Is there something like a translating database for strings?

Question

I am in search for a database with translations so I can have comonly used phrases and words translated by a machine and not by an expensive translator. Is there such a thing as a translation database with words and often used phrases?

If you don't know any would you use such a service?

edit: the database should only be monitored by people and not some automatic translater since they tend to be VERY bad

Answer 1

http://www.google.com/language_tools

Answer 2

edit: the database should only be monitored by people and not some automatic translater since they tend to be VERY bad

I don't think this is enough. If you're going to translate single words, you need to have some idea of the context in which the word will be used.

For instance, consider the english word "row"

Does this mean 1. A line of things 2. An argument 3. To move a boat with oars 4. An uproar 5. Several things in succession ("they won four years in a row")

These are likely to have very different translations.

So instead, it might well be worth keeping a multi-language glossary, where you record the definition of a term and its translation in all the languages you care about, but I think you'll need a professional translator to get the translations right, and the "lookup" will always need to be manual.

Answer 3

So what you want is a database phrase book? What do you want that for? You can't use a phrase book to translate books or software etc. You can't use machine translation either, even though it can be a useful tool to start with. You have to use human translators wich know the source and target-language well, preferrably a bi-lingual person.

The only thing a phrase book is good for is asking directions; and not understand the answer... ;)

Answer 4

Check: open-tran.eu. It is a database of translations taken from various open source projects.