Translation German To English

When you need a translation from German to English, there are many resources on the Internet. The most common way is to use a language dictionary or an application for your web browser. Most are freelance writers looking for work, while others are professional translators ready to translate German to English or vice-versa.

Begin with a simple search online. If you only need one or two words, there are a plethora of free online English to German translation dictionaries available such as dict.leo.org. Most of the time you can just type in one or two words, but some translation sites allow you to put in a whole sentence or paragraph to be translated. This comes with a word of caution, because these sites mostly just translate the entire selection word for word. However, a good translation is never the exact same as the original language. Words mean different things and sentence construction is completely backwards, especially in German where the verb of the sentence is sometimes unknown until the very end. This results in broken sentences and such poor grammar that it becomes completely unintelligible and loses the original idea. If you do have larger selection of writing to translate, it should be done by a translator.

Before deciding if you will enlist the aid of a translator, there are a lot of new programs and applications that translate English to German and German to English. For example, the Mozilla Firefox web browser has several add-ons that can accomplish this. Translation in this instance means only right clicking on a foreign word and selecting the translator. However, the same problem exists here as the German to English translation dictionaries. Words mean different things in different languages, so use caution. Smart phones and the new ipad and iphone have many apps and tools that you can use for English to German translations as well. This way you don’t need to be near a computer to translate the material.

If you do need a more complicated or lengthier translation, you should look to hiring a translator. This can be done in a few different ways:
1) Put up a posting on a freelance website such as E-Lance, Textbroker, or one of any number of writing websites.
2) Put up a similar posting on a help wanted website or site such as craigslist.com. In these two options it’s a good idea to specify that you need a high quality translation. Many help wanted websites or freelance sites have ratings systems and qualification requirements. Take advantage of this.
3) Hire a German to English translation firm. There are several available if you search the web for ‘translate German to English’. They will certainly cost more but if you require a higher quality effort, this is by far the best option. Professional firms also provide English to German translation.