Babylon Translation Software
Review

Babylon Translation software is a very special dictionary tool. It lets you translate from any language to any language, literally with the click of a mouse.

Click Here for Step-by-Step Rules, Stories and Exercises to Practice All English Tenses

Personally, I've encountered Babylon years ago, and I can say they have gotten wider and better. The newest version, Babylon 8.0 offers much more than a word's translation...

Some history...

Originally, Babylon was a unique dictionary tool.

You would surf the net, read something online or offline, and as soon as you encountered a word or phrase you didn't understand – you could simply click on it, and read the translation in a small box that appeared above the word.

As you can imagine, it can be much faster than turning pages in a physical dictionary, looking for the word! Furthermore, it is usually faster than looking it up in an online dictionary...

A lot has changed since those good old days, but luckily, for the better :)

Babylon Translation Software –
Current Features

Main features

You basically define your language, and then each time you click on a word, Babylon gives you the translation.

Currently there are 75 supported languages.

Here are some example translations (using "French"):

English --> French

French --> English

English --> English (dictionary/thesaurus)

French --> German

French --> Spanish

French --> Japanese

Hindi --> French

French -- French (dictionary/thesaurus)

And so forth.

If the word you've clicked is part of an expression (on the same line), Babylon usually recognizes it and gives you the translation of the entire expression.

This is a quick process, and the only problem with it is that sometimes a translation is not enough. In many cases, you need to see a full explanation of the word to really understand it.

So you can add in different dictionaries. This can cost some money, but there are also free dictionaries to choose from.

Some paid examples: Oxford, Merriam-Webster, Britannica Encyclopedia, and others.

Some free examples: Wikipedia, WordNet, English Idioms, and others.

The end result is that you don't have to carry many big fat books around, and then flip through all of them to find what you're looking for. Also, I must say it is pretty rare to encounter a word that Babylon does not know!

Other cool features

• Built it pronunciation of words.
  
  
• Spelling suggestion (for example. if you typed in a word and misspelled it)
  
  
• A handy conversion tool is integrated inside the software. You can convert pretty much anything you can think of: currencies (let's say dollars to Euros), weight units, local time, etc.

Any downsides?

• Although Babylon has many dictionaries and glossaries to choose from, it doesn't include any simple dictionaries for English learners, such as the Oxford Essential Dictionary. All of the dictionaries I've checked were either bilingual (English to French, English to Spanish, etc.) or more advanced English dictionaries (Oxford, Merriam-Webster, etc.)

Conclusions

I would definitely recommend Babylon Translation Software as a quick check up tool, but it is best to combine it with another simple dictionary, according to your own level of English.

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