Which electronic dictionary? plecodict or electronic dictionary

[Shadowdh]

Hi there, I am using the latest beta 3a and it has all but the Cheng & Tsui dictionary... not sure what you mean by version so if you clarify a little perhaps I can answer a little more clearly... as for working on Windows mobile 6 yes it does... so does Pleco 1.03 now as well... it also works on WM6.1...

[ipsi()]

It really depends how far along you are with your study. If you're just beginning, it may be best to just use the Oxford dictionary. Alternatively, if you're intermediate or so, you'll get a lot more use out of the ABC/NWP dictionaries. If you're advanced enough, then I'd just recommend the Guifan, ABC, and 21st Century dictionaries. And maybe the NWP as well, depending on how useful the 21C is.

I personally own all the dictionaries, and I find I use the ABC the most, though I do use the Oxford if I'm looking for more example usages. The NWP dictionary is the one I generally use, though I'm not sure if it's significantly better than the Oxford.

I don't know enough yet to be able to use the Guifan or 21C, though I find the 21C very useful if I need to look up a word for my girlfriend.

[Sgt_Strider]

I guess I'm still a beginner since I know less than 1000 characters. Do you happen to know if the Oxford dictionary is based on the beginner's Chinese Oxford dictionary? If so, then I guess there's less temptation to get it as I have a hard copy of that dictionary.

[ipsi()]

Here's the quote from the Pleco Page describing the Oxford dictionary:

The Oxford Concise English & Chinese Dictionary, published by Oxford University Press, is one of the most popular Chinese-English translation dictionaries in the world. It was originally published in 1986; PlecoDict's data files are based on the new 3rd Edition, published in 2003 and incorporating recent vocabulary words like 'Internet' and 'SARS'. It includes both a Chinese-to-English and an English-to-Chinese component, containing approximately 25,000 and 13,000 entries respectively.

[roddy]

If you're at beginner level then you might also want to note the new dictionary that will also be available when Pleco 2.0 officially launches (currently scheduled for June I think). Quoting from Pleco's email:

The first of these is the "Tuttle Learner's Chinese-English Dictionary"; this is a dictionary of the 4,800 most common Chinese words (including all HSK level A/B vocabulary) with lots

and lots of example sentences and usage notes, far more than in any of our other dictionaries. So it should greatly improve our product's usefulness for beginning Chinese learners along with providing a handy extra reference for more advanced ones.

[mikelove]

Sgt_Strider - the Oxford is based on the Oxford Concise and not the Oxford Beginer's; the new Tuttle dictionary which Roddy mentions is a lot more like the Oxford Beginner's, though without an English-to-Chinese component.

The distinction we usually use is between textbook Chinese and real-world Chinese; if you're still at a point where you're primarily interacting with Chinese in textbooks, elementary readers and such, the Oxford dictionary should be fine, but if you'd like to read newspapers, websites, novels and such you'll probably want the ABC for its extra vocabulary.

[Sgt_Strider]

Thanks for the information Mike, but I want to have a dictionary that will last me into the future. I'm still interacting with classroom book materials as I need to build up my vocabulary list. I think I got the gist of the grammar structure of the language.

[Shadowdh]

Sgt Strider... the ABC and the Oxford will do that....

[Hong XQ]

So I understand from a lot of posts that the PDA/windows mobile + PlecoDict combination is the bee's knees: plan on getting this for myself after I convince my GSM provider to upgrade me to an appropriate terminal (will aim for windows mobile as Palm OS it seems will be phasing out in the future).

I'm also looking to get something for a person who is techno-shy and has not even a mobile, to upgrade from an old electronic dictionary with 四角號碼 character input (which is nice btw) to one with stylus-or-fingerpaint character recognition.

Anyone know a dedicated device that is good, or is a low tier PDA cum PlecoDict the best even for the mobile-free?

[hanxue]

So does this Pleco dict have a larger character vocab base than for example the high end BESTA dictionaries?

Another question: is it possible to buy Pleco bundle unit and use it on, say, iPhone?

[Gleaves]

Folks here probably have specifc advice on models, but the pleco site has some details and a forum on hardware.

No iphone version yet, but I think one is due this yearish. I'll probably pick up an ipod touch once it comes out.

Also, info on the dictionaries.