I tend to have an online language dictionary open on my desktop at all times. I refer to it while reading or chatting or writing in french. While there is no perfect mechanical translator, I have found some useful resources that have different features.
This is what I’m hoping to avoid:
One that I use a lot is http://www.wordreference.com/. It won’t translate passages or phrases, but still I think it’s very good. One feature I love about it is the conjugator. You type in your verb, and there at the top of the page you can click “conjugator” and get every form of the verb with subject and tense. They also have model verbs for the different types of endings, and irregular cases. I also enjoy the forums. Learners and native speakers can post questions and opinions about use of words in various settings. These are the languages included on wordreference.com: spanish, french, italian, german, portuguese, russian, polish, romanian, czech, greek, turkish, chinese, japanese and korean, with arabic coming soon. Spanish, french and italian are the most used and thorough dictionaries on the site.
Another one I have open a lot is http://www.reverso.net/ “Reverso.net, the free online translation service in French, Spanish, German, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, Chinese” Reverso will translate whole passages at once, and I really like the little flag buttons with arrows to indicate which languages you are translating between and which direction you are going. Unfortunately, it suffers the same problem as most online translators attempting more than one word translations. It isn’t always right. However, it is usually a good way to get the idea of what something says.
The best translations come from people who understand the cultures and societies of both languages, as well as the context, but these people are hard to come by! I sometimes dream of becoming one someday, but I’m not sure I’ll make it. I am enjoying the journey, though.
I’ll keep adding to this list, and if you have one that you really like – maybe it translates a less common language, for example – please post it in the comments and I’ll add it to the list.
