Menu translation: German to English
Compound nouns break machine translation
German builds dish names by compounding, and a translator that splits the compound at the wrong seam produces nonsense. Rinderroulade, Kartoffelklöße and Zwiebelrostbraten each describe a specific preparation, not a sum of parts. Translate the dish as a unit, from what is served.
Regional names compound the problem. Semmel, Brötchen, Schrippe and Weck all name a bread roll depending on where you are standing, and a menu written in one region will be read by guests from another.
Regulatory context you are already inside
Germany applies EU Regulation 1169/2011, so the fourteen EU allergens must be declarable for unpackaged food served in hospitality. In practice this means the English version of the menu carries exactly the same disclosure obligation as the German one — a translated menu is not a marketing artefact, it is part of how you meet that duty.
Additive declarations sit alongside allergens in German practice: colourings, preservatives, phosphates and sweeteners are commonly footnoted by number. Those footnotes need to survive translation, because dropping them loses information a guest is entitled to.
Formality and address
German menus tend to a more formal register than English ones. Translating literally often produces English that reads stiff, while translating loosely produces English that reads flippant next to the German original. Decide the tone per locale rather than letting it fall out of the translation.
How Intermenu handles German → English
Intermenu treats every menu entity as a structured record — name, description, ingredients, allergen tags, diet tags — so translation happens per field rather than across a wall of text. Allergen and diet data are tags, not sentences, which is why they keep working when the menu renders in English.
Machine translation produces the first draft; a human reviews before a locale is published, and the review state is recorded per translation.