# Language translation websites

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-translation-websites/190593>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [July 24, 2003, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-translation-websites/190593 "2003-07-24T12:36:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Elvis_Rojo)\
**Post date:** [July 24, 2003, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-translation-websites/190593/1 "2003-07-24T12:36:38Z")

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I know there’s at least one website out there where you can type in a word or phrase in English, and it will translate it into (rather rough) Spanish for you. I was wondering if anyone knew of any websites similar to this that work for other languages, such as Russian, German, French, etc…

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**Author:** ![October](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@October](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/October)\
**Post date:** [July 24, 2003, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-translation-websites/190593/2 "2003-07-24T13:02:21Z")

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Yeah, I think you can find them through Google. I’ve used a German one from time to time. But they generally are very literal, translating each word without taking grammar or syntax or different word order into consideration. Often the translations don’t make much sense.

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**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\
**Post date:** [July 24, 2003, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-translation-websites/190593/3 "2003-07-24T13:04:53Z")

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Try [Babelfish](http://babelfish.altavista.com/).

Don’t expect anything more than just a rough translation to get the general idea of what the text reads, though.

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**Author:** ![karomon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@karomon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/karomon)\
**Post date:** [July 24, 2003, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-translation-websites/190593/4 "2003-07-24T14:13:09Z")

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This one’s for Polish.  
[http://www.poltran.com/](http://www.poltran.com/)

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**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\
**Post date:** [July 24, 2003, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-translation-websites/190593/5 "2003-07-24T14:34:34Z")

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Whenever I’m with language teachers these days, they tell bitterly comical stories about students who attempted to submit obvious Babelfish jobs as their own work. Mechanical “translators” make such marvellously funny howlers that nobody who wasn’t also fighting off coma and improvising a minuet at the piano could possibly mistake them for real.