An inseparable tool used in contact with foreign language is a dictionary – particularly essential in the process of learning. It is often used by translators, who although they have an extensive knowledge in terms of vocabulary, may not know a term appearing especially in a specialised text. Online dictionaries are extremely popular nowadays. They are being constantly expanded, offering their users more and more languages and a large catalogue of words and idioms.
The most frequently used is Google <a href=”https://www.atominium.com/pl”>Translate</a>, which has the biggest data base of over 100 languages. This translator handles English best because a correct translation of whole sentences is possible and it also provides a lot of synonyms. Moreover, a text can be copy and pasted, without the need of entering it by hand. A microphone function is available too for pronunciation.
Ling deserves attention as well. It enables to introduce characters which do not appear in Polish. It allows translation from the most popular <a href=”https://www.atominium.com/pl”>languages</a> such as English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Russian. The usage of a word in a sentence can be observed in examples taken from various websites, for instance The Guardian.
Diki is a good dictionary, which is used to translate from Polish to English and vice versa. It provides several meanings of words taken from different dictionaries, including specialised ones, depending on the context. There are examples of usage of a given word in a sentence. What is more, phonetic notation is provided and it is also possible to listen to the pronunciation of a particular term. In spite of the fact that it is a dictionary operating only with English and Polish, it is very extensive and helpful in learning new words.
Is it worth using online dictionaries?
A rhetorical question, of course, and the answer is yes. They enable checking of the meaning of words quickly, often giving synonyms and having a lot of useful functions, among them a possibility to listen to a native speaker’s pronunciation, which is impossible in a traditional dictionary. However, they are of no use to us when we want to make whole sentences in a chosen language because they only give single phrases, not taking into account the context or character of a text. Even though Google <a href=”https://www.atominium.com/pl “>Translate</a> is quite good at forming simple sentence structures and it has a wide data base, it often translates sentences with mistakes in lesser known languages.
Sometimes independent work on a text may turn out to be too complicated, and the level of grammatical or lexical difficulty can exceed our possibilities. Then, if we want to be sure that a text will be translated without errors, it is worth using the help of a translation agency, which hires professional translators who have appropriate skills and years of experience in translation and localization. . While doing their work, they care about the cohesion of a document and choose vocabulary which is adequate to the character of a text. In addition, they write complicated sentences in an impeccable form, even in the rarest world languages.
(translation K.B)
