It's a new year, and I'm hoping to really increase my French skills, and the local group has offered their FSL classes again. Apparently, I'm proficient enough to be allowed to take the class for free (how did I fake my way through that assessment?).
At the last class they discussed tools to help us with translation. I know from my son's French teachers that they tend to be none-so-impressed by Google Translate.
The new one they showed off was Reverso. Heavy advertisements going on for their free version, but, like most things there's a subscription service.
The big difference between something like Google's Translate and Reverso is that Google will give you what it thinks/knows is the literal translation, mot pour le mot, and this is where real meaning or idioms come in to play. (Did you know that j'ai chaud and je suis chaud have 2 very different meanings? I have warm or I am warm ... one means drunk, the other is you're warm... I forget which). Whereas, with Reverso, it'll give you moreso a seemingly list of Google search results for that translation with some context. So you can see if in different contexts that a different word would be used.
Which is good, because I always forget things like avant/devant, which is used when.
Also, it'll give you notifications now and again to have a 'word of the day' (anyone else listen to CBC C'est La Vie with Bernard St. Laurent and the 'word of the week' Johanne Blais? Loved that radio show) to help you build up your vocabulary.
It's not perfect, neither handle "Canadian French" so well, but Google is getting better, and this can be another tool to help out.
At the last class they discussed tools to help us with translation. I know from my son's French teachers that they tend to be none-so-impressed by Google Translate.
The new one they showed off was Reverso. Heavy advertisements going on for their free version, but, like most things there's a subscription service.The big difference between something like Google's Translate and Reverso is that Google will give you what it thinks/knows is the literal translation, mot pour le mot, and this is where real meaning or idioms come in to play. (Did you know that j'ai chaud and je suis chaud have 2 very different meanings? I have warm or I am warm ... one means drunk, the other is you're warm... I forget which). Whereas, with Reverso, it'll give you moreso a seemingly list of Google search results for that translation with some context. So you can see if in different contexts that a different word would be used.
Which is good, because I always forget things like avant/devant, which is used when.
You can see the multiple instances with Reverso, versus the single, solitary answer with Translate. Which is more correct? Which is more helpful?
Also, it'll give you notifications now and again to have a 'word of the day' (anyone else listen to CBC C'est La Vie with Bernard St. Laurent and the 'word of the week' Johanne Blais? Loved that radio show) to help you build up your vocabulary.It's not perfect, neither handle "Canadian French" so well, but Google is getting better, and this can be another tool to help out.