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| VOCABULARY DATABASE > MULTILINGUAL RESOURCES > DOWNLOADABLE DICTIONARIES & TRANSLATION TOOLS |
For resources for a specific language, visit the appropriate language-specific page.
Note: To use a program written for a version of Windows based on a font codepage other than yours, you will have to change the system fonts of your system. In particular, if you need to use Russian software on a Western version of Windows, download this file and follow these instructions.
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The following are either genuine multilingual dictionaries or dictionaries that are released separately for several language pairs.
Unless otherwise noted, the following dictionaries provide mere "one-to-one" translations, i.e. they include no descriptors, explanations of meaning, or grammatical information.
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Babylon
Adware (kind of freeware, registered version displays no ads)
All unidirectional :-( combinations between English, Dutch, French, Hebrew, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German available as separate files. About 7.5 MB each, unpacked about 20 MB on your hard disk.
These are unobtrusive resident programs. With a right mouse click on any word on the screen, that word is identifie by way of OCR techniques (!) and a small pop-up dialog shows possible translations. In some situations, the translator detects the word on the screen appears within a cliché. (Formerly limited to 100 days evalutation, now free.)
Clicktionary/Cleverlearn 1.1.0.1
Freeware 2,9 MB
Unidirectional dictionary, e.g. English into German. Similar OCR function as Babylon, but its OCR is quite defective. It failed to detect many words although the words were contained in its database.
Deinstallation procedure via Control Panel hang up the "Add programs" window unter WinNT. (We could not even restart Windows from the Start Menu.)
Oddin Software Faust 6.0 [formerly Dictionary 2000 5.5]
Freeware, more than 11 MB
Shareware (one-time registration is $20)
Dictionary in 15 languages, e.g. English, French, German, Italian, Latin, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish (all in the same release !) Crosslinks across the different glossaries made possible by numerical cofficients. Hence, any translation pair automatically reverts on the rest of the languages supported.
Words must be typed in. Multiple translations offered. Translation of inflected forms often inaccurate. Some misspellings. Not always reliable, but can help.
Ergane 4.2 by TravLang
Freeware
4 MB, VisualBasic (sourcecode available). Vocabulary databases downloadable for many languages (really). Uses Esperanto (an artificial language with almost no polysemy) as a bridge for cross-linkage of all languages.
The dictionary databases are fairly error-free. Everytime you start the dictionary mode for a different pair of languages, you are asked if you want to let it build the "sort indices" for each of both languages. That process may take several hours, but if you do not build those indices, you will be annoyed with the same messages again and again.
Everest Dictionary 2.1
Freeware
712 kB
Includes 31 dictionaries and six languages, with an emphasis on Romanian. Translations by mouse clicks, pop-up learning game and other games.
FLM-PC
Shareware
Dictionary program, mainly English<->German.
FreeLang, formerly DDP (Dutch Dictionary Project)
by Tom van der Mijden and Frits van Zanten
Freeware
At last, the authors of this project decided to release the separate dictionaries as plain language modules for use with a single engine (instead of distributing a not always up-to-date engine with each language). Now, 24 languages are available.
Languages supported: Among the languages appearing in the different releases are: Afrikaans, Anglo-Saxon, Basque, Bulgarian, Catalan, Czech, Esperanto, Finnish, Frisian, Gaelic, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Japanese, Latin, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovak, Turkish, Votic, Welsh. (Note: all translations are from and into English! For combinations of other languages, you have to download special versions of the program.)
Language files quality: Beware: the lists are by no means accurate. In some of them there are misspellings and wrong translations. They comply with Dict.org guidelines.
Features of the engine: You can get the translation of a word either (1) typing it in, or (2) importing a plain text file into the program (clipboard) and streaking the word you want to translate, with the text cursor, or (3) copying it into the clipboard from another application (DDP will capture the string and display the translation!). This last method proves very useful when surfing the web, for example.
There is also a simple vocabulary training module included (nothing like VTrain, anyway).
IDP (Internet Dictionary Project) Companion 4.0
by Tyler Chambers. Written in C++, Windows 95 etc., 1.2 MB
Includes German, Spanish, French, Italian, Latin, Portuguese, and Romanian dictionary files.
(1) Translates words you type after pressing the Translate button or (2) updates the results box as you type.
Interesting: searches also expressions containing an input string (it does not merely seek for initial letters).
Files included in the package are written in ASCII, i.e. extended characters are displayed using certain conventions: e/ means é, a. means ä, etc. This is by no means a perfect method, since e.g. it makes German "ß" be displayed as "ss". Thus, in the resulting file, you cannot tell whether an "ss" was an "ss" or a "ß" in the original writing.
