Finding translation examples
Thread poster: polinakorneeva
polinakorneeva
polinakorneeva
Russian Federation
Apr 26, 2021

Hello everyone, I’m translating a comic and while I understand it, I have difficulties with the translation of some metaphors, slang and idioms. To get some ideas, I started to search for databases and websites with parallel translations and I came across a website called ‘Open parallel corpus’ (opus.nlpl.eu). I downloaded some texts in a .tmx format there, but couldn’t open them because they’re 4GB large. I’m not a professional translator, so I need advice on whether this open paral... See more
Hello everyone, I’m translating a comic and while I understand it, I have difficulties with the translation of some metaphors, slang and idioms. To get some ideas, I started to search for databases and websites with parallel translations and I came across a website called ‘Open parallel corpus’ (opus.nlpl.eu). I downloaded some texts in a .tmx format there, but couldn’t open them because they’re 4GB large. I’m not a professional translator, so I need advice on whether this open parallel corpus actually helps with the translation, and where to find more translation examples, perhaps collections of parallel translations etc.Collapse


 
Janet Ross Snyder
Janet Ross Snyder  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 09:33
Member (2006)
French to English
+ ...
Just use Google Apr 26, 2021

I am not familiar with the site you mentioned. I would suggest that you do a Google search for the idiom in quotes, followed by the word "English".

 
Francisco Vare
Francisco Vare
Poland
Local time: 13:33
Polish to Spanish
+ ...
Do you know Linguee? Apr 26, 2021

I love using Linguee because I can see whole fragments of text translated side by side.

If you don't know it, you should give it a try!


James McVay
 
neilmac
neilmac
Spain
Local time: 13:33
Spanish to English
+ ...
Can of worms Apr 27, 2021

Translating metaphors, slang and idioms is always a tough call. If you are translating into your native language, sometimes you can just make them up yourself based on your L1 knowledge.

 
Adieu
Adieu  Identity Verified
Ukrainian to English
+ ...
Use Google/Yandex to check May 2, 2021

Put your translation "in quotes" to search for exact matches to the string... if you get 10 million results, it is real.

If you get 800 results and the top search matches are from academic publications by people with Chinese, Japanese, or Russian names, your idiom is wrong.


 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 13:33
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
@Polina May 2, 2021

polinakorneeva wrote:
I’m not a professional translator, so I need advice on whether this open parallel corpus actually helps with the translation...


I think these open corpuses can be useful for translators, but professional translators typically use software that is capable of reading and searching through such large files. I agree with the other replies, though: clever use of a search engine is likely to get you far.


 


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Finding translation examples







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