 | This howto has been exported to the article knowledgebase. Click here to see the latest version of this article How to find a translation for the name of a plant, animal etc in Google Author: Maria Eugenia Farre Last modified 2003-03-13 12:52:21 | Ever had to translate Turk duck or raspberry into your language? Many of these words are hard to find in bilingual dictionaries, but with Google you can find a good number of them. Read on. |
(Incomplete version)
This is the quickest way I know.
1. Go to Google or use the Google Toolbar.
2. On the search box enter the term you are searching for (preferably between quotation marks) and the expression "scientific name" (in the source language of the term) between quotation marks.
For example:
If you are translating Galapagos Fur Seal into Portuguese enter
"Galapagos Fur Seal" "scientific name". (no need to add the boolean operator AND if you're searching on Google)
or
If you are translating morera negra from Spanish enter "nombre cientifico".
3. Click on Search. The very first results will show you that the scientific name for Galapagos Fur Seal is Arctocephalus galapagoensis and that the scientific name for Morera negra is Morus nigra. Click on a couple of results to check and don't forget to gauge the reliability of the source. (more on that on a coming Howto).
4. Go to the search box again and enter the scientific name and a domain delimiter for example site:.br or (Brazil) .pl (Poland). For added reliability you can try the university domain restriction, for example usp.br or unicamp.br, or if you're working into English, .edu
If you use this technique your search box will look something like this
arctocephalus galapagoensis site:.br
or
arctocephalus galapagoensis site:usp.br OR site:.unicamp.br (to restrict the search to two of the top Brazilian universities
or for the second example
morus nigra site:es
OR
morus nigra site:.cl or
morus nigra site:.ar or
morus nigra site:ve
(if you want to know how morus nigra is called only in Chile, Argentina or Venezuela).
OR
morus nigra site:.us
(to restrict the search to US government sites)
5. Click on Search.
6. You will find that the transalation of arctocephalus galapagoensis is leo-marinho das Galpagos and that morus nigra is black mulbery in the US.
Note 1: If it's a really tricky term with variations in common name and scientific name or inconclusive results are obtained on Google, it may be necessary to make a verification search on either Google Images or AlltheWeb images to make sure that the animals look the same. Sometimes that is the only way to verify the correct translation is being used.
Note 2:
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