language guides

Joni, Could you provide some examples of words or situations you need information on. Do you want translations dealing with stores, restaurants or ?

http://translate.google.com/ provides translations, however they may not be the way foreigners actually speak. The Rick Steves phrase books provide some basics.

Where online translators don't necessarily give you what you want, it's worth trying www.linguee.com, although it only covers English, German, French, Spanish and Portuguese. If you put in your search phrase in English, it finds published articles and information from corporate and government websites, the EU website, and so on, and also finds the French, German or whatever version from the same website. In other words, the company, government or the EU has already done the translation, Linguee.com just shows you both versions side by side. Try it with the words "chip and pin" and it gives a long list of sources. Just one example from the European Parliament website has the English and German versions like this: cash dispensers, whereby there is a chip on these plastic cards and you sign with a sequence of four numbers which only you know, in other words a chip and a PIN. Geldautomaten, daß sich ein Chip auf diesen Plastikkarten befindet und daß sie mit einer Folge von vier Ziffern, die nur Sie kennen, unterschreiben, also Chip und PIN. The problem is that it is not a translator. It won't translate your phrase for you, but it may help you work out how you might go about saying something, or at least give you a clue about how a particular language would express something.

Hi, If that was the original sentence in English which you want in correct German, then that German translation is pretty mangled with grammatical errors.

Fred, I assume you are responding to my post. As I said, Linguee is not a translator, it simply searches multi-lingual websites, finds examples of the search phrase you specify in one language, and displays them alongside that website's version of the same text in the other language. In this case, what I copied and pasted was text from the European Parliament website. Any mangling was done by the European Parliament translators, not by Linguee, although it's fair to say that the English version doesn't look like it was the original anyway. So, it's not a translator. But it may help when looking for examples of how phrases are actually used. Or maybe not, in the case of the European Parliament...

Got it...thanks for the explanation.

The Euro Parliament translators attempted a literal translation as opposed to a contextual one (sinnmäßig), which isn't bad minus the glaring errors. This would have been better: "Betreffend Geldautomaten, die sich ein Chip auf diesen Plastikkarten befinden, und die Sie mit einer Folge von vier Ziffern, die Sie nur wissen, unterschreiben. Also ein Chip und Pin."

Fred, I am surprised. The English is so stilted that I thought it was badly translated from German.

True, the English is not really great either. It could have been translated badly from the German or any other language. We don't know what the original language was. I kept my version close to English syntax and doctored it up.

Joni, could you please give an example - in English - of exactly what you're looking for? That would be a huge help!

I am thinking simple instructions or questions for example on a pin pad enter pin number is the total correct
transaction complete please remove card I often use google translate but I thought there might be a list of banking/cash terms

Joni, If you're referring to ATM transactions, the machines have an English language option. Just choose the correct language and you won't have to worry about translations. Cheers!

Joni, I can help with a few answers to your questions: Die Geheimzahl eingeben. (enter the pin #) 2. Ist der Gesamtbetrag richtig? (Is the amount correct?)
3. Bitte, die Karte entnehmen. (Please remove card) The instructions start off by asking you to put in/insert your card...Die Karte einschieben!

Even the ATM in my little village has English as an optional language. I doubt you're likely to encounter an ATM anywhere in Germany on your trip where this is not the case. I have seen some coin dispensers at banks that have no English options, but I can't see why you would need to use one of these.

Thanks Fred
This is very helpful

Hi, A couple more of this jargon you'll likely see if you don't want to switch over to the English: 1. Geld abheben (to withdraw cash), 2. the noun...Geldabhebung (cash withdrawal, 3. Geldauszahlung...(cash payment/withdrawal).

Ah, OK... Here's a link to a YouTube video showing a complete ATM transaction with a German ATM. You might want to turn off your audio...;-) Unless you really want to watch the entire video, and I wouldn't inflict that upon someone I don't even know, start at 1:40 and stop around 2:15. This video shows what will be 99.9% of your European ATM experience. Even if the language is only in Japanese, the pictograms will walk you through the transaction. It's probably been mentioned, but be sure to notify your bank where you'll be and when (for ALL cards used, credit cards or ATM, and for all people - for instance, husband and wife each using cards from same acct), and when possible use ATMs physically attached to a bank, and during bank hours. This is just in case you have a problem with your transaction.

I've never known an ATM anywhere in Italy or Germany, or France, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium, or the Netherlands - EDIT: where as soon as I put in my card {it didn't either switch } automatically to English or offered me the choice to switch. Joni, it really should not be a problem...

"I've never known an ATM anywhere in Italy or Germany, or France, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium, or the Netherlands - where as soon as I put in my card either it switched automatically to English or offered me the choice to switch." I've never seen one that automatically started off in English, but probably 99+% of the ones I've used have a menu just like in the video...But of course the majority of them use pictograms, so it doesn't matter.