Human Translation online

11/26/2021

The seventy-one-million-dollar word
In 1980, 18-year-old Willie Ramirez was admitted to a Florida hospital in a comatose state. His friends and family tried to describe his condition to the paramedics and doctors who treated him, but they only spoke Spanish. Translation was provided by a bilingual staff member who translated "intoxicado" as "intoxicated." A professional interpreter would have known that "intoxicado" is closer to "poisoned" and doesn't carry the same connotations of drug or alcohol use that "intoxicated" does. Ramirez's family believed he was suffering from food poisoning. He was actually suffering from an intracerebral hemorrhage, but the doctors proceeded as if he were suffering from an intentional drug overdose, which can lead to some of the symptoms he displayed. Because of the delay in treatment, Ramirez was left quadriplegic. He received a malpractice settlement of $71 million.

08/07/2020

How do you say in French: I could do it "with my eyes closed":

Je pourrais le faire "les doigts dans le nez" = "fingers in the nose"
The French don't do simple things with their eyes closed, they do it with their fingers in their nose.

01/16/2018

A "Faux ami" French expression in English: "Au naturel" =
"n**e" in English.
With a different meaning in French : literally, in a natural manner or way (au is the contraction of à le, masculine form of à la). It means "in an unaltered way" and can be used either for people or things. For people, it rather refers to a person who does not use make-up or artificial manners (un entretien au naturel = a backstage interview). For things, it means that they have not been altered. Often used in cooking, like thon au naturel: canned tuna without any spices or oil. Also in heraldry, meaning "in natural colours," especially flesh colour, which is not one of the "standard" colours of heraldry.

12/24/2017

French expressions in English:

je ne sais quoi
lit. "I-don't-know-what": an indescribable or indefinable 'something' that distinguishes the object in question from others that are superficially similar.

02/06/2016

Agréable
(F) means pleasant or nice when describing a thing, such as the weather or situation. It's not used to describe people other than in the construction être agréable de sa personne - to be pleasant-looking/personable.

Agreeable
(E) does not normally mean agréable, but rather "in agreement," which doesn't have an exact equivalent in French. I'm agreeable to doing it - Je le ferai volontiers.

11/28/2015

Location means rental. This can cause confusion because you often see advertisements describing “Les meilleures locations de vacances,” which looks as if it is saying “the best vacation locations.” It actually specifically means “the best holiday rentals,” so it’s all about accommodation for rent as opposed to places to visit.

11/24/2015

False friends (faux amis) English/French :
Journey / Journée
This is a very common false friend. Une journée is a day, so if somebody wishes you “bonne journée,” they are saying “have a nice day.” It doesn’t mean they think you’re going off on a journey.

10/21/2015

WHAT'S THAT ON MOSES'S HEAD?

St. Jerome, the patron saint of translators, studied Hebrew so he could translate the Old Testament into Latin from the original, instead of from the third century Greek version that everyone else had used. The resulting Latin version, which became the basis for hundreds of subsequent translations, contained a famous mistake. When Moses comes down from Mount Sinai his head has "radiance" or, in Hebrew, "karan." But Hebrew is written without the vowels, and St. Jerome had read "karan" as "keren," or "horned." From this error came centuries of paintings and sculptures of Moses with horns and the odd offensive stereotype of the horned Jew.

10/20/2015

The most important translation tips are as follows:

Translate meaning not words!
Rely on your wits and savvy - it can prove to be helpful when translating a difficult text
Ask a specialist or a native speaker to proofread your translation so that it sounds natural
Never accept a project which you know is not within your abilities
Skills and translation expertise come with time - remember it!
Language nuances do matter when making a professional translation
A good translation is worth taking time for!
The way documents are organized in one country may not be understood in another
Emulate the original style of the author, be it humorous, wordy, with colloquial or scientific language, etc.

Source: http://www.all-translations.com/translation-tips.html

We provide useful translation tips for oral and written translations. Our translation tips will help you to translate in tricky situations.

03/03/2015

A greater free online translation tool... I strongly recommend it :

https://www.matecat.com/

Matecat is a free, web-based open source software that gives you more matches than any other CAT tool. Use it now!

02/08/2015

A great tool for translators for free:
OmegaT : http://www.omegat.org/en/omegat.html

I strongly recommend it



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OmegaT

OmegaT is a free translation memory application written in Java. It is a tool intended for professional translators. It does not translate for you! (Software that does this is called "machine translation", and you will have to look elsewhere for it.) OmegaT has the following features: