LL-L "Careers" 2004.01.18 (03) [AE]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 18.FEB.2004 (03) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: Sandy Fleming <sandy at scotstext.org>
Subject: "Careers" [E]

> From: "Global Moose Translations" <globalmoose at t-online.de>
> Subject: LL-L "Careers" 2004.01.17 (07) [E]
>
> Ben wrote:
>
> > The first two words of the sample were an
> > expression that I didn't exactly know how to translate, so you would
have
> > put it into Google to see what native speakers say? I appreciate the
tips!
>
> Well, you need to know approximately what it means and what you want to
say;
> then you check your theories with Google until you hit paydirt. This is
> especially useful for the type of technical translation where no bilingual
> literature exists on the topic (or at least you don't have any).

It's worth knowing a few things about what Google does with the search
string you type.

It doesn't search for whole phrases, just whether the words you type are on
the page or not. And it discards very common words. So searching for "The
dog bit the man" will just search for pages with the words "man", "bit" and
"dog" - the word order doesn't count.

Moreover, Google only looks at the first ten words you type. So if you
really do want to search for a very long phrase, make a point of leaving out
words that don't matter to you. So rather than type:

"It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly a shot rang out! Holmes was on the
scene in a moment."

(where Google will see only "It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly a
shot" and miss "Holmes" completely)

type something like:

"dark stormy night suddenly shot rang out holmes scene moment".

Ten words - Google will take them all into account.

I hope this helps!

You could of course use a search engine that does allow exact pharses
instead. But somehow Google seems to be better at finding exactly what you
want in spite of what seem, on the surface, to be shortcomings.

Sandy
http://scotstext.org/

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