As the world gets smaller each year due to innovations in communication and transportation, people of different cultures come into contact more frequently. This can be both enlightening and frustrating. The frustrating part is mostly due to languages. One culture that has spread rapidly into the U.S. is that of Brazil. While many in the U.S. are used to dealing with the large Spanish-speaking population, the Portuguese spoken by Brazilians can pose a problem.

Understanding someone speaking or writing in Portuguese is not as difficult for Americans as it used to be. This is due to the ubiquity of the internet. This internet is now not only available at home and at work, but it is offered as a standard amenity at restaurants, cafes, hotels, and libraries across the United States.

Having the ability to translate Portuguese to English online did not mean much twenty, or even fifteen, years ago. The best you could hope for was an incomplete English to Portuguese, Portuguese to English dictionary. It would either be available as text or you could enter a single word at a time. This was slow and inefficient. In addition, it did not take into account words with multiple meanings. After several hours it could be possible to get a basic understanding of a paragraph.

Online translation of Portuguese to English became easier with the advent of AltaVista’s Babel Fish, one of the first free online translators. This online application changed internet translation forever. Pages of Portuguese could be copied and pasted into the text window and translated in only seconds. In addition, entire web pages could be translated from Portuguese to English online by entering a URL. The problem with this was that often the machine translator chose the wrong meaning for words, rendering some sentences unintelligible.

Over the years, free online translators have improved significantly. The improvements have culminated in the Google Translation application. Google translate has added a human element to the translations. Users familiar in Portuguese or any other target language could enter text to be translated, and if the results were wrong, a small form is available on the page to offer improvements and suggestions. This has been invaluable in translating text that makes heavy use of idioms. Free translators are usually more than adequate to Translate Portuguese to English online.

Machine translation is not the only way to get a Portuguese/English translation. There are many foreign language websites with forums available. Some target Portuguese and English language users and others are general foreign language websites encompassing all languages. These sites are made to help people who are in the process of learning a new language. In many of these forums, students, teachers, or just generally helpful native speakers will be happy to help you out with your Portuguese to English translation.

The problem with using forums is that you can never be sure how long it will take to find someone and the level of competency once someone is found. Usually, you will find a very good translator who is friendly and willing to do you a favor as long as the translation is not too long or intensive. If using this route, always be friendly and thankful because translators can demand a fair price for their skills. The benefit of this type of translation is that it is done by a real person who may be familiar with Portuguese phrases and idioms.