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Poll: What is your favorite dictionary format? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "What is your favorite dictionary format?".
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| All of the above | May 28, 2021 |
It depends on what I need. I still have many shelves full of paper and hardcover dictionaries that I consult from time to time. Believe it or not, there is still a lot of useful material that isn't on the Internet.
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The one I use most is the web-based IATE (EU terminology keeps on changing...) but my favorites are all hardcover. They sit proudly on the shelf near my desk. Call me old-fashioned but I love the smell of paper and the comfortable feeling of thumbing through a dictionary…
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neilmac
Spain
Local time: 00:14
Spanish to English
+ ...
I have both hard and soft cover dictionaries, mostly the former, but nowadays I hardly ever use them, as I can find most of my dictionary type queries using things like the proz glossary and online dictionaries and glossaries.
The only off-line ones I occasionally consult nowadays are a technical tome - Diccionario Politécnico by Beigbeder Atienza - and a more concise legal dictionary -
Diccionario de Términos Juridicos by Enrique Alcaraz Varó and Brian Hughes.
[Edi... See more I have both hard and soft cover dictionaries, mostly the former, but nowadays I hardly ever use them, as I can find most of my dictionary type queries using things like the proz glossary and online dictionaries and glossaries.
The only off-line ones I occasionally consult nowadays are a technical tome - Diccionario Politécnico by Beigbeder Atienza - and a more concise legal dictionary -
Diccionario de Términos Juridicos by Enrique Alcaraz Varó and Brian Hughes.
[Edited at 2021-05-28 09:27 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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It depends which language pairs. For IT/FR < EN, I use websites nearly all the time but for EN < MT, I use IATE and paper dictionaries as websites are far from reliable. Linguee has a lot of spelling mistakes so I cannot rely on it; I just get an idea for something I've forgotten or am not completely satisfied with and the others are worse still as they're the equivalent of Google Translate.
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| Don't use them | May 28, 2021 |
Dictionaries are for amateurs who don't know the language and the subject properly.
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I subscribe to a variety of e-dictionaries.
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Pavle Perencevic 
Canada
Local time: 15:14
Member (2002)
Serbian to English
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| That's a very strange position... | May 28, 2021 |
Ice Scream wrote:
Dictionaries are for amateurs who don't know the language and the subject properly.
... something one can reasonably expect only from an omniscient entity. Are you perhaps.... He (or... She... as the case might be)?
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| Combo of Hardcopy and Online | May 28, 2021 |
I much prefer hardcopy bilingual dictionaries because I like the soft feel of their paper pages after I open their covers, like any old scholar would. I must have 30 or more of them around the house. But since I actually prefer to work in restaurants, coffee houses, and public and college libraries to avoid being tempted by all the distractions in my home, I use the online versions much more often (except when I'm at one of the college libraries, which have plenty of hardcopy dictionaries). I ow... See more I much prefer hardcopy bilingual dictionaries because I like the soft feel of their paper pages after I open their covers, like any old scholar would. I must have 30 or more of them around the house. But since I actually prefer to work in restaurants, coffee houses, and public and college libraries to avoid being tempted by all the distractions in my home, I use the online versions much more often (except when I'm at one of the college libraries, which have plenty of hardcopy dictionaries). I own one massive Spanish/English dictionary, published in the 1800s, which I found in an antique bookshop in Salem, Massachusetts when I visited that town in 1979. That would be a good one for translating "Doña Perfecta" for example, which was written in the 19th century.
[Edited at 2021-05-28 15:01 GMT]
[Edited at 2021-05-28 15:06 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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R. Alex Jenkins
Brazil
Local time: 19:14
Member (2006)
Portuguese to English
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| The small percentage | May 28, 2021 |
Who are the 0.8% who voted for "I don't use dictionaries"?
I'm guessing a small amount of people who vote on this site but who don't work with languages?
[Edited at 2021-05-28 17:46 GMT]
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R. Alex Jenkins
Brazil
Local time: 19:14
Member (2006)
Portuguese to English
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| Obviously a troll post, right? | May 28, 2021 |
Ice Scream wrote:
Dictionaries are for amateurs who don't know the language and the subject properly.
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| I can’t speak for the other two, but... | May 28, 2021 |
R-i-c-h-a-r-d wrote:
Who are the 0.8% who voted for "I don't use dictionaries"?
I'm guessing a small amount of people who vote on this site but who don't work with languages?
[Edited at 2021-05-28 17:46 GMT]
I don’t translate particularly colourful texts so I know what all the non-technical words mean.
And any technical terms I don’t know will be too advanced for any dictionary.
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| Software and websites | May 28, 2021 |
- Software with no CD (can't find that option!)
Antidote also works on Linux and supports both English and French (having both modules also acts as a bilingual dictionary, even for collocations).
- And I like GoldenDict open source app which can query many dictionary types (monolingual and bilingual) and websites (the latter being rather slow).
- Websites can be plugged to my favorite tool (Cafetran Espresso) so that is great too.
- I used to u... See more - Software with no CD (can't find that option!)
Antidote also works on Linux and supports both English and French (having both modules also acts as a bilingual dictionary, even for collocations).
- And I like GoldenDict open source app which can query many dictionary types (monolingual and bilingual) and websites (the latter being rather slow).
- Websites can be plugged to my favorite tool (Cafetran Espresso) so that is great too.
- I used to use Magic Search for multi website online research, but some websites need to be open in a separate tab, which make it rather unwieldy these days. ▲ Collapse
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| I love hardcover dictionaries, but... | May 29, 2021 |
When I consult a "real" dictionary, I read other words next to what I am looking for. I have a chance to meet new words and it's fun.
But when I 'm in a hurry, I prefer online dictionaries. It's much faster!
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Michael Harris
Germany
Local time: 00:14
Member (2006)
German to English
| Come on Chris | May 29, 2021 |
Ice Scream wrote:
Dictionaries are for amateurs who don't know the language and the subject properly.
Not even you can know everything. Or can you......?
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