Search Engine Tricks for Finding Translations on the Internet

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

By Tanya Harvey Ciampi, www.multilingual.ch, 6673 Maggia, Switzerland

Search for your term along with common words that identify your target language
Search for your term along with a word that you are certain of in your target language
Search for a bilingual glossary or parallel texts on the same page
Search for your term on a page in your target language
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 (ZHAW): Department of Applied Linguistics - 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 terms but it is ultimately up to you, the translator, to assess the quality and reliability of the information found (http://www.virtualchase.com/articles/archive/assess_quality.html).
NOTE:	These searches are to be performed in Google (Google search syntax is shown). Alternatively, you could run these searches in Google Books to search for your term in online versions of printed dictionaries and other books.

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
and	und	di	le	los	os	med	för
are	die	del	la	las	do	fra	att
of	das	che	de	que	que	en	som
with	dem	un	un	y	não	...	på
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
	oder	nella	pour
	...	...	...

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 adding a plus sign in front (and/or enclosing them individually in quotation marks). Examples: keyword +"the" +"is" / keyword +der +ist. (Stop words: www.searchengineworld.com/spy/stopwords.htm)

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 a German translation of the English term "incremental backup":

+die +ist "incremental backup" [search performed in Google Books]

This finds, for example, a translation nearby:

[...]
Eine der ältesten und immer noch sehr häufig eingesetzten Methoden ist, von Zeit zu Zeit die Datenbankplatten zu kopieren (Backup).
[...]
Man spricht deshalb auch von inkrementellem Backup (incremental backup)
[...]

Source:http://books.google.ch/books?id=aCq6qS8qyjsC&pg=PA272&dq=%2Bdas+%2Bist+Incremental+Backup&hl=de&ei=SMq-TK2HCInrObqfrS4&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CE4Q6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=%2Bdas%20%2Bist%20Incremental%20Backup&f=false

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

NOTE: When entering additional keywords that you believe to be in the translation, be careful not to make assumptions that might not be right.

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

You can increase your results by including the plural as well:

“jumbo certificate” OR “jumbo certificates” certificato OR certificati

NOTE:

Use quotation marks for phrases.
Specify the singular and plural of the Italian words as well as the English terms using OR.

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

steuerpflichtig tax

Or, including different variants with OR:

steuerpflichtig OR steuerpflichtiger OR steuerpflichtige OR steuerpflichtigen tax

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).

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.

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 may sometimes impose a limit on the number of 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 (DE: Sprachtools, FR: Outils linguistiques, IT: Strumenti per le lingue) 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)
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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