Speaking and writing Italian - a turning point

Somebody who lives in Italy recently complimented me on my good Italian (as seen in my emails). They didn't realise what a cheat I am. Well, perhaps not a cheat but I do have help. There are two absolutely vital websites that I rely on:

Firstly there is Free Translation. Type in a few words or a few hundred in one language, click a button and out it pops in another. Now let's be honest that, although it pops out in another language, it doesn't exactly come out in, say, perfect Italian. The grammar can be odd, it doesn't always handle colloquial expressions and it's not good at distinguishing synonyms or verbs from nouns so you need to understand enough of the target language to read it through and make corrections. But what it is good for is to make a quick, "gisted" translation as a basis for doing a final version. And, of course, the final version is still not going to be perfect but should, with a bit of effort, be enough to get your meaning across. And it also works the other way so you can at least get the idea of what somebody is saying. Here for example is an email from my geometra that I've just put through FT:


I send you the drawing of the local the washing machine we can put it in the bath, because the local boiler has been better that has the outside door.

Not perfect - but you do get what he's trying to say.

And I've just realised that I've taken a step forward in my use of the language without even being aware of it. Because I no longer write things out in English and put them through Free Translation. I now write in Italian then put it through the translator to check it. And that really is a big step, I think. What this process also does is act as a spell checker because what you get bundled into Office etc. is only English and Spanish.

An alternative to Free Translation is Google Translate which often seems to make a translation into English that sounds better and more fluent than FT does. Anyway, try them out and see which you prefer.

And both of these let you translate web pages too, just by entering the URL.

The second one is Word Reference which is an online dictionary - and much more. As well as word definitions it has heaps of expressions and you can put in a phrase ("in my opinion" for example) and get the correct colloquial Italian rendition(s). And if that isn't enough there are also forums for discussions on more complex points. You can also install the dictionary on your toolbar so the answer is always just a click away. If you are interested in other languages there are also dictionaries for French and Spanish with Portuguese promised soon.

One more thing: these sites are free! Wordreference is the work of an American called Mike Kellogg and financed by (non-intrusive) advertising. Freetranslation also offers a paid for platinum online tool as well as human translation. I've never needed the latter but do subscribe to the platinum service which doesn't cost much ($9.95 a year or about £5) and is worthwhile if you deal with large volumes of text - the free version has a word limit and I was dealing with some lengthy Spanish contracts at the time (I'm not sure if Google translate has any word limit). It also has options like formal or informal language that Google doesn't seem to have.