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Foreign Languages: English -> Polish Translators

Today I decided to scope out some Polish / English translators as they do come in handy from time to time.  Trying not to look like a complete wreck, I decided to check how far technology has progressed in the last couple of years and find a good English to Polish translator.  I'm pretty sure my Polish writing is impecable after 20 years of not having written in it but I like to be on the safe side and I didn't want to take any unnecessary chances.  To that end, I went out to ferret for a good web translator to use.   I tried something simple to use to see how well the engines would translate text and below is a table with the results:

# Site English Text Polish Text
1 http://portalwiedzy.onet.pl/ Dear Grandpa and Grandma "Dost?p ograniczony" which means "Access Denied".  I needed $.  Would probably be resonable but still too expensive for me.
2 http://yourdictionary.com/ Dear Grandpa and Grandma Links to Polish dictionaries.
3 http://tranexp.com:2000/ Dear Grandpa and Grandma This site has now changed and on quick searches, offers only software based translators.  I stopped short of downloading.
4 http://translate.pl Dear Grandpa and Grandma "*Dear* *Mom* i *Dad* " I can't figure out what * means.  Couldn't get it to translate on the site however it did translate 'and' to 'i' which is correct.
5 http://translation-guide.com/ Dear Grandpa and Grandma This site redirected to #3 above.
6 http://www.translatica.pl/ Dear Grandpa and Grandma I got "Mama kochanego i tata" .  This isn't as good as I thought it should be but was better then the rest.  I then tried Dear Grandma and Grandpa and got Kochany Babcia i Dziadziu?, which was markedly better.  So I tried another text "They are very healthy and we are thankful for that" and got "Oni s? bardzo zdrowi i jeste?my wdzi?czni za to" which was exceptionally accurate!

Albeit those are not all the translator sites out there but I was looking for one that was 'good enough' to the point where my extensive Polish grammar skills could take over.  I was quite happy with #6 so I decided to give it another shot with something more complicated.  I tried

We are trying not to let them get close to the walls with crayons but we know it will happen sooner or later.

and got

Próbujemy nie pozwoli? im dostawa? blisko ?cian z kredkami ale wiemy, ?e to zdarzy si? pr?dzej czy pó?niej.

The above translation was nearly 100% accurate and 100% free!  I was completely amazed by the translation.  if you're out looking for a good English to Polish translator, you should definitely go for #6 above.  Even if you do not know Polish, the site is the best bet for you.  You'll likely get the best and most accurate translation yet. I'm very pleased with this.  Polish language isn't very easy to grasp at all.  To have a site quite like this, is really a gem. I'm still out whether there is a live person behind the site in #6 or not.  The translations are that accurate.

This could also be handy to those of you who have grandparents in Poland and are Polish-Canadian or Polish-American etc. and have forgotten the mother tongue.  Unfortunately, a native language isn't the easiest thing to hold on to especially being outside a home country.

To that end, one day I may sit down to review some of the software based translators but as long as #6 translator above works, I just might keep postponing it.  😉

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