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WinDi gives you access to more
than 3,350,000 words/examples per language... How can this be possible? |
It is commonly recognized that good translation dictionaries need to
contain at least 25,000 entries per language. If there are fewer entries,
many useful words will not be found, and the original word selection will
often seem to be arbitrary.
The 40,000 entries contained in WinDi amply cover everyday translation
needs. WinDi does not contain any literary, archaic, familiar or slang terms:
this is a deliberate choice, in order to avoid word misuse. Words
belonging to these categories are dangerous for non-native speakers to use,
because they can easily be misinterpreted by them (or by the recipient).
We have chosen 'neutral' words, without ambiguous meanings.
For your information, the French academy has established that, in French, there are
35,000 general words (technical words not included). This means that WinDi is therefore an excellent
general dictionary.
The specialized lexicon of 11,000 words contained in WinDi mainly covers the
finance, banking and business sectors. It was more expensive to develop than the
general database containing 29,000 words. Such a production is very time-consuming,
demanding extensive terminological research from highly specialized partners.
If we were to add, for example, 50,000 specialized entries per language to our
multilingual dictionary, we could then cover many different branches of
industry, including biochemistry, iron and steel, television engineering,
etc. However, this would make WinDi a very expensive piece of software, and also a very complicated
tool to use! Who needs the vocabulary for all possible contexts in the world?
We do not want to make an arbitrary choice of certain specific domains outside those
everybody needs, and add their related vocabulary to WinDi: it would satisfy the needs
of only a few users. But this does not mean that we are not ready to customize the WinDi
dictionary according to your specific needs. We can produce a specialized lexicon for you,
which can then be integrated into the WinDi database; please call us for information.
Generally, each 'context' or branch of industry brings along between 50 and 500 words.
However, the WinDi Tools - Encoding module allows you to adapt the WinDi
Dictionaries to your own field of activities yourself and with ease. With this module, you can add your new
words or modify the existing database according to your particular context.
Obviously, the use of simple words and sentences makes a message easier to understand.
The direct understanding of your message by your recipient is a guarantee of
success.
All international companies will find translation aid tools more than necessary.
For example, in the case of internal communication between subsidiaries and the parent
company, translation tools will help save time and gain quality!
At the slightest hesitation, the user can call the dictionary, the conjugation
or the grammar module and simply 'copy' and 'paste' the solution. Moreover,
this interactive method helps the user to memorize new words.
Generally, paper dictionaries do not directly provide verb conjugation, agreement
of adjectives or accurate definite articles. The advantage of a computer support,
as far as linguistic tools are concerned, is that a huge amount of information
can easily be extracted and integrated in the everyday working environment. The same
amount of information, if printed, would fill an entire bookcase...
WinDi gives you access to more than 3,350,000 words/examples per language...
Imagine the number of pages required to print this amount of information...
Moreover, computer dictionaries allow real interactivity: for example, the user can remove
an adjective and replace it with another, and its agreement in gender and
number will be generated instantaneously. The conjugated form or article elision are directly
displayed on screen.
Computer translation tools provide fast and direct access to the exact information
required for writing one's documents.
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To complete this general information, please read our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about the WinDi solutions. Read also 'Computer-Aided Translation: Dream or Reality?', the philosophy corner.
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