How do you judge Leo.dict German/English? Téma indítója: Inga Jakobi
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Inga Jakobi 
Németország
Local time: 23:11
Tag (2006 óta)
kínai - német
+ ...
Hi everybody,
this is a question mainly to the English native speakers, but of course everybody is invited to comment. Usually while working, I search a lot in Leo before searching my "real" dictionary. That's why I would be very interested, if others use it often or not and especially, what English native speakers think about it, do you think it is reliable and gives good terms? Or have you often found mistakes? As far as I know, everybody can participate and that's why I wondered ... See more Hi everybody,
this is a question mainly to the English native speakers, but of course everybody is invited to comment. Usually while working, I search a lot in Leo before searching my "real" dictionary. That's why I would be very interested, if others use it often or not and especially, what English native speakers think about it, do you think it is reliable and gives good terms? Or have you often found mistakes? As far as I know, everybody can participate and that's why I wondered if you appreciate it or not.
BTW to everybody who doesn't know it or doesn't use it (in case there are some):
http://dict.leo.org/
Looking forward to comments,
Inga ▲ Collapse
| | | | Niraja Nanjundan (X)
Local time: 02:41
német - angol
| Use it but don't rely on it | Oct 9, 2006 |
Hi Inga,
I often look up terms in Leo and have found some accurate general terms and legal terms, but I don't rely on it as the only source and always look in several places before deciding on a term.
As far as highly technical terms are concerned, I prefer to search for parallel texts in the same field, look them up in technical dictionaries or consult an expert if I can find one.
Best regards,
Niraja
| | | | Inga Jakobi
Németország
Local time: 23:11
Tag (2006 óta)
kínai - német
+ ...
TÉMAINDÍTÓ | I do not use it exclusively | Oct 9, 2006 |
Dear Niraja,
thanks for your comment! The terms I usually look up in Leo are mostly general terms or terms I know but for which I cannot think of a nice expression at the moment. There are often a lot of propositions, but still I am not sure, if they are really correct. I also tried to find technical terms, but usually also would prefer a specialised dictionary or person.
Inga
| | | | | Take a look - but don't shelve your specialist dictionaries yet ;-) | Oct 9, 2006 |
I use Leo if I'm stuck for general use terminology, as it often gets the old gray matter going in the right direction. But (pardon my French) it sucks as far as specialist terminology is concerned.
FWIW
Alison
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| As Allison says | Oct 9, 2006 |
An excellent place to stir things up in your brain if you're stuck, but ultimately it is put together by volunteers, i.e. amateurs.
Don't believe me? Look through the 'forum' and see how entries are decided upon.
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Like most of you here (from the way the answers are shaking down), I check it to see a variety of suggestions and synonyms, but it is not a Divine Oracle or anything
| | | | Ford Prefect
Burkina Faso
Local time: 21:11
német - angol
+ ...
I use it all the time, but not for technical vocabulary - I probably use it most to confirm my suspicions of a word I think I know, or to find out the meaning of a word I should know.
Alongside the issue with "technical" vocabulary, I have two other complaints. The number of synonyms for each word is crazy, and ever-increasing - you can easily get 20 translations of each word, plus they are listed in alphabetical order in the TL, rather than by frequency of usage, relevance etc. For... See more I use it all the time, but not for technical vocabulary - I probably use it most to confirm my suspicions of a word I think I know, or to find out the meaning of a word I should know.
Alongside the issue with "technical" vocabulary, I have two other complaints. The number of synonyms for each word is crazy, and ever-increasing - you can easily get 20 translations of each word, plus they are listed in alphabetical order in the TL, rather than by frequency of usage, relevance etc. For example, "Vorgabe", one of my pet-hate words now has seventeen translations in Leo. At this rate, leo is fast becoming a useless irrelevance. Soon it will be faster to use the old paper dictionary again, rather than sift through the 38 proposed translations for "einrichten" ▲ Collapse
| | | | Magda Dziadosz
Lengyelország
Local time: 23:11
Tag (2004 óta)
angol - lengyel
+ ...
| Moving this topic... | Oct 9, 2006 |
to the Translator Resources forum and marking it On-Topic.
Magda
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CathyFS
Local time: 22:11
német - angol
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| Comes in very handy when you want to unmuddle your brain fast | Oct 9, 2006 |
It definitely gets the brain going when you're stuck. If I come across a word I know I should know and couldn't be bothered to look up my paper dictionary, because I hate paper dictionaries (must get one on CD that I can install onto my PC), I use LEO. A few times I've been in complete disagreement with the translations it suggested, but generally it's a very good place to start.
Some of the more commonly used words tend to have a lot of suggested translations, which saves me lookin... See more It definitely gets the brain going when you're stuck. If I come across a word I know I should know and couldn't be bothered to look up my paper dictionary, because I hate paper dictionaries (must get one on CD that I can install onto my PC), I use LEO. A few times I've been in complete disagreement with the translations it suggested, but generally it's a very good place to start.
Some of the more commonly used words tend to have a lot of suggested translations, which saves me looking up the Thesaurus when I want to find a different way of saying something. I'd never knock it as a resource and would certainly recommend it, but I wouldn't take the more specific translations as being gospel. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Inga Jakobi
Németország
Local time: 23:11
Tag (2006 óta)
kínai - német
+ ...
TÉMAINDÍTÓ | I agree with Ford Prefect | Oct 9, 2006 |
Ford Prefect wrote:
I use it all the time, but not for technical vocabulary - I probably use it most to confirm my suspicions of a word I think I know, or to find out the meaning of a word I should know.
That is exactly what I do
My main question was, if you all think that it is reliable, which doesn't mean to me giving specific technical terms or every possible translation, but first giving correct translations.
But still I agree with everybody here, it is useful, but not perfect...
Inga
| | | | Inga Jakobi
Németország
Local time: 23:11
Tag (2006 óta)
kínai - német
+ ...
TÉMAINDÍTÓ | Thanks, Magda! | Oct 9, 2006 |
Magda Dziadosz wrote:
to the Translator Resources forum and marking it On-Topic.
Magda
Thanks for moving it! Frankly spoken I was not sure where to post it...
| | | | | no no for specialist terms | Oct 9, 2006 |
As far as I know, Leo is a project run by the Technische Universität Munich. While as most of you have already stated it is a good resource for general vocabulary, it cannot be trusted for specialist terminology. I'm not sure how they go about compiling this terminology (from the forum?)... I did once hear that the researchers at the TU study parallel texts, maybe someone can confirm that.
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Inga Jakobi
Németország
Local time: 23:11
Tag (2006 óta)
kínai - német
+ ...
TÉMAINDÍTÓ | Thank you all for your comments! | Oct 9, 2006 |
Hi everybody,
thanks a lot for participating in this discussion. Still, I wonder if there are people having experienced wrong entries in Leo.
But nevertheless there are some very good advices above...
Inga
| | | | Nicole Schnell
Egyesült Államok
Local time: 14:11
angol - német
+ ...
Az Ő emlékére: | Found a few mistakes | Oct 9, 2006 |
I stumbled upon 2 or three mistranslations (E>G) that made me shake my head. One term was so off the wall that I even wrote it down (not even a technical term!) as I was planning on notifying Leo.org. I never got to it and I lost the note..
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