But if you’d like to hear the native pronunciation of a word, each word in the dictionary can be read to you by a native speaker. With the audio option, you can record yourself saying a word you want translated. You’ll get translation to English, including characters and pinyin, handwriting option and audio.
#MONOLINGUAL DICTIONARY FULL#
Once you download Pleco on your phone, you have the option to use it to almost its full extent within the free version. If you search for an English word, it will come up only as a part of the translations alongside various Chinese words. Chinese is priority, which means your options with the Chinese language are more diverse. Pleco is a smartphone app that translates from Mandarin to English and vice versa. Now with this in mind, let’s have a look at some of the best Chinese online dictionaries. Plus, images help you create memorable associations so you don’t forget the words you’re learning and looking up. “Copycat” is a translation of this term in some dictionaries, but if you look it up and see an image, you’ll get a clear idea of the true meaning straight away. The reason is the same as what I mentioned above: the meaning of a word might be easier to grasp when you simply look up an image for it.įor example, 山寨 ( shānzhài) is not a “mountain village”, but fake cheap goods replicating more expensive brands. Now, another thing that might come as a surprise is that I believe that Google Image Search is the best resource for language learning. Most of the dictionaries in this list are a great help if you need to translate from Chinese to English or from English to Chinese. There aren’t many online Chinese monolingual dictionaries, but I’ve included some helpful resources below. And yes, it does literally mean to “walk slowly”. But what you might not know is that Chinese speakers use this as an expression to say “stay safe”, “have a nice journey” or “take it easy” depending on the context. The translation it gives you is “walk slowly”. Put 慢走 ( màn zǒu) into Google Translator. Why? Because many languages, including Chinese, don’t offer a direct translation of words we know in English (or vice versa).
They let us rely on the translation which might be problematic. Now, there’s something important I don’t want to create any misunderstanding around! There’s no doubt that any new learner needs a bilingual dictionary.īut these dictionaries can make us lazy about thinking in another language.
There’s a good chance that if you ask any fluent speaker of another language about bilingual dictionaries, they would encourage you to stop using them or use them as little as possible. When looking for an online dictionary, be sure you know exactly what features or content you’re looking for.Īnd before we get into my recommendations, I’d like to point out the advantages of monolingual dictionaries when learning a foreign language.
#MONOLINGUAL DICTIONARY HOW TO#
Today I’ll look deeper into how online dictionaries can help you along on your Chinese learning journey and how to pick the best Chinese dictionary for your needs.īefore we dive into the sea of online dictionaries, let me explain how and why you should have an open mind when learning Mandarin - or any language.īilingual and Monolingual Dictionaries and Google Image Search I even wrote a blog post on the best online dictionaries where you can find, among others, some of my Chinese dictionary recommendations. I’m all for online and downloadable dictionaries that I can take with me on my trips because they’re handy anytime and anywhere. If you’ve read some of my articles, you already know I’m no fan of big, heavy, expensive printed dictionaries. Full disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
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