Last February, I wrote a blog entry about Linguee, a unique translation database that stores several terminology records from a variety of government, not-for-profit, and promotional texts. Late last year, the staff of Linguee’s English-language department added six new languages to the existing language combinations: Russian, Dutch, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, and Polish. Just recently, I discovered that this same department added other Slavic, Mediterranean, and Scandinavian languages, including, but not limited to, Danish, Swedish, Greek, and Estonian. For a full list of the language combinations from and into English, visit Linguee’s website; click on the drop menu next to the desired language pair(s).

While I was on Twitter last night, I briefly glanced at Linguee’s French-language feed and discovered that over 200 language combinations have been added to the database’s website since the beginning of this month. Sure enough, it is now possible to find terminology records and contextual translations from and into French, Spanish, German, and Portuguese. Bonne nouvelle pour les langagiers francophones, et aussi pour les langagiers hispanophones, germanophones et lusophones!

Pour ceux qui travaillent en français, vous aurez maintenant la possibilité d’effectuer vos recherches terminologiques depuis ou vers le français à partir des langues suivantes : italien, néerlandais, polonais, suédois, grec, tchèque, roumain, pour ne nommer que celles-ci. Ces langues n’étaient autrefois disponible qu’à partir de ou vers l’anglais. Le site français de Linguee répertorie d’autres combinaisons linguistiques ici.

Es también posible buscar términos hacia o desde el español hacia otras lenguas aquí; é também possível para ou até português aqui. Sprechen Sie Deutsch? You can access all the new language combinations from and into German right here!

Of all the tools I use to translate texts, I particularly like Linguee because of its contextual translations. In other words, you see how terms, expressions, and isolated words are translated within the context of an excerpt. This site, like many others, has its drawbacks. One of them is that you’re not always guaranteed an accurate translation. Although the majority of excerpts hail from credible sources, some of them may be computer-generated translations, i.e. the texts might have been translated using Google. Be sure to evaluate the translation’s quality before selecting it for your text!

In a recent online article, Laurent Laget, an English & Italian into French translator, pointed out that a small number of languages, such as Italian, “est moins exposé. Le nombre de résultats pour une recherche est donc souvent plus faible, mais aussi de meilleure qualité […]” [1] In other words, your terminology research may yield more or fewer translation results depending on your translating or translated language. This is good news for professionals who do not use English in their every day work—and who prefer quality translations rather than quantity of results.

Have fun with Linguee’s new combinations! Feel free to let the staff know if you see any terminological or translation errors, or if you would like to add translations to its database.

[1] “Italian is not as exposed. Research results are lesser in quantity, but are of better quality.” (my free translation) Laurent Laget, « Un traducteur contextuel complémentaire des outils lexicaux » sur le site web Comment ça marche, http://www.commentcamarche.net/news/5864229-un-traducteur-contextuel-complementaire-des-outils-lexicaux, accessed 29 March 2014.