Thursday 29 March 2012

Translating Dutch into English



Hidden behind the 'table of contents' - button at the top of this blog, you may find my recommendation to use Google Translate, in case you wish to translate one of the posts written in Dutch.  But of course there are more translation tools. One of them is the Bing Translator. It is likely that readers using the translation facilities, will be better judges of the quality of both translation products than I am. Therefore, I selected a fragment of an earlier post about the city of Dordrecht and had these translated by both tools. The result is shown below.

Google Translate
Bing Translator
A visit to one of the oldest cities in Holland, Dordrecht (1220), stood for a long time on the program. Is also a well-known city, because it is one of the first stack of places in Holland and certainly also because of the Synod of Dort (1618-1619) which we translated into Dutch Bible owe, called the KJV. In addition, the User murdered in 1672. De Witt was born there. In those times is the basis for the old town as it can still be admired. However, my reason to go to Dordrecht, was widely advertised given that on the first Sunday of the month many antique shops in the old Dordt have opened their doors. A good number would be sorted in Leerdam Glass. Well, my interest piqued. So yesterday, a somewhat drizzly gray day, with H & R raised to Dordt. The car parked in Zwijndrecht and the OV-kaart/Watertaxi the Old Meuse-crossed. Our first stop, the big church, you see beautiful lie.
A visit to one of the oldest Dutch cities, Dordrecht (1220), has long stood on the program. Also a well known city, because it is one of the first stack places in Holland was and certainly also because of the Synod of dort (1618/19) which we owe in the Dutch translated Bible translation, the so-called States. In addition, the murdered in 1672 gebr. De Witt born there. In those times is the basis for the old city centre as it is to admire even now. However, my reason for going to Dordt, it was widely advertised on every first Sunday of the month given that many antique shops have opened their doors in the old Dordt. Some would be good sorted in Leerdam glas. Well, then my interest. So yesterday, a dreary gray day, what with H & R to Dordt raised there. Parked the car in Zwijndrecht and the OV-card/Water taxi on the Oude Maas-stung. Our first stop, the big Church, you see then beautiful lie.

As far as I can see neither is perfect, to say the least. It comes close to improved pidgin English but it is certainly better than nothing. The choice is yours. It is good to know that both Google and Bing can produce a translation based on any given URL. For this blog you should then use the permalink available at the bottom of each post.

The Translate picture comes from Zdnet.nl.

4 comments:

  1. Peter, I have always wondered how accurate the translation was. Thanks for letting us English speaking folks know.

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  2. Thank you Brenda, as I said 'behind the button', you get the gist but that is about it. For sworn translations you have to go elsewhere ;-)

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  3. Goede post. Ik ga hem morgen linken in Follow Friday :)

    Het lezen en begrijpen van Engels is voor mij niet moeilijk, een hele blog in het Engels schrijven is echter wat anders.

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  4. Dank je Olga, je ziet wat er zou gebeuren als je een Nederlandse tekst in het Engels, en ik denk ook in alle andere talen, zou vertalen met behulp van deze vertaalmachines. Geen buitenlander die ons meer zou begrijpen... Maar daar hebben ze misschien toch al moeite mee :-)

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