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Which translations programs to you all recommend?
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Thread poster: xxxrenate123

Which translations programs to you all recommend?

xxxrenate123
United States
German to English

Oct 5, 2004

I'm new to translating. Am fluent in english and german and would love to start translating.

Which proggies are mandatory to be competitive? Is Trados still the one to get? Which is expensive. How about WordFast, or Sytrans (the pro version).. what's a good start.

Thanks for your help
Renate

Graciela Carlyle

United Kingdom
Local time: 00:59
English to Spanish
+ ...

do not get mixed up :)

Oct 5, 2004

renate123 wrote:
How about WordFast, or Sytrans (the pro version).. what's a good start.

Firstly, I have the impression you're confussing Computer Aided Translation (CAT) with Machine Translation (MT).
- Wordfast, Trados, Deja Vu, Fusion...are CAT, they store in a memory, what YOU translate, so that when you come across a similar phrase, it suggests it as a match.
- Systran, Power Translator, ProMT...are MT, they have their own dictionaries and grammar rules set up and they translate automatically for you (mind the quality! it's harder to fix a bad MT -which is more often than not the case - than to use your brain and do it from scratch).

This said, I use Wordfast and am more than happy with it.
Have a look here and you'll get a good view of what it is about:

http://www.wordfast.net

http://www.your-translations.com/translation-tools-for-translators/computer-aided-translation/cat-wordfast.htm

HTH,
Grace.

xxxMarc P

Germany
Local time: 01:59
German to English
+ ...

Which translations programs to you all recommend?

Oct 5, 2004

renate123 wrote:

I'm new to translating.

Pustekuchen. According to your profile, you already have quite a lot of experience!

As for proggies:

DO NOT BUY OmegaT.

Download it for free like the rest of us from www.omegat.org. It will give you an idea of what translation memory is all about, and if you subsequently decide to fork out your hard-earned cash for one of the commercial products with all the bells and whistles, you'll have a better idea of what to look for.

Schöne Grüße aus dem Rheinland,

Marc

Kathinka van de Griendt

South Africa
Local time: 02:59

Member (2004)
German to English
+ ...

Why more?

Oct 5, 2004

You have Deja Vu, why would you want to burden yourself with more? You can work with Trados using Deja Vu, too. Happy translating and best wishes from way up north!!

Jeff Allen

France
Local time: 01:59

Member (2011)
English to Haitian-Creole
+ ...

MT is part of CAT & MT postediting is worthwhile

Dec 11, 2004

Graciela Carlyle wrote:
Firstly, I have the impression you're confussing Computer Aided Translation (CAT) with Machine Translation (MT).
- Wordfast, Trados, Deja Vu, Fusion...are CAT, ....
- Systran, Power Translator, ProMT...are MT, ...

Machine Translation software and systems are also part of what are referred to as Computer-Aided Translation (CAT) tools. This has been explained in detail, to translator audiences, previously in:

Definition of CAT
http://www.proz.com/post/184880#184880

TM vs. MT
http://www.proz.com/post/174713#174713
NOTE: links to additional articles and threads (including several on the LANTRA-List) which cover this topic are available in this Proz post.

Examples in commercial systems
http://www.pairlist.net/pipermail/mt-list/2003/000256.html

Graciela Carlyle wrote:
- Wordfast, Trados, Deja Vu, Fusion...are CAT, they store in a memory, what YOU translate, so that when you come across a similar phrase, it suggests it as a match.
- Systran, Power Translator, ProMT...are MT, they have their own dictionaries and grammar rules set up and they translate automatically for you .

TM tools are derived from one of several types of MT systems, referred to as Example-based MT (EBMT).
The history of and reasons why the translator community rapidly embraced TM tools as a translator-friendly and translator-focused tool was explained in the tutorial "Mastering Machine Translation Output" http://www.amtaweb.org/AMTA2004/tutorial.html#mtoutput

Graciela Carlyle wrote:
...are MT, they have their own dictionaries and grammar rules set up and they translate automatically for you (mind the quality! it's harder to fix a bad MT -which is more often than not the case - than to use your brain and do it from scratch).

There are now several concrete cases in which MT postediting is faster than translating from scratch:

Read the following:

* MT postediting rates and speed
http://www.proz.com/post/189722#189722

* Machine Translation: yes used for professional translation work
http://www.proz.com/post/177427#177427

* does MT already repeat the same way of translating?
http://www.proz.com/post/181287#181287

* GUERRA, Lorena. 2003. Human Translation versus Machine Translation and Full Post-Editing of Raw Machine Translation Output. Master's Thesis. Dublin City University.
http://www.geocities.com/mtpostediting/lorena-guerra-masters.pdf

* Also articles in section "Machine Translation (MT) Postediting publications and presentations by other authors" at:
http://www.geocities.com/mtpostediting/

Jeff
http://www.geocities.com/jeffallenpubs/
http://www.geocities.com/mtpostediting/

[Edited at 2004-12-13 00:01]