of the word without spaces.
word wildcard A symbol that replaces an entire word (e.g. *, * *, * * * etc.). To be used when you are not certain of one, two, three etc. words in the middle of a phrase. Enter a space on either side of the word wildcard.
URL The internet address of a web page (http://...). Stands for Universal Resource Locator.

 

These tricks are located at: www.multilingual.ch
under WWW Search Interfaces for Translators/Tricks

 

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