Spanish Sentence Translation

So is there a big difference between Spanish sentence translation and Spanish word translation?

Yeah, there has to be. You as a translator know that translators don't translate just words. We focus on sentences in context and this is where we really earn our money. Anyone can use a dictionary or online tools to translate single words, but sentences, that's where the rubber really meets the road.

But what if you're not a translator? What if you regularly have sentences that you need translated for whatever reason? You might need more than just that paper dictionary you got when you were in ninth grade Spanish class. Well, luckily, there are a few different options you can choose from when trying to decide how to have some sentences translated into Spanish or English.

Free Online Translation Tools
The most common option to use is the Internet. There are a ton of free online language translators littered all over the Internet, but while there are a lot of them, the problem is that it can be hard to go from one language translator to the next trying to find the best one of the bunch.

Luckily, there is a website that allows you to check three of the more popular online language translators all at once, namely Google, Yahoo, and one other one. The website is www.spanishdict.com and it's nice because you can enter a sentence either in English or Spanish and then request a translation. The three different translations then appear at the bottom of the page and you can compare them and see which one you like the best.

Obviously, the translations aren't perfect. In fact, the more complicate the sentence, the farther away you get from anything that is semi-readable.

Commercial Translation Tools
Another option you could consider is purchasing some sort of online language translation software. There are some software programs out there than do a slightly better job than free translators at translating Spanish sentences, but even these come with limitations.

For one, most people who need simple sentence translation aren't interested in a solution where they have to turn on the computer, run a software program, type in a sentence, and finally get the translation. This is way too much work in this age of got-to-have-it-now technology.

In addition to the speed issue, these programs usually aren't very cheap. To pay big money for a program that isn't going to be used very much just doesn't make much sense, no matter how you look at it.

So if free online language translators aren't very accurate and commercial translation software is too expensive and clunky, what's left? There's got to be something people can do to get a decent Spanish sentence translation. Well, there is. It's called a professional Spanish English translator :)