(We surmise extended ANSI characters would be properly displayed with this program, anyway.)
The German part of the English-German file contains a number of funny mistakes.
Lingua 1.0
Shareware, 1.3 MB
English to French (3300 words), to Spanish (7500 words), to German (9700 words), to Portuguese (1400 words), to Italian (5200 words). Type words into its interface and get the translations.
Pardon 1.21 [About box stated 1.2.0.4]
3549 kB
English <-> German / Spanish / Swedish, plus more downloadable files (?).
Socrat 3.03
Shareware
Versions: Eng.-Rus. dictionary (125000 terms) and Eng.-Ger. dictionary.
Copy text to clipboard (max. 64 kB), use a shortcut to call the program.
Tranglos (in development)
This tool is intended to be able to search across several (software) dictionaries.
Unidict 1.211
unidict.1-21.zip 155 kB Freeware
Universal dictionary. Only Russian <-> English included, else you have to connect to online database. Does not work properly under NT (crashes).
WordTranslator 4.3 for Windows
Shareware e.g. 3 MB-13 MB varies with language modules. (1998)
Windows 3.1 style.
Different English-foreign language modules and other modules (e.g. Russian-Spanish) available. It is supposed to pop-up when you use a shortcut (CTRL+SHIFT) after highlighting a word in any text editor. Did not pop-up in Windows NT, but you could still input words into the program window directly. Some typing mistakes in the files.
YXO 98
Freeware
English-Russian / Spanish monolingual / English-German dictionaries (separate releases with the same name setup.exe, to install into different directories) dictionary for Win 3.1/95/NT. Download sizes: 1.3-2 MB. Spanish version is called "Spanish Mnemonist" or "Mnemonist Spanish".
English version works like the Dictionary Program above: you can import plain text into the program and, using the cursor, streak the word you want to translate. But Spanish and German versions require typing in each word you want to translate, or selecting it from a list.
Spanish and German versions also contain major, sometimes embarrassing spelling errors (e.g. cumpleanos instead of cumpleaños in Spanish).
[There is also a multiple-choice vocabulary training module included. It is very awkward to use, since it requires continuous clicking (no keyboard shortcuts).]
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Freeware / shareware resources:
CoWoSo Univeralübersetzer 1.9(3)b
Freeware
German interface
Word-by-word translation. Modules available: German into: English (18000 words), French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Esperanto (3000-12000 words), Danish, Japanese (1500 words each).
Talking Translator 1.0
Freeware.
You need to be connected to the Internet to gain access to the 7 language database. By way of MS Agent Technology (separate download), it can read translations aloud. Up to 150 words at a time only.
Traduttore Italiano-Inglese 0.90
Freeware
Italian interface, also available for Linux
Translation Wizard 1.0 (author)
Freeware.
Word-by-word translation. English<->Spanish interface (25000 words).
Xanadu
Freeware
Commercial resources:
ATA Software
English-Arabic translation.
Déjà Vu
Actually a translators' database containing corpora of sentences.
GE Trans: German - English Translation "This program specializes in translating German texts into English, but can also help in translating individual English words into German. With a translation database exceeding 223,000 German words, including many scientific and technical terms, GE Trans produces draft translations which can be readily polished into a finished translation, or simply used as a reference. You can easily modify entries in the database, or add your own new translations. You can edit your text with many formatting commands and preserve the text style and format during translation."
Good Language Software (Switzerland)
Downloadable language resources and teaching software
Lernout & Houspie AppTek
English/Arabic/Chinese/Korean/Turkish/Persian translation.
LogoVista Desktop Translation Systems
English-Japanese translation.
MCB Systems - Software for Foreign Language Translation
Demos available for download of utilities
Mendez.com (formerly Globalink)
NeuroTran by Translation Experts
Many languages.
PARS
Ukranian, Russian, German, English.
Reverso Pro
Systran
TRADOS translation tools (Stuttgart)
Resources for translators, interpreters and linguists, plus freely downloadable software, utilities tools
Transcend Language, Inc.
Translation software (many languages) - trial demos available
Translator from Pink Software
For Windows - translates sentences and paragraphs. Online demo available
Transparent Net Translator (TNT)
Software to translate web pages.
More links:
> German Translation and Dictionary Software
Catalog of German translation/dictionary/spelling checker software
> GermanTranslation, Software, Learning, Translator, Fonts, Dictionaries
"Language Command Centre" software.
> Language Translation Software Experts: SciTech Language Partners, Inc.
Good collection of links, downloads available.
> Yahoo! - Foreign Language Educational Software
Links to language training software (many languages)
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