Top 5 free translation tools
Although Vocre is actually a mobile app (only on iOS for now), it’s so useful that we couldn’t resist giving it the top spot on our list. Using Vocre, two people who don’t understand each other’s language can communicate simply and on the go by speaking their respective language directly into the phone. It works fantastically from English to most offered languages. Definitely a vital tool for those who love to travel!
Google’s famous translation tool gives the best machine translation on the web and works in most languages. It also has a listening function and gives the user the ability to choose between other translation possibilities or synonyms if the translation doesn’t seem right. For a bit of fun: Choose English to Norwegian and write “Albus Dumbledore” and you will see a hilarious (but correct) transdfadlation of the grand-daddy wizard character from the Harry Potter series.
Bing Translator is a good translation program, but still lags in terms of updated algorithms, which means that sometimes you get very strange translations. + Automatic recognition of language. – Awkward translations. Ex: Select Swedish to English and input “lagom”, which means “just right”.
Once upon a time, Babylon was our favourite, but now Google and Bing have pulled into the lead. + A neat function is that they have incorporated professional translation into their services (which, sadly, are more expensive than using our translation services). – Babylon has become cluttered and full of ads and the like. Fail: Select Swedish to English and input “påskhare”, which means “Easter bunny”.
Dictionary.com translates better than one would expect, but limits the number of characters to 140 in the free version. On top of that, with the page being full of ads, it ranks at #5 but no higher. + There is a list of common phrases you can translate at the bottom of the page. – Cluttered site and the 140 character limitation.