Translation Tools for Swedish Research

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Translation can be a tricky business. Sometimes a word has a literal translation that doesn't match the context. Swedish has fewer words than English, and they combine words a lot to create meaning. Also, some words are used multiple ways. Translation is usually easier and more accurate when multiple people work on it together. You might want to try the Sweden Genealogy Research group in facebook for help.

If you want a general translation, you can try some online translation tools. Here are some good ones with brief instructions:

Google Language Tools[edit | edit source]

Using the Google translator is now easier than ever (July 2012).

1. Go to the page in Swedish that you want to translate using Google Chrome.

2. Once on the page, move your mouse pointer the text area and do a "right click" on the mouse.

3. Click on "Translate to English"

Babel Fish[edit | edit source]

The Babel fish translation tool does not translate Swedish.

Dictionaries[edit | edit source]

For historical and modern dictionaries see the article: Sweden: Encyclopedias and Dictionaries

Tips[edit | edit source]

Keep in mind the technology behind the translation tools has become a lot better in recent years, but there are some challenges that the translation tools cannot handle very well. The challenges might be due to:

  • The literal translation of a word does not always match the correct meaning. There are many words in Swedish that could have multiple meanings depending on the context of the subject.
  • Some words look different from each other (in spelling) but are very close to each other phonetically.
  • Languages evolve and some words become outdated or even disappear.
  • There are fewer words in the Swedish language than in the English language.
  • It is common to have Swedish words combined to what looks like one word.